Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs. Doyle

The old Baedeker guidebook says that the path goes "down the gorge, through a wood, across the meadow, "past the hut, and then you get "to the best place to see the upper fall with its beautiful jets."

Can't wait.

[Water flowing] I can certainly hear a waterfall.

It's so loud.

Where is it?

Where is it?

Worsley, voice-over: The Reichenbach Falls would become the climactic setting for the 24th Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Final Problem."

Worsley: And here it is.

This is the perfect place for Arthur to do in Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur makes the most of the drama of the location.

He talks about how fearful it is.

There's the torrent swollen by the melting snow that plunges into a tremendous abyss.

Wow!

Arthur created a criminal mastermind specially for this tale-- Professor Moriarty.

Sherlock is on the verge of bringing Moriarty and his gang to justice when he realizes his own life is in danger.

He goes on the run with Watson, ending up in Switzerland.

In the story, Holmes and Watson both arrived by the waterfall before Watson was lured away.

When Dr. Watson got back, he discovered a note from Holmes saying good-bye and a whole load of footprints right at the edge.

Clearly, Holmes and Moriarty had been fighting and had fallen to their deaths.

Oh, cripes.

I'm not going anywhere near the edge.

Arthur gave the story every ounce of finality he could muster.

He wrote, "There deep down in that dreadful cauldron "of swirling water and seething foam "will lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of their generation."

When the story came out in December 1893, Arthur wrote just two words in his diary-- "Killed Holmes."

Arthur was relieved, but readers were distraught.