This British TV series, shot almost entirely on videotape, dramatized short mystery fiction by authors who were contemporaries of Sir A rthur Conan Doyle. Many of these authors were virtually unknown to modern audiences, although all of the detectives portrayed had appeared in popular ongoing series of short stories or novels. "Rivals" featured the only dramatizations to date of such period characters as Jacques Futrelle's "The Thinking Machine" and W. H. Hodgson's "Carnacki The Ghost Finder". Production values were high, although the limitations of early '70's video technology are painfully obvious. The casts included the cream of British television's character actors, featuring a few faces that will be recognizable to American audiences.Series 1 (1971) September 20 - December 9Episode 1 - A Message from the Deep Sea (Dr. Thorndyke)Episode 2 - The Missing Witness Sensation (Max Carrados)Episode 3 - The Affair of the Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Co. Ltd. (Horace Dorrington)Episode 4 - The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds (Simon Carne)Episode 5 - The Horse of the Invisible (Carnacki)Episode 6 - The Case of the Mirror of Portugal (Horace Dorrington)Episode 7 - Madame Sara (Dixon Druce)Episode 8 - The Case of the Dixon Torpedo (Jonathan Pryde)Episode 9 - The Woman in the Big Hat (Lady Molly)Episode 10 - The Affair of the Tortoise (Martin Hewitt)Episode 11 - The Assyrian Rejuvenator (Romney Pringle)Episode 12 - The Ripening Rubies (Bernard Sutton)Episode 13 - The Case of Laker, Absconded (Martin Hewitt)Series 2 (1973) January 29 - May 7Episode 1 - The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway (Polly Burton)Episode 2 - Five Hundred Carats (Inspector Lipinzki)Episode 3 - Cell 13 (Professor Van Dusen)Episode 4 - The Secret of the Magnifique (John Laxworthy)Episode 5 - The Absent-Minded Coterie (Eugene Valmont)Episode 6 - The Sensible Action of Lieutenant HolstEpisode 7 - The Superfluous Finger (Professor Van Dusen)Episode 8 - Anonymous Letters (Dagobert Trostler)Episode 9 - The Moabite Cypher (Dr. Thorndyke)Episode 10 - The Secret of the Fox Hunter (Duckworth [William] Drew)Episode 11 - The Looting of the Specie Room (Mr. Horrocks)Episode 12 - The Mystery of the Amber Beads (Hagar)Episode 13 - The Missing QCs (Charles Dallas)