This year’s Proms concerts will feature a performance inspired by one of literature’s most famous violinists – master detective Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation, currently in the middle of a revival inspired by the hit BBC show starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is described in the stories as a good violin player and admirer of classical music.

The Proms performance on Sunday August 16 will include appearances by Mark Gatiss, who co-created and stars in the current BBC show, and mezzo-soprano Christine Rice who will perform songs from the repertoire of another of Conan Doyle’s creations – Holmes’ nemesis, opera singer Irene Adler.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes (Robert Viglasky/BBC)
Benedict Cumberbatch stars Sherlock Holmes in the BBC show co-written by Mark Gatiss (Robert Viglasky/BBC)

BBC Proms director Edward Blakeman said: “He was a violinist, there was a bit of an alliance with an opera singer, and so we’re going to explore this.

“We are also going to explore some of the music that’s been written down the years for Sherlock Holmes on television and film and including the current series.

“Mark Gatiss, who is in the series at the moment, got so excited about this whole project he said ‘Can I come along too and I’ll read some bits from Sherlock Holmes’ so we have a collection through the Sherlocks through the decades.”