The Sign of Four was shot simultaneously with The Hound of the Baskervilles but the schedule precluded having David Healy portray Watson in both films so Donald Churchill was enlisted to play the role in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

He had a very good case, apparently but eventually there was an out of court settlement for an extraordinary sum of money - something like two million pounds - which was enough for Weintraub to cover his costs on both The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles, and make a profit, too. However, he was totally ignorant of Granada's plans to film a series with Jeremy Brett.Weintraub was furious, because he'd paid a lot of money to get permission from the estate and here was Granada saying, 'Thank you - but we're going to do it.' So Weintraub took them to court. You see, when Sy Weintraub was planning the films, he was unaware that the copyright on the Holmes stories was about to expire in England and he had to go through a great deal of legal negotiations with the Conan Doyle estate in order to gain permission to use them. In an interview with Scarlet Street, Ian Richardson explained: Charles Edward Pogue was enlisted to pen the screenplays but only The Sign of the Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles were ultimately filmed as Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes series premiered in 1984. In 1982, American producer Sy Weintraub partnered with English producer Otto Plaschkes to make six television films of Sherlock Holmes stories. The film is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1890 novel of the same name, the second novel to feature Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four ) is a 1983 British made-for-television mystery film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Ian Richardson and David Healy.

Conan doyle the sign of four