The second episode of Holmes vs Doyle covered The Hound of the Baskervilles and the George Edalji case. Also, in discussing the Boer War, Lucy Worsley correctly pointed out that Doyle is pro-imperialism, and that he blamed the war crimes on the Boers' guerilla warfare, thereby "forcing" the British to go scorched-earth in retaliation. It's exactly how Israel justifies genocide because of October 7th, nevermind that most people suffering are innocent Gazans, not terrorists.
But back to Doyle. Worsley did finally surprise me with the details about Doyle getting into the fitness regimen of body builder Eugene Sandow. The Sandow expert also explained that British people were race-panicking about how white people need to become strong perfect specimens so that the dark people in their colonies wouldn't overpower them. You'd think that the Brits would at least idolize a fellow Brit, rather than a German just because he was white. Shades of eugenics and white supremacy I guess.
I am glad that Worsley doesn't romanticise Doyle too much. I think I made that mistake when I was a young Sherlockian teen, but now I can see the darkness in Doyle clearly. Yet Worsley is right that Doyle is complicated and contradictory, able to see that Edalji was a victim of racist policing, yet able to write racist characters in his books. Able to write the sympathetic mixed race child in the "Yellow Face" story, yet at the same time writing Steve Dixie in "The Three Gables." Sometimes on the right side of history and sometimes on the wrong side. That's Doyle all right.
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