Daniel Cann

Holmes is the most portrayed character in cinema history and boasts over two hundred films made about him and his adventures with over seventy actors portraying him. Always alongside him is his loyal and faithful companion Doctor Watson. His housekeeper Mrs Hudson is always there at 221B to tut disapprovingly and to tidy up after him. Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson of Scotland Yard are always on hand to marvel at Holmes’ powers of deduction. Of course Professor Moriarty is forever battling Holmes as only an arch nemesis can.

In the nineteenth century it was stage actor William Gillette who helped to spread Holmes’ fame and thus help to increase Doyle’s fortune. Of all the film and television adaptations there are three actors that stand out for me: Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett. All have made the role their own, with each playing their own unique part in making the adventures of Holmes so appealing for successive generations.

Rathbone’s Holmes started in two lavish 20th Century Fox period productions in 1939. Once that studio pulled the plug (much like the predicament the James Bond franchise faces right now) it was Universal Studios that revived the character with Rathbone going on to play Holmes in twelve new and contemporary set features. His Holmes even battled Nazi’s! I’m sure Doyle would have approved. Some purists whilst feeling that Rathbone had nailed the part and perhaps even giving the definitive portrayal have been generally disparaging of Nigel Bruce as Watson, playing the good doctor as a bungling oaf. Sadly this is what the studios wanted in order to make Holmes appear brighter than he was (not that he ever needed any help!)

The next notable performance was Peter Cushing, first in Hammer Studio’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ with strong support from Andre Morell as a much stronger and plausible Watson. This film has won many plaudits over the years. Cushing went on to play Holmes in sixteen television episodes in 1968 and again as an aging Holmes in 1984 in ‘The Masks of Death.’ Cushing is something of an institution in Britain starring in many horror films and is probably better known to younger fans as Grand Moff Tarkin in ‘Star Wars.’

Finally Jeremy Brett gave arguably the best and closest performance to the Holmes that Doyle envisaged. Brett went to great pains to ensure that each episode he filmed was faithful to the original text. His tenure as Holmes in a Granada television series spanning 41 adaptations from 1984 to 1994 will probably never be equalled let alone topped. Alongside Brett’s Holmes were firstly David Burke and then Edward Hardwicke as Watson. Fans appreciated the attention to detail with the Victorian and Edwardian era’s brought sumptuously to life. The character of Watson was that of an equal and a valued and loyal friend rather than the ham-fisted comic relief side-kick he had been reduced to in other adaptations. This series is the closest you can get to the source novels and short stories.

As everyone knows Guy Ritchie directed the latest ‘Sherlock Holmes’ film starring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson. This was well received and a sequel has already been planned. With an upcoming BBC television series set in modern day London with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Afghanistan veteran (as in the original stories) Watson it is clear that Sherlock Holmes is still very much as relevant today as he was back in the nineteenth century.

The character was the first to use forensics (over a century before ‘CSI’, ‘Cold Case’ and ‘NCIS’!) as well as deductive reasoning. Creator Doyle was a talented man with interests in many different areas including anatomy, forensics, science and spiritualism. He felt rather shackled by his creation in later years and at one stage famously tried to kill Holmes off (‘The Final Problem’), but the public were never going to stand for that and Holmes was soon reinstated and he remains a popular fixture in crime fiction in the printed word as well as on the small and big screens. Long may he continue to thrill readers and audiences alike. In an uncertain world Sherlock Holmes offers certainty.