Jeremy Brett's Holmes was simply perfect. His quality performances were up there with David Suchet's Hercule Poirot. 
Granada Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett
- Thread starter Kirkman1987
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When I finally got around to reading the Holmes stories/novels, I visualized them in my head with Brett and Hardwicke in the lead roles (and with Colin Jeavons as Lestrade, of course).
I'd started reading them after Tom Baker's (fairly awful) try at Holmes in 1981. And when Brett arrived he was so much more right than Baker, or any of the earlier ones (I do have a soft spot for for Carleton Hobbs' radio version, even though he sometimes drifts into being a bit too camp and arch).
I'm growing to the Basil Rathbone version. And Clive Merrison is spot-on in the 1990s Complete Holmes that BBC Radio 4 did. But Brett is 'my Holmes' in the same way that Tom Baker is 'my Doctor'.
Since the subject of radio plays has come up, I found a CD at the library with some episodes done by John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but I'm looking forward to it... especially Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty!
Hmm... aside from occasional glimpses of Basil Rathbone, I think the first screen Holmes who left an impression on me was Nicholas Rowe in Young Sherlock Holmes. That came out the same year as the first Brett series, but I don't think I saw that version until later. Of course YSH is an "imaginary story" out of continuity, since canonically Watson didn't meet Holmes until A Study in Scarlet, but I do kind of enjoy the movie, and I thought Rowe did an excellent job (he reminded me of a young Tom Baker, in a way). I always hoped that a decade or two later they'd reunite Rowe and Alan Cox as the adult Holmes and Watson in a sequel of sorts. It's been 23 years, and the actors are 42 and 38 respectively, so it could still happen if it were done in the reasonably near future.
I once saw Leonard Nimoy as Holmes, in an episode of a kids' educational series on PBS -- an anthology with different short stories illustrating different scientific concepts. I think it involved Holmes and Watson dealing with a case that taught the basics of geography or something like that. The Watson was your conventional Nigel Bruce-type buffoon, alas.
I'm looking over IMDb's page for the Holmes character, and its interesting to see some of the people who've played him. Apparently, in 1999's Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century animated series, the voice of Holmes was done by Jason Gray-Stanford -- now well-known as another, far less brilliant detective, Randy Disher on Monk. Apparently there was also a series of four TV movies with Matt Frewer as Holmes, an odd choice. I think I might've seen a couple of those, but I have little recollection of them. Oh yeah, and Roger Moore played him in Sherlock Holmes in New York. I saw that once and thought that Moore was spectacularly miscast.
I once saw Leonard Nimoy as Holmes, in an episode of a kids' educational series on PBS -- an anthology with different short stories illustrating different scientific concepts. I think it involved Holmes and Watson dealing with a case that taught the basics of geography or something like that. The Watson was your conventional Nigel Bruce-type buffoon, alas.
I'm looking over IMDb's page for the Holmes character, and its interesting to see some of the people who've played him. Apparently, in 1999's Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century animated series, the voice of Holmes was done by Jason Gray-Stanford -- now well-known as another, far less brilliant detective, Randy Disher on Monk. Apparently there was also a series of four TV movies with Matt Frewer as Holmes, an odd choice. I think I might've seen a couple of those, but I have little recollection of them. Oh yeah, and Roger Moore played him in Sherlock Holmes in New York. I saw that once and thought that Moore was spectacularly miscast.
I'm in this boat too. I have the first 3 DVD sets, as well as Hound of course, what self-respecting Holmes fan wouldn't have Hound (in fact I have three versions: Brett's, Rathbone's and Cushing's).
But I've still not purchased Memoirs; I'm afraid it will be too painful to watch.
I never thought that anyone could displace Rathbone as my definitive Holmes, but when I saw Brett he absolutely blew me away. Brilliant is an understatement.
I saw one of the Matt Frewer ones, The Hound of The Baskervilles, when it aired in Canada. I don't remember a ton, but I remember being distinctly unimpressed.
And I'm about to go out on a limb here... Although I own it on DVD, I've never been a big fan of the Granada version of Hound. It always seemed to me to be very slow-paced for some reason. Even though it was a lot closer to the book than some other adaptations, I think it failed to capture the tension in the story as successfully as the rest of the series did. I still watch it, though, everytime I do a runthrough of the series.
I haven't seen all the Basil Rathbone films. However, I found a few of them in the library a while back and thought they made excellent late-night thrillers. I remember The House of Fear being particularly fun to watch.
And I'm about to go out on a limb here... Although I own it on DVD, I've never been a big fan of the Granada version of Hound. It always seemed to me to be very slow-paced for some reason. Even though it was a lot closer to the book than some other adaptations, I think it failed to capture the tension in the story as successfully as the rest of the series did. I still watch it, though, everytime I do a runthrough of the series.
I haven't seen all the Basil Rathbone films. However, I found a few of them in the library a while back and thought they made excellent late-night thrillers. I remember The House of Fear being particularly fun to watch.
Have to agree with this one. I am a huge Holmes fan, have read the books many times. I use to think Rathbone was the best Holmes (Bruce totally sucked as Watson though), until I watched Brett. Holmes was suppose to be slightly... unbalanced, really eccentric, and Brett NAILED that.
Since we're talking about other versions of Holmes now, has anyone seen the one where Charlton Heston played Holmes? I think it was called The Crucible of Blood and was based on The Sign of Four. Was that the one that actually had Brett playing Watson, or was that the stage version? (I haven't seen it either, I was wondering how he did.) Heston played a Brit fairly convincingly in Khartoum, so I figure he might be able to pull it off fairly well, but it would still likely seem like "Charlton Heston playing Holmes" rather than "Jeremy Brett embodies Holmes."
Oh, and I might get panned for saying this, but I've seen a few episodes of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when I was bored on a saturday morning, and I was surprised to discover that they weren't totally ridiculous. Being that the concept is totally ridiculous, I had assumed that the show would be the kind of cartoon drivel that would make you want to throw a brick at the TV. However, while it certainly was no comparion whatsoever to a real Holmes adaptation, it was actually mildly intelligent. Very surprising.
Oh, and I might get panned for saying this, but I've seen a few episodes of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when I was bored on a saturday morning, and I was surprised to discover that they weren't totally ridiculous. Being that the concept is totally ridiculous, I had assumed that the show would be the kind of cartoon drivel that would make you want to throw a brick at the TV. However, while it certainly was no comparion whatsoever to a real Holmes adaptation, it was actually mildly intelligent. Very surprising.
I agree - I thought he actually portrayed the character surprisingly well, esp. in first half of the movie.
Sometimes, I think I'm the only person in the world who enjoyed the Frewer quartet.
Frewer's casting had me go "Hunh?" when I first heard about it, but he looked the part and I was convinced by his performance. Kenneth Walsh's Watson didn't mesh well with Frewer's Holmes, though. I think the producers were trying to create a Canadian version of the Granada series, and the writing was pretty much in the vein of what Granada had done, and the films had slightly better production values.
Of the four, it's the vampire story that's probably the best. It's an original story, it has a creepy atmosphere, and it's pulled off convincingly well.
I had two problems with Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (I tried abbreviating the title, but it produces an unfortunate acronym). One was that all of its episodes were loose adaptations of the original Doyle stories, sometimes just using the titles and building new stories around them, but sometimes using specific elements from the stories. Yet even though this Holmes was the original one, cryogenically preserved and brought back to life, he never commented on the extraordinary coincidence of all his past cases repeating themselves.
The other was that it was kind of a ripoff of an idea from Filmation Associates. Some years before, in Filmation's final TV series BraveStarr, there was a 2-part backdoor-pilot episode called "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century." Like SH22C (that'll work), it brought Holmes into the future, teamed him up with a Watson surrogate and a strong female Lestrade, and pitted him against Moriarty as his regular nemesis. There were some differences; in the rather revisionist Filmation version, Holmes (Pat Fraley) fell through a time warp at Reichenbach Falls, and Moriarty (Jonathan Harris) was the one who had himself cryogenically frozen, in order to "follow" Holmes into the future (I don't recall how he figured out what the time warp was, but hey, he was smart). His partner was an alien Whitsun (with the inevitable "Gesundheit" running gag) rather than an android Watson, and the distaff Lestrade was more of a gun-loving Dirty Harry type. Still, the parallels are self-evident. It could've been a coincidence, and I suppose Filmation didn't have any claim of ownership to a variant of Sherlock Holmes, but it still bugged me, because I would've liked to see the Filmation version go to series.
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This is how it feels to me watching actors other than Brett take on the role. Even if they're good actors in a good movie (like Christopher Plummer in Murder by Decree), they seem to just be going through the motions and hitting all the marks. I can see the acting. But Brett literally inhabits the role, he becomes the character, until you can't see where the actor leaves off and the character begins. It will be a long time before someone surpasses him.
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Young Sherlock Holmes. It's been a long time, but I do remember enjoying that movie.
Does anybody recall seeing Marina Sirtis in "The Six Napoleons" episode? Unfortunately, she didn't have a large part in it.
Does anybody recall seeing Marina Sirtis in "The Six Napoleons" episode? Unfortunately, she didn't have a large part in it.
Yes, she was very lovely. Jude Law appears in one episode as a young boy, I think in "Shoscombe Old Place".
I thought this for quite some time until I saw the Brett series as well. For a long time, Rathbone was THE image of Holmes in my head, but he has since been replaced by Brett. If I read a Holmes story, the settings, colors, costumes and actors are all from that series in my head.
That said, I still enjoy Rathbone's Holmes as a fun version of the character's adventures. Sadly it did feature a "bumbling" Watson and a not-too-bright Lestrade, but they served their purpose as comic relief and the mysteries were fun to watch unfold.
^ Oh definitely. I grew up on Rathbone's Holmes. I have his first two (Hound and Adventures) on DVD (thinking of getting the rest too), and he will always have a place in my heart. Just can't call him definitive anymore.
Edited to add: It's rare when your first (of anything, be it Holmes, Dr Who, etc.), which typically, perhaps sentimentally, remains your favourite all your life, is displaced by another. It takes someone/thing really special to do that.
Edited to add: It's rare when your first (of anything, be it Holmes, Dr Who, etc.), which typically, perhaps sentimentally, remains your favourite all your life, is displaced by another. It takes someone/thing really special to do that.
Well, if Young Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century have been brought up, I'll presume that other pastiches are fair game for discussion.
Has anyone else read the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell novels by Laurie R. King? They're not only entertaining, but also quite compelling as drama. They take place after Holmes' retirement, when he's keeping bees on the Sussex Downs, and he meets a young woman named Mary Russell (she's the narrator of the stories) whom he is surprised to discover possesses intelligence and keen deductive skills. The first book is The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and the whole series gets a high recommendation from me.
There's also a wonderful short story by Neil Gaiman called "A Study In Emerald" to be found in his collection Fragile Things. It's a particularly interesting take on the Holmes mythos--not to mention H.P. Lovecraft's.
And just so we don't get too off-track... BRETT RULES!
Has anyone else read the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell novels by Laurie R. King? They're not only entertaining, but also quite compelling as drama. They take place after Holmes' retirement, when he's keeping bees on the Sussex Downs, and he meets a young woman named Mary Russell (she's the narrator of the stories) whom he is surprised to discover possesses intelligence and keen deductive skills. The first book is The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and the whole series gets a high recommendation from me.
There's also a wonderful short story by Neil Gaiman called "A Study In Emerald" to be found in his collection Fragile Things. It's a particularly interesting take on the Holmes mythos--not to mention H.P. Lovecraft's.
And just so we don't get too off-track... BRETT RULES!
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