“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.” Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem (1984).
As well as chasing a deadline this week I’m now suffering badly from a cold, always a dismal combination if you can’t take time off. So this picture of the wonderful Jeremy Brett is all you get today. I started re-watching the 1980s Holmes TV adaptations a week or so ago and for the moment they provide an excellent means of taking the mind off clogged sinuses and sneezing fits. My earlier appraisal of the series is here.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• John Osborne’s Dorian Gray
• The World’s Greatest Detective
• “The game is afoot!”
I feel I’ve somehow missed out on the whole Sherlock Holmes thing. Which is why I borrowed off my dad at Christmas his cheap boxed set of Basil Rathbone films. I couldn’t watch more than a couple. Good God they were dreadful! So I’m glad to hear about this – from your great original post about the series – and now I’ll have to see if I can find them.
At school, my head of sixth form was M. J. Trow who wrote the Inspecter Lestrade books – probably another reason why I failed to get the Holmes bug.
Hope you are feeling better soon.
CJ
Get better IMMEDIATELY!
Get better! NOW!
Thanks everyone, you’ll be pleased to hear that I obeyed orders and am feeling better.
Callum: the Rathbone films are a joke compared to Granada’s adaptations, some of which are flawless renderings from page to screen. Hound of the Baskervilles gets mangled a bit but then all adaptations of that book end that way since the story is very convoluted and less easy to adapt. That aside, the writers never insult the audience’s intelligence and there are no glaring anachronisms in either speech or performance.
I think I read a blog post of yours which mentioned those Lestrade books. I usually like the idea of spinning-off series from minor characters. I seem to recall someone doing the same with Moriarty whose adventures are probably more compelling than those of the often ineffectual Inspector.