Who was the best Sherlock Holmes?

[Ace-T]

I am a bit of Holmes and Watson fan-girl. I have at least 8 copies of the full story sets including the Strand magazine compendiums from the 1800s.

Brett is THE Holmes for me. As said earlier he became Holmes. His later performances were affected by the fact that he was very ill but still carried on.

I do quite like Miller and Liu though as a modern incarnation. Better than Cucumberpatch and Freeman actually. I find his Holmes too smug and Watson just too unaware.

I aim to acquire some Rathbone films as I have not seen them though they would have to be spectacular to change my mind.

[Morningside]

I have the whole Rathbone as a box set and I thought that The Voice of Terror just come across as a wartime propaganda film rather than anything else.

[Halb]

Some of them are...a bit crap.
But I love the Scarlet Claw and a few others.
Rathbone as Holmes rendering of Gaunt's speech is brilliant.

[billzeebub]

Jeremy Brett for me as the character in isolation. Though, I have really enjoyed the contemporary interpretation of the current BBC series generally

[Wacky Racer]

Morningside said:

I have the whole Rathbone as a box set and I thought that The Voice of Terror just come across as a wartime propaganda film rather than anything else.

Yes, one of the weaker ones I must admit...the ending is rather cringeworthy....

Stiff upper lip and all that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNbeJoz1Ta8

[Wacky Racer]

Ace-T said:

I aim to acquire some Rathbone films as I have not seen them though they would have to be spectacular to change my mind.

Well, spectacular might be a bit strong...., but they are very good......make sure you get them, you haven't a moment to lose.....

(Mrs WR says hello btw.)

[Halb]

Wacky Racer said:

Yes, one of the weaker ones I must admit...the ending is rather cringeworthy....

Stiff upper lip and all that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNbeJoz1Ta8

It's endings like that that are pretty fking ace! Rathbone has no modern equivalent....Tim Dalton maybe. Basil has one of the great voices of cinema.

[Zad]

I seem to remember the Rathbone films were funded by the US studios or something, and were easier to finance with them being propaganda or at least morale raising films, hence the postscript at the end of each film. I class them the same as Margaret Rutherford's version of Miss Marple. Splendid films, but almost nothing to do with the original source material. Similarly Cummerbund Bandersnatch, they are much better once you stop trying to make them into a Sherlock Holmes film.

Jeremy Brett's Holmes is pretty much definitive in my mind. The sets even look right, you can almost feel the smoke and grime. I seem to remember that Granada Studios built several Victorian streets for it. There is minimal messing about with the original text, and the actors who played Watson played him as the intelligent ex-army doctor that he should be. I fear that the TV series were partly a cause of Jeremy Brett's manic depression and death, but what actor wouldn't want to leave a legacy like that? Similarly, Joan Hickson is Miss Marple. Read the books and it is difficult to imagine the character with any other voice.

Caveat: I haven't seen the Johnny Lee Miller versions. Definitely one to look out for.

[greygoose]

Ace-T said:

I am a bit of Holmes and Watson fan-girl. I have at least 8 copies of the full story sets including the Strand magazine compendiums from the 1800s.

Brett is THE Holmes for me. As said earlier he became Holmes. His later performances were affected by the fact that he was very ill but still carried on.

I do quite like Miller and Liu though as a modern incarnation. Better than Cucumberpatch and Freeman actually. I find his Holmes too smug and Watson just too unaware.

I would agree, Brett was great and Miller & Liu have updated it well. I find the new BBC ones a bit knowing and too interested in creating fanboy chat rather than actually having a good story properly told.

[Halb]

I love Rutherford's version of Miss Marple, and the tune. he'll always be Miss M to me.

[Zad]

Having watched the first Johnny Lee Miller one, I am now of the opinion that he is in fact Chris Harris. Or maybe Chris Harris is played by Johnny Lee Miller after a really nice warm holiday. They seem to have a lot of the same mannerisms and speech patterns anyway. A Dr Who-like 45 mins isn't really long enough to deliver a satisfying plot though.

[Steffan]

Wacky Racer said:

Who, in your opinion was the best occupier of 221B Baker Street?

I would have to say Basil Rathbone in the classic 30's/40's episodes along with his bumbling sidekick Nigel Bruce..(Dr Watson)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sFAWk7k-A8

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were undoubtedly the best pairing. Basil Rathbone was also the best Sherlock Holmes as an individual actor IMO. I recognise that Jeremy Brett was widely regarded but Ratbone was Sherlock Holmes IMO. His physical characteristics, hook nose, slim athletic build and sheer force of personality just suited that role superbly and has never been bettered. Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke were very good in their own way but I think Rathbone and Bruce owned the parts and were by far the best. I quite like Benedict Cumberpatch as an actor, withbihis interesting approach, but his Sherlock Holmes is not a good representation of the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[stephen300o]

Brian Blessed.

[trashbat]

Zad said:

Having watched the first Johnny Lee Miller one, I am now of the opinion that he is in fact Chris Harris. Or maybe Chris Harris is played by Johnny Lee Miller after a really nice warm holiday. They seem to have a lot of the same mannerisms and speech patterns anyway. A Dr Who-like 45 mins isn't really long enough to deliver a satisfying plot though.

This Harris/Lee Miller thing annoys me now you've pointed it out. On the money with that I think.

[Ace-T]

Wacky Racer said:

Well, spectacular might be a bit strong...., but they are very good......make sure you get them, you haven't a moment to lose.....

(Mrs WR says hello btw.)

They are on the list.

to you both too!

[Ace-T]

Bizarrely I am quite irked by this list of 'TVs 30 greatest detectives'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepictureg...

There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Brett Holmes! That is just plain weird.

[Morningside]

Ace-T said:

Bizarrely I am quite irked by this list of 'TVs 30 greatest detectives'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepictureg...

There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Brett Holmes! That is just plain weird.

And Columbo at 9. Jesus! Who compiles this crap?

[Gaffer]

RDJ, there is no contest, well apart from JLM.

[trashbat]

None of my favourite TV detectives were even actual detectives. Doctors, coroners, antiques dealers, nuns or some st, mounties, novelists, the list goes on. It's fking amateur hour.

[Steffan]

Ace-T said:

Bizarrely I am quite irked by this list of 'TVs 30 greatest detectives'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepictureg...

There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Brett Holmes! That is just plain weird.

The idiots cheerfully taking the wages from the newspaper industry. Happily I think that industry is going to change massively as the IT revolution continues on its merry way and hopefully, but not certainly, standards will improve. Such articles demonstrate the dire state of journalism currently as did the NoW nonsense. Crap information from crap reporters. Well suited!