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Partner/Sidekick : Dr John Watson, bumbling, grumpy, friend and trusted partner. He still carries his WW1 revolver. He is sometimes Holmes's flatmate, and the first-person narrator in the stories, and he's also Holmes's biographer. Like Holmes, he too smokes a pipe.
Nigel Bruce(1895-1953) was perfectly cast as Watson in the film versions of Sherlock Holmes.Arch Enemies : The cunning and deadly Dr Moriarty, who, apparently "kills" Holmes for good at the Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem.
Setting/Location : 221b Baker Street, London, is Holmes's flat, now a museum. The stories are mainly London-based, and often very atmospheric, the dark gaslit streets of Victorian London, or, as in the classic Hound of the Baskervilles, set amid the foggy bogs of Dartmoor.
Tv connections : Due to his overwhelming popularity, Holmes has appeared
on British tv more than any other detective, and has been played by numerous actors, most notably Peter Cushing in the 1960s. The lesser-known Douglas Wilmer also played Holmes in the mid 1960s on tv. Recently, Benedict Cumberbatch has done more updated versions for a modern tv audience. British actor Basil Rathbone played Holmes in American film productions in the 1940s.
Douglas Wilmer played Holmes on tv in the mid 1960s.Peter Cushing as Holmes on film and tv in the 1960s.
Jeremy Brett in the
1980s Granada tv versions. Sadly, Brett suddenly died of heart failure at the age of 62.Theme tune : The violin-based tune used for the 1980s tv series. In the tv productions, Holmes is often seen playing, rather badly, screechy tunes - must to the annoyance of his colleague Watson!
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking in 1930.
Sherlock
Holmes
is generally regarded as the greatest fictional detective ever created,
being based on the real-life Dr Joseph Bell (2nd December 1837-4th
October 1911), a surgeon at the University of Edinburg medical school,
whom Doyle studied under.
Holmes is noted for using analytical methods, like Bell, of logical
reasoning and deduction to solve his crimes, hence the famous
"Elementary, my dear Watson".
With his deerstalker hat, crooked smoking pipe and magnifying glass, Holmes is a terrific literary creation whose name has passed into the English language as a truly outstanding detective.
With his deerstalker hat, crooked smoking pipe and magnifying glass, Holmes is a terrific literary creation whose name has passed into the English language as a truly outstanding detective.
