Sherlock Holmes discussion

Anyone a fan of Peter Cushing as Holmes?

Not especially - I prefer Jeremy Brett!

I haven't seen it, is it any good?

Ditto to Miss_match -- Worth watching?

He is ok, but Jeremy Brett is best.

I prefer Cushing in the Hammer film Hound of the Baskervilles and the Masks of Death to Brett. I still haven't seen his BBC episodes which I heard were awful. For period piece television Holmes, I'd have to say the best is Douglas Wilmer from the 1965 series. That one tends to get overlooked a lot since it was unavailable for many years, but is now on DVD. I'm mostly a fan of Holmes on the big screen

Peter Cushing's BBC episodes weren't as good as they could have been. I think the money it cost to film it in colour meant that production values were lost in the process. Peter's wife was also very sick during filming and I don't think his heart was in it. He'd still be in my top three Holmeses though (for the 1959 film alone).
I haven't seen the Douglas Wilmer series yet, I'm holding out for them to release it in the UK. If it goes on much longer I might have to bite the bullet and buy a multi-region dvd player just so I can watch it.

Most of the Wilmer episodes are available on youtube as well. Three of the better episodes were The Speckled Band, which had a nice gothic feel in black and white, The Illustrious Client, and Charles Augustus Milverton. What makes the latter two especially great are the performances of the lead villains, the delicious Peter Wyngarde as Baron Gruner, and a very sleazy Barry Jones (Brigadoon, A Study in Terror) as Milverton, which is also accompanied by a score to emphasize the sleaziness.

The Wilmer series and the Cushing BBC series are actually the same series. Wilmer decided not to reprise the role in 1968 when it went to colour, mainly for the reasons you mentioned, budget and scheduling time. Nigel Stock was Watson in both of them. Also, several actors from the Brett show appear in this season, including David Burke.

Another interesting connection, is the film Frankenstein Created Woman. In that film, Peter Cushing plays Frankenstein once again, but Thorley Walters also appears as a Watson-like assistant, and Peter Madden as a Lestrade-like (well, not totally, but there's similarities) inspector. Walters was Watson in SH and the Deadly Necklace, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, and a tv film of Silver Blaze, and Madden appears in this season as Lestrade.

I did notice that a few of the Wilmer episodes were on youtube but I'd prefer to watch them on dvd if possible.

I actually watched Frankenstein Created Woman the other day and thought that Thorley Walters would make a good Watson. I've got 'The Deadly Necklace' on a dvd boxset but haven't watched it yet - must check it out.