Baker Street Irregulars discussion

Rank your Sherlocks from 1-10 In alphabetical order
Jeremy Brett
Benedict Cumberbatch
Peter Cushing
Robert Downey, Jr
Jonny Lee Miller
Basil Rathbone
Ian Richardson
Nicholas Rowe
Robert Stephens
Arthur Wontner

Jeremy Brett
Christopher Plummer
Basil Rathbone
Benedict Cumberbatch
Ronald Howard
Christopher Lee
Jonny Lee Miller
Robert Downy Jr
Matt Frewer
Robert Stephens

Under another heading, I put Jeremy Brett as the best classic Sherlock, Jonny Lee Miller as the best modern Sherlock and James d'Arcy as the best youthful "preWatsonian" Sherlock (though Watson appears in the TV movie.)
I did not take to Frewer, Downey (though I like him as an actor,) Nicol Williamson or - despite the popularity - Cumberbatch. I thought Stephens and Plummer were both decent, if a bit sentimental.
The TV movies with Steward Granger and Roger Moore were pretty unSherlockian, IMHO.

i saw one with george c. scott which was very good

jeremy brett was fantastic!

book i recommend is THE HOUSE OF SILK by HORORWITZ

I am trying to find a TV movie that I heard about, from either the late 80s or early 90s - want to watch it. It was called "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" and Holmes is played by an actor named Michael Pennington. The story is present day, a granddaughter (or other relative) of Dr. Watson, Jane Watson, finds a cryogenically frozen Sherlock Holmes and I guess defrosts him. Anyone heard of this one?

1987 yes very good also sherlock holmes returns 1993 present day woke up sherlock holmes and a black 12 year old kid named james watson!

There was also a movie (for TV I think) from the early 90s, called "The Hands of a Murderer." In this one, Edward Woodward was a pretty miscast Holmes. John Hillerman was a decent Watson and Anthony Andrews was surprisingly good as Moriarty.
Some historical glitches but not the worst Holmes movie.

Bennedict cumberbatch first for sure. He might not be entirlely accurate of the original Sherlock Holmes Character, but there are a lot of tiny details that make more like holmes than anybody else.

A site called "Collider" recently did a "rank the Sherlocks" article, ranking 17 of them.
Placing Jeremy Brett (#2) below Cumberbatch? Even if you are writing entirely from the perspective of a television/film viewer with no exposure to the literature, it's pretty hard to defend this. But totally in keeping with anyone who would put Will Ferrell on the list.

When I started off this topic, I put Brett ahead of Cumberbatch because I listed the main Sherlocks alphabetically. But anyway you slice it, Brett is IMHO way ahead of Cumberbatch.

A site called "Westworld" recently ranked their top 10 Sherlocks:
1. Basil Rathbone
2. Jeremy Brett
3. Benedict Cumberbatch
4. Peter Cushing
5. Vasily Livanov
6. Christopher Plummer
7. Nicol Williamson
8. Ian Richardson
9. John Gielgud
10. Robert Stephens

Personally, I would put Brett first. I would also place Jonny Lee Miller, James d'Arcy and Frank Langella on the list, and probably omit Williamson and Gielgud (a great actor, possibly a good Moriarty, but not Holmes.) I'd also omit Cumberbatch, but that's a personal taste - I know a lot of people love his Sherlock.
Langella was in a stage play, Sherlock Holmes, that was filmed for an old HBO anthology series and which can be viewed on youtube. Side note: both he and Brett played "Dracula" on the stage, Langella was East Coast Dracula, Brett was West Coast Dracula.

i was very impressed with george c scott portrayal in a film

Patrick wrote: "i was very impressed with george c scott portrayal in a film"

The film, based on a stage play, was called "They Might Be Giants". Scott played a psychotic mental patient (I think he had been a judge) who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. He is treated by a female doctor named "Doctor Watson."
Scott played a number of literary characters on screen in his career, including Auguste Dupin, Scrooge, Fagin, Rochester.

thank you for the information

Bringing this up again because I heard about an interview, got it on YouTube - a podcast done recently with David Burke, the Watson in the first year of the Granada series. He had a lot of interesting memories of Jeremy Brett.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ynD...

burke was very good as watson!

If we ranked the Watsons I would definitely put Burke first. I think he embodied Watson better than anyone.
I'd also put James Mason (Murder By Decree) and - though this may sound off the wall - Robert Duvall (Seven Percent Solution) pretty high up.

I recently came upon a series called "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson," made in the late 70s/early 80s. They are 1/2 hr episodes, British-Polish productions with credits and some dialogue in German (!) but, for the most part, in English.
The stories are not Canonical but for a loose adaptation of "The Speckled Band," and Holmes runs around a lot in country attire, Inverness and deerstalker, but the actor who plays Holmes, Geoffrey Whitehead, is quite good. He is a gentler, more approachable Holmes than Brett, but very engaging, and deserves to be ranked when "best portrayals" are listed.
Lestrade is played by Patrick Newell, who was Blessington in the Granada episode, "The Resident Patient."

I happened into this YouTube video where some guy ranks the top 10 Sherlock Holmes. Sheesh. He puts Michael Caine on the list, omits Wontner, puts Rathbone in the middle of the list, and puts Brett second to Cumberbatch.
Somebody needs a good talking to.

I also would put Jeremy Brett first. Rathbone second. Cumberbatch third. Peter Cushing fourth. I did enjoy Downey's interpretation of Holmes even though he's not what I had in mind - he goes fifth but, for energy, originality and style points, he should rank higher. Jude Law's Watson was bang on target canon-wise. He might be my favorite Watson.

Jeremy Brett first and foremost, always, and Peter Cushing second. I find no other Holmes as clear as these two, but if Jude law was to swap with Downey's SH (too short, scruffy and unhygienic) then he would be third - and yes, Jude Law has been the best Watson (so far) followed by Martin Freeman as all adhere to the Canon, to various degrees.

SH "out of his era" irks me so Jonny Lee Miller's SH would have been better within the Canon but was just acceptable and Lucy Lui was an excellent Watson - although less of a surgeon in this version and more of a live in "nanny". I would have ranked Benedict Cumberbatch in the SH roles too, but that BBC production was not to the Canon, so he never had the opportunity to play "the" SH.

And of course the best Watson was David Burke, from the first season of the Granada episodes. No disrespect to Hardwicke, but Burke was perfect.
And Happy 90th birthday to him - I hear he celebrated it this past week.

I agree that Burke was the best Watson - there is a scene in one of the Granada episodes - I think it's The Copper Beeches - where Holmes/Brett is lamenting that criminals have lost all enterprise and originality and Burke says, "Oh, surely not." The way he delivers that line always makes me laugh.