The Strange Case of the Random Rewatch

I found myself recently twiddling my thumbs and without anything on telly. I had only enough time to watch something about an hour long. The large pile of films that I haven't watched yet was therefore out so I reached for my complete Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes collection.

Although I'd started working my way through the Granada TV adaptation of the Holmes canon I had, annoyingly, forgotten where I had got up to, so with a sigh I decided I would have to start again.


To Sherlockians, the first story is "the one." That is not to say that it eclipses all that followed, but it is undoubtedly held representative of the canon and in all retellings it is the one that you will come back to time and time again. Therefore, I expected to find rewatching "A Scandal in Bohemia" to be a bit of a chore to be honest. I know the story in text, telly and radio versions inside out (not to mention back to front given the Leslie Klinger annotated set of the canon I have in pride of place on my bookshelf.)


Imagine how pleasantly surprised I am to find it is still compulsive viewing even on the umpteenth time round.


Jeremy Brett was always brilliant, (It goes without saying really) but I don't think I'd ever really paid attention to some of the subtleties of his acting before. Facial expression, physical mannerisms, all representative of an actor utterly consumed by the role.


Being more familiar with Edward Hardwicke as Watson I'd more or less forgotten how good David Burke is. A younger and slightly less fuddy-duddy Watson than Hardwicke and certainly not the slightly idiotic portrayal of, say, Nigel Bruce. Let's face it, Holmes would never hang around with a complete berk. Burke's Watson is a smart man in the prime of his life (barring 'the wound' that invalided him out of Afghanistan). It is only in comparison to Holmes that he is made to look inferior or to feel stupid, not that he actually is inferior or stupid. Indeed, Holmes himself often compliments his friend (in a slightly back--handed manner to-be-sure) when Watson tries to use what he has learnt of Holmes techniques even if his deduction prove to be wide of the mark.


I'll always have fond memories of the sumptuous Baker Street set on the Granada backlot which I had occasion to visit when the Granada Studios Tour was still open. It's amazing to think that its actually only a very short street and in comparison to the Coronation Street set around the corner, it is positively tiny. It's rare for me to compliment ITV on period drama, (Frankly the BBC have always been superior when it comes to period/costume drama) but the Granada team had the Victorian era of Holmes down perfectly.


I subsequently moved on to "The Dancing Men" and "The Naval Treaty". The supporting cast can usually be trusted to throw up some notable mentions. The Derbyshire constabulary represented by Kryten Mark 1 from Red Dwarf. David Ross in "The Dancing Men" and Blake himself, Gareth Thomas in "The Naval Treaty" as our examples herein.


As a period adaptation of the original canon I still feel that these episodes can't be beaten, so I'm very glad that the modern Holmes for the 21st Century (the Benedict Cumberbatch TV Series and the Robert Downey Jr movies) are going in a different direction rather than trying to beat an already superior product. The last couple of attempts at aping the Brett Holmes on television, both produced by the BBC suprisingly went somewhat wide of the mark. Richard Roxburgh in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (during that period where played three different victorian literary characters... badly) and Rupert Everett in "The Case of the Silk Stocking" really only had one thing to recommend them and that was Ian Hart as Watson.


And after writing all that I'm in the mood for another episode.


Come Watson, the game's afoot...