Sherlock Holmes/Inspector Morse
The British mystery genre, along with the British comedy and period drama, is one of the UK's most successful telly exports. In this week's article we'll take a look at two of the most popular British TV Detectives: Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Morse.
Sherlock Holmes first appeared on the British small screen in 1951 with Alan Wheatley in the title role. In 1954 Ronald Howard portrayed the world's first consulting detective in the first U.S. series. Two further British series offered first Douglas Wilmont (1965) and then the late, great Peter Cushing (1968) before Granada began the most recent, and most critically acclaimed, adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic tales.
From the moment the Granada Sherlock Holmes premiered it was clear that Jeremy Brett was a Holmes to be reckoned with and in the ensuing years he made the role of the world's foremost famous detective his own. Brett's performance as Holmes is a tour de force. At times sullen and brooding, Brett's Holmes is no mere thinking machine but a highly complex man struggling with self-doubt and imbued with an obsessive desire to see justice done. Supported by the dependable Dr. Watson, played first by David Burke and then by Edward Hardwicke, and the amazingly tolerant Mrs. Hudson, played by Rosalie Williams, Holmes deduces his way through Victorian London and the English countryside, recreated beautifully and in superb detail by the Granada production team.
To many viewers, Brett and Hardwicke are Holmes and Watson, their performances overshadowing the classic, if not canonical, work of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Brett's Holmes is a far more profound character and yet in many ways more accessible thanks to Brett's magnificent performance, and Hardwicke's Watson is no lovable buffoon but a highly capable military man and MD.
Tragically, Jeremy Brett passed away in 1996 leaving behind a legacy of brilliant work and knowledge that he had made one of the world most popular literary figures his own.
In the Granada production of The Sign of the Four, the role of Jonathan Smalls was played by veteran actor John Thaw, better known to most people as Inspector Morse in the highly popular series based on Colin Dexter's bestselling novels.
Before assuming the role of the cranky, pub crawling, opera loving sleuth Thaw was best known as hard nosed copper Regan in the cult police drama The Sweeney. In the Inspector Morse mysteries he plays a different sort of detective altogether and, as Brett with Holmes before him, he made the
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