Jeremy Brett was excellent and Edward Hardwicke was just as good. I think what really set their series apart was how closely they followed the original stories.
For some reason everyone wants to rewrite Conan-Doyle which makes about as much sense as rewriting Shakespeare.
I would love to have seen Rathbone and Bruce doing the same exact roles and stories and direction etc. Unfortunately most of the Rathbone series were sort of like the Quota Quickies which were common in Britain at the time.
I love the Jeremy Brett, but the problem, when you’ve found the ultimate interpretator, is that everyone else falls flat.
Joan Hickson is Miss Marple, and all the new ladies just don’t have it.
What they’ve done with “Sherlock” is brought it into modern day with new technology - what would Sherlock Holmes have done in the days of iphones and computers? It’s actually quite good - although a little disorienting. It is a quality production.
I completely agree with what you say.
I have also thought about how great it would have been for Rathbone to have been in that TV series, because you are correct, they stayed so close to the stories and got the details right.
That’s what makes them so enjoyable, you are really entering another world.
This reminds of my greatest casting regret of all time. I am so sad that Victor Buono never lived to play Nero Wolfe.
I only know him as King Tut in Batman, but he always seemed SO SMART to me.
I think he was already gone by the time I read the Wolfe stories, but it was one of the first things I thought. “Buono should play him!”
And I can claim a little credibility here, since when I first read “The Leopard” by Lampedusa I thought “this is crazy, but Burt Lancaster would be perfect in this part!” and lo and behold I find out he did play the part, and very, very well.
The Leopard is one of the very few books I’ve read more than once, The Sherlock Holmes stories I’ve read the most; many, many times since I was about 10 years old.
They really are my favorites, by lengths and lengths.