Two prominent adaptations of Sherlock Holmes from the past twenty years have been the films directed by Guy Ritchie, and the BBC television series Sherlock. Both of the actors who played Holmes in those productions have also played prominent roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange).
In addition, both of the actors who played Dr. John Watson in those productions have played supporting roles in the MCU: Jude Law (Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel) and Martin Freeman (Everett Ross in Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever).
Of all the actors to portray Dr John Watson on film, British actor Nigel Bruce holds the record with fifteen appearances (1939 - 1946). Bruce’s Watson was an affable if somewhat addled character, and while it was a typical role for “a second banana” type of character in British films, it fell far from the original intent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Watson’s creator). Doyle wrote Watson as a capable accomplice who was impressed by the work of his close friend, Sherlock Holmes, but able to keep up for the most part. (Martin Freeman’s depiction of Watson is closer to the original character.)
Quite so, and well said! Edward Hardwicke’s portrayal in the later Jeremy Brett adaptations is also true to Conan Doyle’s intent, I’d say.
In play:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never established the middle name of Dr. John H. Watson (many fans favor the Scots “Hamish”) or the first name of Holmes’s frenemy, Inspector G. Lestrade of Scotland Yard (although I personally suspect it’s “George”).
Scotland Yard was so named because it stood on the site of a medieval palace that had housed Scottish royalty when the latter were in London on visits.
The Longest Yard was a 1974 comedy-drama film, starring Burt Reynolds as a former professional football quarterback, who is sent to prison for stealing a car. While in prison, he puts together a team of inmates to play an exhibition game of football against a team of prison guards.
The film was remade in 2005, with Adam Sandler in Reynolds’ original role. There have also been several film adaptations of the original film’s premise, in which the sport is association football (soccer) rather than American gridiron football.
Burt Reynolds actually had a background in football. He attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, playing the half-back position. A series of injuries, both on and off the field, ended his football career.
When Adam Sandler spoke with Reynolds about his intent to remake The Longest Yard, Reynolds reportedly told him, “I hope you make a good one, but I don’t think you’re going to make a better one.” Reynolds further admitted that he had never seen the remake version.
The television game show Win, Lose or Draw was developed by actor Burt Reynolds and game-show host Bert Convy, and was based on the popular party game “Pictionary.” The show’s set was designed to resemble the living room in Reynolds’ home.
Burt Reynolds cracked his tailbone while performing his own stunts in the movie Deliverance. In another scene where his character goes over falls, Reynolds insisted on doing it and was knocked unconscious. The director told him “it looked like a dummy” was in the canoe as it plunged, and shot the scene with a stuntman.
John Anderson, a former centrist Republican Congressman from Illinois, ran for President in 1980 as an independent. Despite concerns from Democrats that he would be a spoiler, incumbent President Jimmy Carter lost badly enough to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan that Anderson’s presence in the race made little difference.
In 1870, a number of leading Republicans, concerned with the direction that the current party was heading (and convinced that President Grant was corrupt), formed a new party, called the Liberal Republican party. Prior to the 1872 Presidential election, the Democratic party, convinced that they could not win, threw their support to the nominee of the Liberal Republican party, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley. Greeley garnered almost 44% of the popular vote, good enough for 66 of the 352 electoral votes. However, Greeley died five days before the electoral college met to cast the votes, and electors pledged to him instead cast their votes for four different candidates.
Mugwumps were Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They played a role in the election of Grover Cleveland in the presidential election of 1884. The name has roots in the Algonquian language, meaning “sanctimonious person” and “holier than thou.”
A notable supporter of the Mugwumps was Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist who created the image of Uncle Sam, a lanky avuncular personification of the United States, and the opposing Republican elephant and Democrat donkey.
Thomas Nast, although he fought the good fight in the Gilded Age with his cartoonist’s pen for the rights of former slaves and against political corruption, was strongly anti-Irish immigrant and often drew them as drunken, treasonous near-apes.
The 1845 potato blight in Ireland sparked a new wave of Irish immigration to the United States. Within five years of the disease, over half a million Irish had arrived in America. The population of Ireland declined rapidly during the 19th century, from 8.2 million in 1841, to 6.6 million in 1851, to just 4.7 million in 1891.
The United States and the Soviet Union, as well as France and Canada, researched P. infestans as a biological weapon in the 1940s and 1950s. P. infestans, also called “potato blight”, was one of more than 17 agents that the United States researched as potential biological weapons before suspending its biological weapons program. Whether a weapon based on the pathogen would be effective is questionable, due to the difficulties in delivering viable pathogen to an enemy’s fields, and the role of uncontrollable environmental factors in spreading the disease.
The country of Canada has two official languages – English and French – and is “officially bilingual” at a national level. French is the “first official language spoken” by roughly one out of five Canadians, most of them in the province of Quebec, which was originally part of the French colonies of New France.
At a provincial level, the language policies vary; in Quebec, the only official language is French.
King Charles III is monarch of both the United Kingdom and of Canada. The King of Canada will have a distinctive flag or standard for use while visiting the country, but its design has apparently not yet been finalized.
Standard Oil once controlled most of the oil distribution in the US until broken up in 1911 as a monopoly. One reason by John D. Rockefeller bought up so many oil companies under the Standard Oil umbrella was to make sure there was uniform standards throughout the industry, though the monopoly on it certainly helped.