Not sure about Rathbone; it wouldn’t surprise me, though. Don’t think that Brett ever did. Of course, Conan Doyle never put those exact words into SH’s mouth.
Jeremy Brett’s portrayal of Holmes is what got me hooked on what has become an obsession. (Interest > hobby > passion > obsession.) For me, his presentation of Holmes is perfect. I do have a hard time separating the acting from the story writing though. The early Granada Series episodes with Brett followed the original writing very closely. The Basil Rathbone movies were poorly written by people who didn’t care if the plots held together or were even remotely close to the original stories. While Rathbone may have been a good actor and look the part, I can’t get past the writing and directing to see it.
Hijack:
Thank you for the update. I was along Baker street last summer (two days before the bombing) and saw the big gaping hole where Abbey National had stood. I was wondering how the progress was going. I’ll have to see if I can find any on-line pictures of the final result.
Brett would have refused to say them, for that reason.
I should’ve added… on New Year’s Eve, 1989, a friend and I saw Brett and Hardwicke on a London stage in their roles as Holmes and Watson. Don’t remember the name… it might even have been the Gilette play? All I remember is that it was glorious; both were just as great as in the Granada/A&E series.
I’d have to vote for Brett over Rathbone, but part of that is probably prejudice. I’ve seen pretty much all of the Brett work, and only a few of the Rathbone pieces, but the Brett material is (as I understand and perceive it) much more true to the source than the Rathbone.
Thus, what I’ve seen of Rathbone didn’t intrigue me. Brett, on the other hand, was endlessly fascinating, since I’d just finished reading the canon right before starting to watch his shows. Brett all the way, for me. I saw ONE spot he did for PBS Festival (the fundraising drive), which was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen, but it was never repeated.
Brett, hands down. Hardwicke as Watson.
Favorites, rather than perhaps “best”, but I’m sticking to it.
While I wouldn’t pretend that roses stay in full bloom until Christmas, you might be surprised at how late they do stay in bloom up here.
Take that, Bosda! 
Don’t you love it? <still laughing>
What’s more, Tom Sellick is a better cowboy than Brett or Rathbone ever dreamed of being. 
That was “The Secret of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Granada scriptwriter Jeremy Paul. I have a copy of it; I can only imagine how good it must have been live.
Let’s not sneer too much at Rathbone’s work, he was an actor during the studio era and was not in a position to do much else than what he was told. Despite the handicaps his performance still resonates and his Holmes was definitive until Brett came along, backed by a production company that pulled out alll the stops to top everything done earlier by focusing on accurately telling the stories that were written.
BarnOwl, are you…medicated? :dubious:
Yes, I think that was the title! And come to think of it, it was New Year’s Eve, 1988 (just hours before 1989 began, that is).
That post was directed at Nonsuch, of course (hadn’t realized this thread had done over onto p. 2).
The fact that Rathbone displayed range and was theatrical is exactly the reason he made such a terrible Holmes compared to Brett (apart from the easy non-canonicity of anything other than the Brett series). Holmes was a reserved, dry, extraordinarily intellectual figure who absolutely hated emotions and the display of emotions. There can be no doubting that Holmes was the inspiration for the Spock character. Anyone who displays range and theatricality is, by definition, a lousy Holmes. Brett, by contrast, hit exactly the right notes. I am quite in awe of his performance!
You’re thinking of the masterful and popular British actor Ian Richardson, who played the real-life Dr. Joseph Bell in 1999’s The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, whom Conan Doyle stated was his inspiration for Holmes.
As an aside, was anyone else as pleasantly surprised to see Max Quordlepleen from the TV series Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (played by actor Colin Jeavons) as Lestrade? I thought he, too, exactly hit his character!
Yes, he made a great Lestrade. His shift from gloating to outrage to acknowledgement of Holmes’s skills in “The Norwood Builder” is my favorite Lestrade sequence.
Jeavons also played Tim Stamper, the top aide to Ian Richardson’s villainous British politico Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards series (and of course Richardson has played Holmes, too!).
My personal Most Beloved portrayal of Sherlock Holmes { although I firmly believe that Jeremy Brett 's Holmes productions are way more faithful to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories }, Most Assuredly goes to Basil Rathbone!
Clearly, Basil predominantly measures up to the criteria set down in Doyle’s assertions of Holmes’s personality: violin playing, cerebral, extremely intelligent, fascination with ciphers–anagrams–chemistry and the like, drug-addicted, etc.
The one thing [ unlike Brett ], Basil was not twitchy!
Besides alluding to Holmes’s drug addiction in " The Hound Of The Baskervilles " Basil’s Holmes was way more compassionate to others feelings; when telling Mrs. Barryman { of course, Barrymore in the novel}, of her brother’s murder–when she exclaims " They’ll hang him for sure ", Basil’s Holmes replies with " No Mrs. Barryman, he’s beyond the law now, he’s in More Merciful Hands "! Absolutely the Most Beautiful way I’ve ever heard it expressed, referring to the demise of a Loved One! I understand that, that line was pure Basil’s insertion in the script–as we’re others that he felt were much better than the script as first written !
Anyway, Brett’s Holmes productions for Granada, more authentic to Doyle’s stories–however, for me. . .Basil hands down! ! !
Basil, Basil, and thrice Basil.
I don’t care how good Jeremy Brett may really have been. I don’t care if a Bentley is better engineered than a Rolls Royce - you’d still say “Wow, my compliments to the chef, that sirloin really is the Rolls Royce of steaks!” You’d still walk into a bar and order a “Jack and Coke” not a “Jack and Pepsi” even if they only served Pepsi.
Jeremy Brett is probably a better Holmes, all things considered.
But Basil Rathbone is Coke to Jeremy Brett’s Pepsi.
And yeah, Fentiman’s Cumberbatch, what a tremendously clever cola-style recipe you have. “I’ll have a George Dickel & Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola please. No ice. Dash of bitters, kumquat wheel.” Nobody orders that, however good it might be.
Basil Rathborne. Especially because Nigel Bruce’s Watson was portrayed to be a bit of a dunce.