0:00:19 > 0:00:23The name's Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221b Baker Street.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28"If my little creation of Sherlock Holmes has survived longer
0:00:28 > 0:00:31"than it deserved," said Arthur Conan Doyle...
0:00:33 > 0:00:36"..then I consider it's very largely due to those gentlemen
0:00:36 > 0:00:38"who have associated themselves with him."
0:00:40 > 0:00:43Knowledge of anatomy -
0:00:43 > 0:00:46accurate, but unsystematic.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Plays the violin well.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Knowledge of chemistry, profound.
0:00:53 > 0:00:54For over 100 years,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58more than 80 actors have put a varying face to the world's greatest
0:00:58 > 0:01:02consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, each of them drawing
0:01:02 > 0:01:06on the distinct attributes of this most enigmatic of characters.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10Knowledge of philosophy, nil.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15Is an expert single stick player, boxer and swordsman.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Has a good practical knowledge of British law.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Sherlock Holmes was the first detective to be transferred
0:01:22 > 0:01:27to the screen and his appearances chart the evolution of film itself,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29from silent two-reelers, or quickies,
0:01:29 > 0:01:31to the marvel of colour...
0:01:33 > 0:01:35..and up to the latest electronic wizardry.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40In fact, our notion of Sherlock Holmes today
0:01:40 > 0:01:43is as much a creation of the various film
0:01:43 > 0:01:46and television performances as from the stories themselves.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Join us, as we examine
0:01:49 > 0:01:51and, of course, deduce
0:01:51 > 0:01:53the ever-changing face of Sherlock Holmes.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Two men, travelling by train between Cardiff and London in 2006,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18hit upon the novel idea for
0:02:18 > 0:02:20a modern resetting of Sherlock Holmes,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23one that would free him from
0:02:23 > 0:02:26the trappings of Victoriana and allow us to see the stories
0:02:26 > 0:02:29as they were originally experienced -
0:02:29 > 0:02:31exciting, cutting edge and contemporary.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38The two men on the train were Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41already well-known for their work on Doctor Who.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44I said, "Isn't it odd that in the original story,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48"A Study in Scarlet, Dr Watson is invalided home
0:02:48 > 0:02:51"from military service in Afghanistan?"
0:02:51 > 0:02:55And it's the same war as we were then fighting. And there was just
0:02:55 > 0:02:59a kind of lightbulb moment where it was like,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01"Well, we should do that again."
0:03:02 > 0:03:05And in 2010, Sherlock hit our screens.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18It reinvigorated this iconic character for a whole new audience.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22It's interesting, when you ask
0:03:22 > 0:03:24people about who their favourite
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Sherlock Holmes is, because I have this theory that
0:03:27 > 0:03:31your favourite Sherlock Holmes is the one that you grew up with.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35People of a certain age will always answer Rathbone as their favourite,
0:03:35 > 0:03:36just as they did
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Jeremy Brett with those
0:03:38 > 0:03:39who were growing up in the '80s.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41And I suspect young people,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45when you ask them, their answer's going to be Benedict Cumberbatch.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47This modern retelling
0:03:47 > 0:03:49set out to keep the spirit of the original stories,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53yet completely transformed them for the digital age.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56- What are you typing?- Blog.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59- About?- Us.- You mean me.- Why?
0:03:59 > 0:04:01HE COUGHS
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Well, you're typing a lot.
0:04:03 > 0:04:04'We live in a world of'
0:04:04 > 0:04:08micro-blogging, which is a fantastic and perfect parallel
0:04:08 > 0:04:12for the idea of Dr Watson serialising his adventures.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15We've started sending telegrams again in the form of texts.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'We were able to draw immediate and exact parallels
0:04:19 > 0:04:21'between the original stories
0:04:21 > 0:04:22'and the idea of updating it.'
0:04:24 > 0:04:26John.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Rhododendron ponticum. Matches.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34'He remains modern now,'
0:04:34 > 0:04:38yet there is something of an old soul about him, something
0:04:38 > 0:04:40old-fashioned about him, something...
0:04:40 > 0:04:43well, removed, slightly sociopathic, slightly, um...
0:04:43 > 0:04:45I mean, so rigorous and thorough
0:04:45 > 0:04:50that he gets castigated as being cut off.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52I think it borderlines, in our version, on someone...
0:04:52 > 0:04:56with people who have Asperger's and maybe slightly mild autism as well.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00And a lot of that is to do with taking control of chaos,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02and that means cutting out human sentiment,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06that means being able to think incredibly rationally and...
0:05:07 > 0:05:10..scythe through any kind of pretence.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13He's not gay! Why do you have to spoil...? He's not!
0:05:13 > 0:05:16With that level of personal grooming?
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Because he puts a bit of product in his hair? I put product in my hair!
0:05:19 > 0:05:21You wash your hair! There's a difference. No, no.
0:05:21 > 0:05:22Tinted eyelashes, clear signs of
0:05:22 > 0:05:26taurine cream around the frown lines, those tired, clubber's eyes.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28- Then there's his underwear. - His underwear?
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Visible above the waistline, very visible. Very particular brand.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33'I remember the first sort of press conference,'
0:05:33 > 0:05:36all our answers were there to rebut the questions,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40"How can you do this without hansom cabs and fog?"
0:05:40 > 0:05:44And our whole argument was that it had become all about those.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48It was all about the trappings. It was literally lost in the fog.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51By the end of the second series, the new Sherlock had built up
0:05:51 > 0:05:55a huge following, but the British public was in for a shock.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59- 'Goodbye, John.'- No. Don't...
0:06:10 > 0:06:12SHERLOCK!
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Sherlock's fall to his death put the public in the same hiatus
0:06:24 > 0:06:27as it had done 120 years before.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33In 1893, Sherlock Holmes' author, Arthur Conan Doyle, pushed him
0:06:33 > 0:06:36and Professor Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls
0:06:36 > 0:06:39and the whole nation mourned.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41There was an outcry in the press.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44It's said that men wore black crepe armbands,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46and legend reports that 20,000 people
0:06:46 > 0:06:49cancelled their subscription to The Strand Magazine,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51in which the stories were published.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53Doyle was vilified for what he'd done,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and even attacked in the street.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59But what is it about this inscrutable hero
0:06:59 > 0:07:04that elicits such strong feelings, both then and now?
0:07:06 > 0:07:08The most important thing about Sherlock Holmes is that
0:07:08 > 0:07:13what he was doing was new in the form in which he did it,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15and immensely popular,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19as if there was some need for this kind of reading that had,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22until now, not been met.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25There'd been detective stories
0:07:25 > 0:07:27by Edgar Allan Poe
0:07:27 > 0:07:35and the French detective Arsene Lupin - very famous in France -
0:07:35 > 0:07:40and others, but none had had the impact of the stories about Holmes.
0:07:42 > 0:07:48He had a brain which seemed to be more varied in knowledge
0:07:48 > 0:07:52and ability and deduction than anyone else.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55He was unique.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58He still is.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Such was the furore over Holmes' Reichenbach Fall
0:08:02 > 0:08:05that in 1901, Conan Doyle was forced to bring him back.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Little could he have realised then that Holmes would step off the page
0:08:09 > 0:08:13and live on forever in a brand-new cultural medium.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19His return, and the subsequent rise in his appeal,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21coincided with the coming of film.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Right from the dawn of cinema, writers, directors and, above all,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30actors would more than embrace the character of Sherlock Holmes.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35It has become one of the great parts to play,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38that relaxed control,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and still be just leagues ahead of everybody else,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43never really in danger.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48There is a temperature and speed of thought and ferocity to him
0:08:48 > 0:08:50which I find difficult to change into.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52It's the thing I try to make look natural,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54but anyone who's worked with me on the show will tell you it's not!
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Sherlock Holmes is two things.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02He's a man of action and he's also a man of deep thought.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07And these are two things that actors love to latch onto because
0:09:07 > 0:09:08when you play Sherlock Holmes,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10you can do all sorts of running
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and fighting, but then you've also got
0:09:13 > 0:09:16those moments of calculation,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18you've got those moments where the camera
0:09:18 > 0:09:19comes in towards the face of
0:09:19 > 0:09:21that brooding actor,
0:09:21 > 0:09:22where we get right into
0:09:22 > 0:09:24the thoughts of this man,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26and we get to see something mysterious
0:09:26 > 0:09:28flickering across his eyes.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33I think the screen, on the whole,
0:09:33 > 0:09:34has done it pretty well.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37It's managed to find actors who are good actors
0:09:37 > 0:09:39and look rather alike. Because, after all,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43these stories were illustrated, and by a good illustrator.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46We know what Sherlock looks like, or should look like.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51It was the story's original illustrator, Sidney Paget,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55who created the first visual depiction of Sherlock Holmes.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58It was Paget who gave Holmes his deerstalker hat
0:09:58 > 0:10:00and his Inverness cape,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04details that were never mentioned in Conan Doyle's stories.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07The Paget drawings are sort of ingrained. They just are.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10That silhouette, and the image of the deerstalker -
0:10:10 > 0:10:13it's as iconic as any of the stories, really.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16In drawing him so distinctly for a vast readership,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Paget not only secured Holmes something approaching
0:10:19 > 0:10:23national emblem status - like John Bull, or even Britannia -
0:10:23 > 0:10:27but also provided a visual template for future actors playing the part.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31And the story of Sherlock Holmes on screen
0:10:31 > 0:10:35really begins with Sherlock Holmes on stage.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39The first prominent actor to play Holmes
0:10:39 > 0:10:42was an American matinee idol, William Gillette,
0:10:42 > 0:10:43in his own version -
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Sherlock Holmes, A Drama in Four Acts.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50The actor Tim Pigott-Smith played Dr Watson
0:10:50 > 0:10:54in the first major revival of Gillette's play, in the 1970s.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03Gillette was an absolutely archetypal Victorian actor manager.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06That particular role doesn't really exist now,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09but then, it was the way the theatre worked.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12And like the Paget illustrations,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Gillette added new elements to the character that endure to this day.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22In the Paget drawings, Holmes is smoking a straight pipe,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and Gillette introduced the curved pipe. The theory is that
0:11:25 > 0:11:28it was better for the mouth, that the audience could see him
0:11:28 > 0:11:31more clearly. And, of course, the famous phrase
0:11:31 > 0:11:34"Elementary, my dear Watson" was also an invention of Gillette's.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38He toured the play extensively.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40He brought it to England, where the young Charles Chaplin,
0:11:40 > 0:11:45aged 11, played Billy the pageboy.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49He made a lot of money out of it. It was phenomenally successful.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56The play would serve as a blueprint for future film versions,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58especially after William Gillette
0:11:58 > 0:12:03committed his famous stage performance to film in 1916.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08The film, alas, is now lost
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and only these few production stills survive,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14but it presented for the first time on screen
0:12:14 > 0:12:17the popular image of Sherlock Holmes,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19with all the accessories and phrases
0:12:19 > 0:12:24that Paget and Gillette had given him, and which many,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28if not all, subsequent actors playing Holmes have adopted.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36The first Sherlock Holmes films
0:12:36 > 0:12:38started in earnest in 1921,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40made by Stoll Picture Productions,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42in the unlikely setting of Cricklewood...
0:12:47 > 0:12:49..with the curiously named
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Eille Norwood's real name was Anthony Brett.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56He changed his name, so he always said,
0:12:56 > 0:13:01because he'd once been in love with a girl called Eileen, or Eille,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04and he lived in Norwood, and he put these two things together.
0:13:06 > 0:13:07Tricky to do, Sherlock Holmes,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09on the silent screen,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11because it depends so much upon
0:13:11 > 0:13:13those set-piece explanations
0:13:13 > 0:13:15of how things happened.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20What Norwood did was concentrate upon staging the idea
0:13:20 > 0:13:23of Holmes thinking, so much so that
0:13:23 > 0:13:25he even had his head shaved
0:13:25 > 0:13:27up to the temples
0:13:27 > 0:13:28in order to make himself
0:13:28 > 0:13:30look more intellectual.
0:13:34 > 0:13:35The Norwood series of films
0:13:35 > 0:13:39also began the trend of placing Holmes in a new era.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41They went in for a contemporary 1920s setting -
0:13:41 > 0:13:44this was Holmes for the Modern Age -
0:13:44 > 0:13:50and one of their highlights was in their use of real locations.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52But how would Arthur Conan Doyle,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56who was still writing Holmes stories set in period,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59react to such a modernising approach?
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Conan Doyle gave it his official stamp of approval.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06They met and they toasted each other
0:14:06 > 0:14:11and gave each other grateful thanks, so he is the first screen Holmes
0:14:11 > 0:14:16to come with the proper official endorsement of Holmes's creator.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20Following Eille Norwood's
0:14:20 > 0:14:22impressive and successful run of
0:14:22 > 0:14:2347 silent quickies,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Sherlock Holmes now became
0:14:25 > 0:14:27a staple subject for the cinema.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31But over the next few years, the performances on screen
0:14:31 > 0:14:34tended to be slow and over-studious affairs, only Arthur Wontner's
0:14:34 > 0:14:36authentic Paget-like performance
0:14:36 > 0:14:38making any real impression.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44Elementary, my dear Watson.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47What Sherlock needed was the film-star treatment
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and, in 1939, with Europe on the brink of war
0:14:50 > 0:14:54and cinema audiences eager for escapist adventure,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56he would get just that.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Sherlock Holmes was about to be reimagined by Hollywood.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03And the actor who took up the challenge
0:15:03 > 0:15:07and went on to define it was, of course, Basil Rathbone.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Oh, Professor Moriarty...
0:15:11 > 0:15:12'On the screen,'
0:15:12 > 0:15:17for me, the perfect Holmes - Basil Rathbone.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21With Rathbone, he just had a great elegance and charm.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24He was very smooth and cool with it, he was sort of a Bond figure.
0:15:26 > 0:15:27It's always been Rathbone,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and when I think of the other ones,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I tend to sort of superimpose Rathbone on it, really.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40People look at him on screen and think...
0:15:40 > 0:15:44not, does this accord with the Arthur Conan Doyle stories?
0:15:44 > 0:15:47But, does this accord with the Holmes that's in my imagination?
0:15:47 > 0:15:50And I think that's where Rathbone was particularly successful.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'He looked like Holmes,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56'he was lean physique, he had a sharp profile,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01'he had a confident manner, and an incisive English accent,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06'and he had that almost arrogant air that people associate with Holmes.'
0:16:06 > 0:16:08A whole day and a night have gone by
0:16:08 > 0:16:10since that bestial affair in Edgware Road.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16'Rathbone manages to capture that cool, ascetic, calm, thinking mind.'
0:16:16 > 0:16:19I suppose there is something slightly...
0:16:19 > 0:16:22autistic, we might say now, about Holmes.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24A lack of connection with feeling,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27which is one of the things that makes him so compelling.
0:16:27 > 0:16:2920th Century Fox's
0:16:29 > 0:16:31The Hound of the Baskervilles
0:16:31 > 0:16:33was to be the very first
0:16:33 > 0:16:35big-budget Sherlock Holmes movie.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37And surprisingly, it was the first
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Sherlock Holmes film to be set in period,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43as a Victorian gas-lit adventure
0:16:43 > 0:16:46was felt to be at a comfortable distance for audiences
0:16:46 > 0:16:49from the realities of impending war.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Rathbone had been chosen personally for the part
0:16:54 > 0:16:57by the studio boss himself - Darryl F Zanuck.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Zanuck had a very hands-on approach.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He wanted Holmes to be a clever, observing fellow,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06not the sort of chap who pulled rabbits out of the hat.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09So, in other words, he wanted it to be about deduction.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12But Zanuck's control also extended to the script,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16and there was one line that he mysteriously added,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18which would, for the first time on film,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21mention Sherlock Holmes's most controversial vice,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24his cocaine habit.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29The very last line as Rathbone goes out of the room...
0:17:29 > 0:17:33He opens the door to go into another room,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36he says, "Watson, the needle!"
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Watson, the needle.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43The line contravened the Hays Code,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Hollywood's moral censorship guide,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48which dictated what could and
0:17:48 > 0:17:50could not be mentioned on screen.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55There was actually a specific line where you had to tick
0:17:55 > 0:17:57to say that you had not referred to narcotics.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00The needle is all over the press book
0:18:00 > 0:18:01for The Hound of the Baskervilles.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04In fact, there is a wonderful figure of Watson,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07struggling under the weight of a giant syringe
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and the caption says, "Watson...the needle!"
0:18:11 > 0:18:15- Watson!- Coming, Holmes!
0:18:15 > 0:18:18And it was in these films too that the character of Dr Watson
0:18:18 > 0:18:21finally caught up with Holmes to take equal billing
0:18:21 > 0:18:24on screen for the first time.
0:18:26 > 0:18:27Thank you for your timely assistance.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Really, Watson, aren't you a little stout for this sort of thing?
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Rubbish. Ideal weight for a man of my age...
0:18:32 > 0:18:36'The character of Watson is certainly not'
0:18:36 > 0:18:38what Dr Watson was...
0:18:38 > 0:18:43played by Nigel Bruce. It's unforgettable and extremely funny.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50CHIMING MUSIC
0:18:50 > 0:18:51Huh!
0:18:51 > 0:18:54'What you get there is a sense of'
0:18:54 > 0:18:56these figures being a double act,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00in the way, I suppose, that Abbott and Costello were a double act,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04or the way in which Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were a double act.
0:19:07 > 0:19:08- I say, Holmes?- What?
0:19:08 > 0:19:11It's morning.
0:19:11 > 0:19:12Allow me to congratulate you
0:19:12 > 0:19:14on a brilliant bit of deduction(!)
0:19:14 > 0:19:18'And every time that Sherlock Holmes makes a deduction...'
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Nigel Bruce, with the Rathbone films,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24always says, "Great Scot!"
0:19:24 > 0:19:27which always amuses me. You know it's coming.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- Watson!- Great Scot!
0:19:30 > 0:19:31Great Scot!
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Great Scot, it's the guard!
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Great Scot, Holmes!
0:19:36 > 0:19:40This new dynamic, introduced by the pairing of Holmes and Watson,
0:19:40 > 0:19:41with its comic potential,
0:19:41 > 0:19:46was to become central to all subsequent screen versions.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Yet after only two films,
0:19:48 > 0:19:5020th Century Fox,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54thinking they had bought the rights to the characters outright,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56were forced to drop the famous pair.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58They were under threat of a lawsuit.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01This came from Arthur Conan Doyle's estate,
0:20:01 > 0:20:06which was being managed by his two sons, Adrian and Denis Conan Doyle.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09One Conan Doyle biographer has described them as,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13"spendthrift playboys," and they were out to milk as much as possible
0:20:13 > 0:20:16from the estate. So Holmes disappeared from the screen
0:20:16 > 0:20:20for three years, while Denis Conan Doyle
0:20:20 > 0:20:23basically hawked it round all the studios.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26And there was one studio
0:20:26 > 0:20:28that felt Sherlock Holmes
0:20:28 > 0:20:29would be ideal for them.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Universal were very keen
0:20:33 > 0:20:35because, at the time, there were a lot of crime series
0:20:35 > 0:20:38and Universal didn't have one, and they bought up an option
0:20:38 > 0:20:43to produce 12 films over the next seven years.
0:20:43 > 0:20:44But Adrian and Denis Conan Doyle
0:20:44 > 0:20:47also had various stipulations as to
0:20:47 > 0:20:49what could or could not be done
0:20:49 > 0:20:50to the character.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53They couldn't kill off Holmes,
0:20:53 > 0:20:54they couldn't criminalise him,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57they couldn't make him look ridiculous,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59but they were allowed to modernise him.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04And that, of course, is exactly what they did.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06The first in the Universal pictures
0:21:06 > 0:21:08was Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10set during World War II,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12with Holmes and Watson up against
0:21:12 > 0:21:14the "Nazis" - this was an obvious
0:21:14 > 0:21:16and explicit patriotic war film.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Nothing prepared them for the opening shot of the film,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25which is a map of Europe, with the shadow of a radio mast across it
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and the voice of Lord Haw Haw,, or a Lord Haw Haw sound-alike,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32"This is the voice of terror, this is the voice you will fear!"
0:21:32 > 0:21:34So suddenly, we're not just
0:21:34 > 0:21:37in the modern era, we're in the war.
0:21:37 > 0:21:38Germany broadcasting,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40Germany broadcasting.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42People of Britain, greetings from the Third Reich.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45This is the voice you have learned to fear.
0:21:45 > 0:21:46This is the voice of terror...
0:21:46 > 0:21:48'At the end, there's a very moving'
0:21:48 > 0:21:51speech by Holmes, a speech that was so successful
0:21:51 > 0:21:55that they commissioned similar speeches for the next four films.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59There's an east wind coming, all the same.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Such a wind has never blew on England yet.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05It will be cold and bitter, Watson,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08and a good many of us may wither before its blast,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11but it's God's own wind nonetheless,
0:22:11 > 0:22:13and a greener, better, stronger land
0:22:13 > 0:22:16will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Denis Conan Doyle wrote to the studio, and the letter's here.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27It says...he thinks, "The modern setting was a daring experiment.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31"This is incomparably the best Sherlock Holmes film ever made."
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Now, we have to think about the fact that Denis Conan Doyle
0:22:34 > 0:22:38was receiving 12,000 every time they made a film.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41I think this might have influenced his view of it.
0:22:43 > 0:22:44There he is.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48After three war-themed escapades,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50the series strayed into other genres
0:22:50 > 0:22:53for which the studio was well known.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55Firstly, into gothic horror...
0:22:59 > 0:23:00..and then pitting Holmes against
0:23:00 > 0:23:02a very different kind of arch-villain
0:23:02 > 0:23:05from Professor Moriarty -
0:23:05 > 0:23:06the femme fatale.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13'And this started with a film called Spider Woman.'
0:23:13 > 0:23:16During the war, millions of women had gone out to work
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and there were genuine fears that when the war ended,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22women would not want to return to domesticity.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25So you got these clever, deadly,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28sexually attractive women,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31trying to outwit Holmes.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35He described a crime that was particularly cruel
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and he said he knew it was the work of a woman
0:23:38 > 0:23:41because he said it was "feline, not canine."
0:23:41 > 0:23:43The presence of a female nemesis
0:23:43 > 0:23:45introduced sexual tension
0:23:45 > 0:23:46into Holmes's world
0:23:46 > 0:23:48for the first time.
0:23:48 > 0:23:49And this was something that
0:23:49 > 0:23:51the recent series of Sherlock
0:23:51 > 0:23:52was keen to revisit, only now,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55the femme fatale is transformed into
0:23:55 > 0:23:57a cunning dominatrix.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59For Sherlock, being beaten by a woman
0:23:59 > 0:24:00takes on a whole new meaning...
0:24:04 > 0:24:06It's always hard to remember an alias
0:24:06 > 0:24:09when you've had a fright, isn't it?
0:24:10 > 0:24:12There, now.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15We're both defrocked...
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Mr Sherlock Holmes.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Miss Adler, I presume?
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Look at those cheekbones.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24I could cut myself slapping that face.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Would you like me to try?
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The character of Irene Adler holds a unique place
0:24:32 > 0:24:34in Holmes's affection, and it would seem
0:24:34 > 0:24:36a unique place amongst her own gender,
0:24:36 > 0:24:41as Holmes wistfully confides, in the last of the Rathbone films.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43What do you mean by that?
0:24:43 > 0:24:46I do hope you've given, er,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48THE woman a soul.
0:24:48 > 0:24:49She had one, you know.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53By "THE woman," I suppose you mean Irene Adler?
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Yes. I shall always remember her...
0:24:57 > 0:24:59as THE woman.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05And yet, despite his huge success and continuing appeal,
0:25:05 > 0:25:11Rathbone felt typecast for the rest of his life as Sherlock Holmes.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15"The only mystery I couldn't solve," he said shortly before his death,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18"was the same one Conan Doyle had -
0:25:18 > 0:25:20"how to get rid of the damn man."
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Rathbone cast a long silhouette.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Who would be bold enough to don the deerstalker next?
0:25:29 > 0:25:31In 1959, Sherlock Holmes came home,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34as the British Hammer Film Studio
0:25:34 > 0:25:36did what they did best,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38in pumping new blood into
0:25:38 > 0:25:40a classic story.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43The trailer for the film showed expectant audiences
0:25:43 > 0:25:45"a new and exciting Holmes"
0:25:45 > 0:25:47for the very first time
0:25:47 > 0:25:50in rich, lurid Technicolor.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54What do you want me to do?
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Identify anything I may find.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Strange things are to be found on the moor.
0:25:58 > 0:25:59Like this, for instance.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01'I like the fact that it plays'
0:26:01 > 0:26:03rather fast and loose with it.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05It introduces the idea of human sacrifice
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and some sort of Dartmoor black magic -
0:26:08 > 0:26:09of course it does, it's Hammer!
0:26:09 > 0:26:12They were desperately striving to make it an X
0:26:12 > 0:26:13and only got as far as an A.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17And reunited after their successful pairing in both Dracula
0:26:17 > 0:26:21and The Curse of Frankenstein were those two stalwarts of Hammer films,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28He was a wonderful Holmes, he really was.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30He had a certain habit, Peter,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33which I used to kid him about,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35the finger.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40And also, he very much pronounced his consonants.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43And after the first take, I said,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46"There you go, the finger again."
0:26:46 > 0:26:47The finger.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50"On no accoun-t, Sir Henry,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54"are you t-o go ou-t on the moor t-onigh-t."
0:26:54 > 0:26:55Sir Henry, I am not a man
0:26:55 > 0:26:57to overestimate danger,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59but I most insist upon one thing.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Under no circumstances
0:27:01 > 0:27:04are you to venture out onto the moor alone at night.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Very well...
0:27:09 > 0:27:11'Cushing was a huge fan of Doyle and of Sherlock Holmes.'
0:27:11 > 0:27:15He employed all his customary delicacy,
0:27:15 > 0:27:20subtlety, and his meticulous nature into the script and the performance.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24He changed lines which he felt were wrong, he put lines in.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26There was a line in the original script about
0:27:26 > 0:27:29what he was going to get paid and he put in the line
0:27:29 > 0:27:30from Thor Bridge,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33"My professional charges are upon a fixed scale, I never vary them
0:27:33 > 0:27:36"save for when I remit them altogether."
0:27:36 > 0:27:40You will not find me ungenerous in the matter of fees.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44My professional charges are upon a fixed scale, I do not vary them
0:27:44 > 0:27:47except when I remit them altogether. Good day.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49Good day, Mr Holmes.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53He annotated his script with drawings.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57He wanted it to resemble as far as possible the Paget illustrations.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00I think he's clearly having a ball in that film.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04It's a very, very persuasive interpretation.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08The problem with that film,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12and it's the major problem in that particular story,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14is the hound.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Described in the book, if I remember correctly,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22being almost as big as a donkey.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28With their limited, if enterprising resources, Hammer had employed
0:28:28 > 0:28:33a Great Dane called Colonel, and a production artist called Margaret
0:28:33 > 0:28:37to fashion a mask of latex and rabbit fur
0:28:37 > 0:28:39to create the hound from hell.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44I was the one who was responsible for making
0:28:44 > 0:28:47the mask for the Hound of the Baskervilles.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51I was rather ashamed of the mask I made.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56It was the worst one I ever made and the only one people know about.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00There's Colonel, the hound.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02There he is on the miniature set,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05about to leap off onto Christopher Lee.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Colonel was in trouble.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12There was a lawsuit. He'd bitten a barmaid,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15and had a bad reputation for temper.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21So I was feeling rather apprehensive.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24However, the dog took one look at me
0:29:24 > 0:29:29and if ever a dog fell in love at first sight, it was that dog.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31I was his sort of woman.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33With such a temperamental dog,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36the thrilling climax at the Great Grimpen Mire
0:29:36 > 0:29:39had to be very carefully choreographed.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44The dog would only allow me to put the mask on.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49I crouched behind a rock, holding the dog.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54A man called Danny, a prop man, had to climb a ladder
0:29:54 > 0:29:58because the dog didn't like Danny, an inoffensive man.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01He also didn't like crumpled paper,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04so Danny had to crumple the paper
0:30:04 > 0:30:08at the bottom of the ladder, shin up quickly, before the dog got to him.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15And, of course, by the time he was supposed to assault me,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20they had to goad him, and he did in fact grab me.
0:30:23 > 0:30:29A small boy had been dressed in a replica of Christopher Lee's costume
0:30:29 > 0:30:33in order to make the dog look bigger,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36but the dog didn't like small boys.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42When the dog leaped towards little Robert, the boy,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45a look of terror was on his face.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54When the hound is dead, shot by Holmes,
0:30:54 > 0:31:00he does lift the mask off the face to show why he was so terrifying.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09They use this mask to make it look more terrifying.
0:31:09 > 0:31:10He was starved for weeks,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12kept down the mine till the time was right,
0:31:12 > 0:31:14then given the scent.
0:31:14 > 0:31:15With the hound dead,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18so ended Hammer's brief foray into Baker Street.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Possibly dismayed that they'd failed to gain an X Certificate
0:31:22 > 0:31:25for their version of Conan Doyle's gothic creeper,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27Hammer now went in search of other beasts
0:31:27 > 0:31:31to bolster their growing horror reputation.
0:31:31 > 0:31:32The Conan Doyle Estate,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35now controlled solely by Adrian Conan Doyle,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39would have to look elsewhere for screen adaptations.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46Adrian was not an easy man, not at all.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48I mean, he lived off the name.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51He lived in a castle in Switzerland
0:31:51 > 0:31:55which I think belonged either to his father or the trust.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00And he was the final arbiter, judge,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05of what could or could not go on the screen.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08If he didn't like it, they didn't shoot it.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10Four years later, in 1963,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Adrian entered into negotiations
0:32:13 > 0:32:17with the BBC for a major new series based on the stories,
0:32:17 > 0:32:19one that it was hoped would bring Holmes
0:32:19 > 0:32:22to a wide new television audience.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Over 13 episodes, the actor Douglas Wilmer
0:32:25 > 0:32:29was to explore the darker recesses of the master detective
0:32:29 > 0:32:32with whom he sensed a connection.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35I felt a kinship with the character of Sherlock Holmes,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39and I have a lot of characteristics in common with him.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42I'm extremely untidy, I'm very detailed,
0:32:42 > 0:32:45I tend to be obsessional.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47I get very depressed and black-humoured.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Those great, jagged rocks.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54In a northerly wind, if I were a sailor,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57I would keep away from this place.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00I am not sure, Holmes, that it is the place for you.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03I find it delightful.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06There is a savage melancholy in this Cornish landscape.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Which matches my mood exactly.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15'His black moods were accompanied by ill temper,'
0:33:15 > 0:33:17a lack of consideration,
0:33:17 > 0:33:23exasperation with the world in general, and in particular,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27with there not being enough crime about to satisfy him.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Another day abandoned to the pursuit of pleasure.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38- Mmm.- Is there nothing of any interest in the papers?
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Possible revolution in Spain.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Trouble in Africa.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Ooh, the government could be turned out over home rule.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50I was referring to crime, Watson.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Plenty of bag-snatching in the fog.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56The London criminal is a dull fellow.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58I think it's a very, very good series.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00I know that he was frustrated with it,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04didn't feel they had enough time to do it properly.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06He's extremely compelling,
0:34:06 > 0:34:12and does dare to show a slightly grumpier, moodier,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14more introspective side,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16perhaps before it was really fashionable to do so.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19In the most recent television version of Sherlock Holmes,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Benedict Cumberbatch's performance
0:34:22 > 0:34:25is steeped in this sense of melancholy and frustration.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Look at that, Mrs Hudson.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33Quiet, calm, peaceful.
0:34:35 > 0:34:36Isn't it hateful?
0:34:36 > 0:34:40I'm sure something will turn up, Sherlock. A nice murder!
0:34:40 > 0:34:44- That'd cheer you up. - Can't come too soon.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48For all the bleakness in Wilmer's performance,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52on the rare occasion that he allowed Holmes some humour...
0:34:57 > 0:35:00..he was rebuked by a critical television fanbase.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05"Last night, as I watched The Six Napoleons,
0:35:05 > 0:35:10"I gazed with incredulous horror as you, sir, laughed!
0:35:10 > 0:35:14"I beg you, sir, if not for your own sake,
0:35:14 > 0:35:19"then for the sake of the man himself, do not show your emotions!"
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Wilmer's version of Holmes as a brooding, cold-mannered,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28gothic antihero was perhaps too faithful
0:35:28 > 0:35:31and buttoned-up for the '60s pop generation.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Sherlock Holmes now came to life in strip cartoons,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41in league with Superman,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44and in true comic book style, his arch-villain ceased to be
0:35:44 > 0:35:49Professor Moriarty and became Jack the Ripper.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51The John Neville film,
0:35:51 > 0:35:53A Study in Terror,
0:35:53 > 0:35:57there is an American poster where he is called The Original Caped Crusader
0:35:57 > 0:36:01and it has "Bow, Biff, Bang," in a sort of Batman style,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and even though the film isn't camp at all, you can sense that
0:36:04 > 0:36:07they're slightly struggling there with where to place a character
0:36:07 > 0:36:10who might otherwise feel slightly outdated.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12A Study in Terror took Holmes
0:36:12 > 0:36:16on a far more sexually explicit adventure.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20These were permissive times, and in 1970, one legendary director
0:36:20 > 0:36:23finally brought his long-harboured
0:36:23 > 0:36:25homage of Holmes to the screen.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
0:36:29 > 0:36:33set out to explore the emotional and sexual undertones
0:36:33 > 0:36:37of Holmes's character, to explain his addiction, his misogyny,
0:36:37 > 0:36:42and give another insight into his relationship with Watson.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45That film, it's a masterpiece, I think.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48It has an amazing bittersweet quality to it.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51And even though Robert Stephens is a very florid,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55rather Oscar Wilde-like Holmes,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and Colin Blakely funny as bones, you can imagine,
0:36:57 > 0:37:02they both play it so straight, as well as so funny,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05that by the time it gets to the desperately moving ending,
0:37:05 > 0:37:07you're completely with them.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11It really, really is one of my absolute favourite films
0:37:11 > 0:37:15and a pinnacle of Sherlock Holmes movies.
0:37:19 > 0:37:20It's a very witty film.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23There's an initial scene when they come back to Baker Street.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26So you've got Sherlock commenting on this unlikely costume
0:37:26 > 0:37:29he's been forced to wear, and Watson says, "Blame it on the illustrator."
0:37:29 > 0:37:31It's absolutely marvellous.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33- A bit of poetic licence! - You've saddled me with
0:37:33 > 0:37:36this improbable costume, which the public now expects me to wear.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38It's not my doing! Blame it on the illustrator.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Made me out to be a violin virtuoso.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43And in this scene, Wilder also wittily probes
0:37:43 > 0:37:46Holmes's attitude to women, and his private vice...
0:37:46 > 0:37:48I could barely hold my own
0:37:48 > 0:37:50in the pit orchestra of a second-rate music hall.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52You're much too modest.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56You've given the reader the distinct impression that I'm a misogynist.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00Actually, I don't dislike women. I merely distrust them.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04The twinkle in the eye and the arsenic in the soup.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07It's those little touches that make you colourful.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09Lurid is more like it.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12You've painted me as a hopeless dope addict, just because I occasionally
0:38:12 > 0:38:16- take a 5% solution of cocaine. - A 7% solution.
0:38:16 > 0:38:205%. Don't you think I'm aware you've been diluting it behind my back?
0:38:20 > 0:38:25It's cut down from several other cases to a sort of minor case
0:38:25 > 0:38:30about a Russian ballerina who wants Holmes to father her child,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34and then the main case about this spy and the Loch Ness monster.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Billy said, "Play it as if you were playing Hamlet."
0:38:39 > 0:38:42He said, "You must play it absolutely seriously.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44"I will make it funny. Don't ever try to be funny
0:38:44 > 0:38:47"and don't try to tip the wink on anything."
0:38:47 > 0:38:51But it was his concept of Sherlock Holmes.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55And I thought it was a very delightful and affectionate one.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58We see Holmes as something other than
0:38:58 > 0:39:01this rather hard, calculating machine.
0:39:01 > 0:39:06That forensic side of Holmes that you get so strongly in Peter Cushing
0:39:06 > 0:39:11or in Eille Norwood, is replaced by a figure who's capable of suffering
0:39:11 > 0:39:17romantic agony, and so you get the possibility of Holmes being in love.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21There's this incredible scene where Sherlock tries to get out of
0:39:21 > 0:39:25fathering a child by claiming that he's gay.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27'Dr Watson, who is a famous lady-killer,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31'is having a wonderful time with all these Russian ballerinas,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35'and then the word spreads about Holmes and Watson's relationship.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43'And as he goes forward in this Russian line,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46'all the girls are replaced by very fey boys.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48'It's just magnificent.'
0:39:53 > 0:39:56And really, that's the joke we've run with in our series.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Sherlock... Anything on the menu,
0:39:59 > 0:40:01whatever you want free.
0:40:01 > 0:40:02On the house
0:40:02 > 0:40:03for you and for your date.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06- D'you want to eat?- I'm not his date.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Billy Wilder described his film as a reluctant love story
0:40:09 > 0:40:13between two men, one being unaware of the other's attraction,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16later admitting that he'd wished he'd been more daring
0:40:16 > 0:40:19in making Holmes openly homosexual.
0:40:20 > 0:40:21Holmes!
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Let me ask you a question.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27I hope I'm not being presumptuous,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30but there have been women in your life?
0:40:30 > 0:40:32The answer is, yes...
0:40:34 > 0:40:37..you're being presumptuous.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45Whilst Holmes's relationship with Watson remains teasingly ambiguous,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Wilder makes the relationship with his brother Mycroft
0:40:48 > 0:40:53explicitly stormy, pushing the sibling rivalry much further
0:40:53 > 0:40:54than the original stories.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58And to play Mycroft, Wilder boldly chose an actor who had become
0:40:58 > 0:41:02typecast as another great Victorian fictional character,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04Count Dracula.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07The greatest director I've ever worked with.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09He said to me,
0:41:09 > 0:41:14"I want you to look unlike any other character you've ever played.
0:41:14 > 0:41:20"I don't care what you've done. I want you to be MY Mycroft."
0:41:20 > 0:41:25I think at one point during the rehearsal,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29we disturbed some bats which flew over
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and he kind of looked at me and said,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36"This must make you feel quite at home."
0:41:36 > 0:41:38Only time.
0:41:38 > 0:41:39My version of Mycroft
0:41:39 > 0:41:43is entirely extrapolated from Christopher Lee's version.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46And what Billy Wilder did was essentially go one step further
0:41:46 > 0:41:51than Doyle by implying that Mycroft was the British Government.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57They implied that that would probably mean he wasn't very nice,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59and as a sort of uber-establishment figure
0:41:59 > 0:42:03who regards his little brother as something of a loose cannon.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05But essentially, what Mycroft wants to do
0:42:05 > 0:42:08is to bring him inside the tent. He can't bear the idea that
0:42:08 > 0:42:09he's got this kind of rogue element,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11with his surname, running around in a deerstalker.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Holmes's emotions begin to cloud his judgment.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Having come under the spell of the mysterious Madame Valladon,
0:42:19 > 0:42:23it is left to his elder brother Mycroft to reveal to him
0:42:23 > 0:42:27that she is not all that she seems...
0:42:27 > 0:42:29It was essential to keep the information from your client.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32You went to all those lengths to prevent Madame Valladon...
0:42:32 > 0:42:36'Mycroft tells Sherlock Holmes things
0:42:36 > 0:42:39'that Holmes most certainly did not know.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43'He said, "You, my dear brother,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46'"have been working for the Wilhelmstrasse."'
0:42:46 > 0:42:50So they enlisted the best brain in England to help them.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54You, my dear brother, have been working for the Wilhelmstrasse.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00"Am I going too fast for the best brain in England?"
0:43:00 > 0:43:05So there's very definitely a very competitive streak
0:43:05 > 0:43:07between the two of them.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11The woman who was brought to your house in the middle of the night,
0:43:11 > 0:43:13apparently fished out of the Thames,
0:43:13 > 0:43:15and apparently suffering from amnesia,
0:43:15 > 0:43:19is in fact Ilse von Hoffmanstal, one of their most skilful agents.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Am I going too fast for the best brain in England?
0:43:22 > 0:43:24'And Mycroft is very sarcastic,'
0:43:24 > 0:43:31saying, "Now, this time, I'm the one who knows what's going on, not you."
0:43:31 > 0:43:34They planted her on you quite neatly, I must admit,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37so that you could lead them to their objective, the air pump.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Very much like using a hog to find truffles.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43And now perhaps you'd care to join me.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47I'm expecting a certain royal personage from Balmoral.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Christopher Lee plays it so brilliantly, I think.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54It's a very touching performance
0:43:54 > 0:44:00because although he's disdainful and kowtowing to royalty and everything,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04it's clear that he does care somewhere deep down in his icy heart.
0:44:04 > 0:44:09I think he just wants everything to be ordered. He just wants order.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13I think really, genuinely, in our increasingly fragmented world,
0:44:13 > 0:44:15the reason that conspiracy theories are so popular
0:44:15 > 0:44:19is because we all like to believe there is someone like Mycroft Holmes,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21because it's quite reassuring to think,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24even if they're a dark presence, there is some kind of order.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26There is none.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31The early 1970s were awash with conspiracy theories.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34This was bizarrely reflected in the letters sent by fans
0:44:34 > 0:44:37to 221B Baker Street, most of them asking for Holmes
0:44:37 > 0:44:41to solve a current crisis,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43like the Watergate scandal,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46or a plane hijacking,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50or even rescue Patty Hearst!
0:44:50 > 0:44:55Amidst this state of paranoia, in August 1974,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58a young American writer decided to probe Holmes's psyche
0:44:58 > 0:45:03in what is arguably the best pastiche Holmes novel ever written.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10proved a sensation, remaining on the New York Times' Best Seller list
0:45:10 > 0:45:14for 40 weeks, and winning the praise of PG Wodehouse,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18who was lost in admiration for the way the young writer
0:45:18 > 0:45:21had captured Conan Doyle's style.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
0:45:23 > 0:45:26was written as a kind of protest
0:45:26 > 0:45:29against all the Holmes movies
0:45:29 > 0:45:32and earlier pastiches that I thought...
0:45:34 > 0:45:36..rightly or wrongly, had got it wrong.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Meyer's story, pretending to be a lost manuscript
0:45:41 > 0:45:44by the late Dr Watson, promises to solve the mystery
0:45:44 > 0:45:48of Holmes's missing years after his Reichenbach fall.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51The solution being that he fetches up in Vienna,
0:45:51 > 0:45:53where he encounters the father of
0:45:53 > 0:45:56psychoanalysis, Dr Sigmund Freud.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Doyle knew about
0:45:59 > 0:46:02the life and writing of Freud.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04And I thought, well, they're both doctors,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06that's kind of interesting.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Then I realised that Holmes is a cocaine addict
0:46:09 > 0:46:14and Freud had been an early proponent of cocaine,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18starting as a use for anaesthetic during eye surgery,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20but he also was a user.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25And a lot of people were very angry at my book
0:46:25 > 0:46:29because it was a book about an addict.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33It's not really a Sherlock Holmes story, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36It's a story about Sherlock Holmes, not quite the same,
0:46:36 > 0:46:42and that Holmes's addiction is something that he has to overcome
0:46:42 > 0:46:48and the fact that he does overcome it and function while chained to it,
0:46:48 > 0:46:53renders him more remarkable, and not less.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59The prospect of this momentous encounter between Holmes and Freud
0:46:59 > 0:47:02was quickly snapped up by Universal Studios, with a screenplay,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06adapted by Meyer, featuring Nicol Williamson and Robert Duvall
0:47:06 > 0:47:11as Holmes and Watson, together with Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15This is a movie about very smart people.
0:47:15 > 0:47:21Freud's a smart person, Holmes is a very smart person,
0:47:21 > 0:47:26and Watson is no dummy in this. He's not a buffoon.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28So the idea of having three actors where you can see
0:47:28 > 0:47:34the wheels turning, all the three dimensionality that I hoped
0:47:34 > 0:47:37was somehow in the book on display.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42What was this wickedness?
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Under analysis, Freud coaxes the images from Holmes's subconscious
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and uncovers a deep-rooted family secret that goes a long way
0:47:50 > 0:47:52to explaining Holmes's mistrust of women.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01My mother deceived my father.
0:48:04 > 0:48:05She had a lover?
0:48:08 > 0:48:10Yes.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14And what was the injustice?
0:48:16 > 0:48:18What was the injustice?
0:48:25 > 0:48:27He shot her.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33Sherlock Holmes goes on the couch.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36He's analysed by Freud in the Seven-Per-Cent Solution,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and I think it absolutely reflects people's preoccupations
0:48:40 > 0:48:44of that moment. That idea of exploring the self, of finding out
0:48:44 > 0:48:50who you really are, of breaking through the barriers of perception.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56And in a rare on-set interview, Nicol Williamson offered
0:48:56 > 0:48:58a revealing self-analysis of his own.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02It's been very difficult sometimes,
0:49:02 > 0:49:04but the difficulties have been...
0:49:04 > 0:49:07enjoyable because you've had to work
0:49:07 > 0:49:09your way through them
0:49:09 > 0:49:12'to just let it happen, so therefore,
0:49:12 > 0:49:14'Holmes will be perhaps a lot of me,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18'and therefore, if you don't like my Sherlock Holmes,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21'maybe you don't like me.'
0:49:21 > 0:49:23Many people smoke Turkish cigarettes.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25True, but only Turks smoke this brand.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27'Nicol, who was an enormously gifted man,'
0:49:27 > 0:49:33but a very tormented human being,
0:49:33 > 0:49:38he was really plagued with all kinds of issues and insecurities
0:49:38 > 0:49:42and self-doubt. And this little revealing outburst,
0:49:42 > 0:49:45"If you don't like my Holmes, then you don't like me,"
0:49:45 > 0:49:48is probably the cri de coeur of every actor who ever,
0:49:48 > 0:49:53you know... "If you don't like my Hamlet, you're judging me."
0:49:53 > 0:49:58To find him expressing it, I find especially poignant.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00And what can this be?
0:50:02 > 0:50:06A strand of carpet, also Turkish.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Although glowingly reviewed by the influential New Yorker film critic
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Pauline Kael, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution did not do very well
0:50:16 > 0:50:20at the box office. It would seem that it caught audiences
0:50:20 > 0:50:23on the hop, audiences that didn't want to see their heroes
0:50:23 > 0:50:27with the same neuroses as themselves.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33By the mid-70s, a Sherlock Holmes revival was well under way.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39It seemed that he was being played and parodied by everybody,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42from Gene Wilder to Roger Moore,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46Christopher Plummer, John Cleese,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48and even Peter Cook.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52The Holmes in this movie does have the natural urges of any male...
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Thank you, darling.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59..and he does visit a Victorian equivalent
0:50:59 > 0:51:00of the modern
0:51:00 > 0:51:03'massage parlour. Apart from that,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06'we haven't departed from the original.'
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Then what you get in the '80s is Granada coming to this character,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16and deciding to do something self-consciously canonical
0:51:16 > 0:51:20and definitive, and to, in a way, rescue Holmes from people
0:51:20 > 0:51:23who had jiggered with him in the past.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Because this is the era of quality television.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38This is the era of Jewel in the Crown and Brideshead Revisited
0:51:38 > 0:51:43and those immaculate, faithful, expensive literary adaptations
0:51:43 > 0:51:47that prove the seriousness of television, and this is what you get
0:51:47 > 0:51:50with the Granada Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55I grew up in Manchester while it was being filmed,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57I can remember going down to the studio
0:51:57 > 0:52:00before it was open to the public, and trying to peer through the railings
0:52:00 > 0:52:04at Baker Street. They built this vast set there.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The new and, for many, permanent
0:52:08 > 0:52:11resident of 221b was Jeremy Brett.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Incidentally, I have glanced over
0:52:14 > 0:52:17your latest account of my work.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19- Oh, yes?- Honestly,
0:52:19 > 0:52:20I cannot congratulate you.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29Observation, deduction -
0:52:29 > 0:52:32a cold, unemotional subject.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35You have attempted to tinge it with a romanticism,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37which has much the same effect as if
0:52:37 > 0:52:40you'd worked a love story or an elopement into
0:52:40 > 0:52:42- the Fifth Proposition of Euclid. - KNOCKING
0:52:42 > 0:52:43Who can that be?
0:52:43 > 0:52:47'The whole idea of the Granada series was to be as authentic as possible.'
0:52:47 > 0:52:49They even go as far as reproducing the Paget illustrations,
0:52:49 > 0:52:54and yet Jeremy Brett's performance is a very particular choice.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58He said himself that he got the kind of manic energy of Sherlock,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02but he never really captured the idea of the man who would sit for two days
0:53:02 > 0:53:05while his tobacco ash would tumble down his waistcoat.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09It's a really mannered
0:53:09 > 0:53:12and rather Victorian performance.
0:53:12 > 0:53:13Jeremy is this creature,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16this predator lurking beneath
0:53:16 > 0:53:21this wonderful thing that can turn very owl-like, then hawk-like.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24He's very physical and theatrical at times as well.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27But it's completely contained. Something that is utterly his own.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33In 41 episodes between 1984 and 1994,
0:53:33 > 0:53:35Jeremy Brett lived the part completely
0:53:35 > 0:53:36and, like Basil Rathbone,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39would forever be linked with him.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43I think one of the reasons why Jeremy Brett's performance is so definitive
0:53:43 > 0:53:46is because he's the one who got to do them all.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48Only Eille Norwood in the 1920s ever came close.
0:53:48 > 0:53:55And also, because he became so enveloped in the role.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57He was inescapably Holmes.
0:53:57 > 0:54:03He is a...dark, recluse, internal creature.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08And you can only show him through cracks in the marble, glimmers.
0:54:08 > 0:54:13He's totally internal, and I find that's very hard to sustain.
0:54:15 > 0:54:16But as the series wore on,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20the cracks in the marble became all too apparent.
0:54:20 > 0:54:21At the beginning of the series,
0:54:21 > 0:54:25Jeremy Brett is lithe and athletic, he's jumping around all the time.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28- Sorry, Holmes.- No, no!
0:54:30 > 0:54:33You couldn't have come at a better time!
0:54:33 > 0:54:37But as they go on, he becomes more lethargic, he looks less well.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41'Everything about them seems to be bearing down upon him.'
0:54:43 > 0:54:44'And, of course, it chimed'
0:54:44 > 0:54:48very strongly with his own personality,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51and I felt, watching him, that you were watching somebody who was
0:54:51 > 0:54:53working out their own demons
0:54:53 > 0:54:57in public through playing the part.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04Jeremy Brett made his last bow as Sherlock Holmes in 1994.
0:55:04 > 0:55:10He died the following year. He was 61 years old.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Brett's legacy, for many, was to be the complete Sherlock Holmes.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23Yet if the screen history tells us anything,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26it is that Sherlock Holmes is not a fixed point in a changing age,
0:55:26 > 0:55:29but a protean figure, taking on whatever form
0:55:29 > 0:55:32his adaptors and players want,
0:55:32 > 0:55:36from Paget's initial branding of his look,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39to the embellishments on the stage
0:55:39 > 0:55:42and the transformations on the screen.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Now a fresh generation of writers and actors
0:55:48 > 0:55:51are drawing on all these previous incarnations
0:55:51 > 0:55:54to present us with a new Sherlock for today.
0:55:56 > 0:55:57And just as he had done before,
0:55:57 > 0:56:02the master detective returned from the dead to take on the world again.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11From 2009, cinema and television audiences have been treated
0:56:11 > 0:56:14to not one, but two new Sherlocks,
0:56:14 > 0:56:18in the shapes of Benedict Cumberbatch...
0:56:18 > 0:56:19and Robert Downey Jr.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24Their successes mark a huge revival in the character,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26not witnessed since the 1970s.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31In tune with today's vogue for the superhero,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34Downey Jr gives us Holmes the Victorian man of action,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38as in this fight scene, where he is able to see in slow-motion
0:56:38 > 0:56:42into the future - a device which has been described
0:56:42 > 0:56:46by the film's director Guy Ritchie as Holmesavision.
0:56:48 > 0:56:49Dislocate jaw entirely.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Heel kick to diaphragm.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57In summary, ears ringing,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00jaw fractured, three ribs cracked, four broken,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03diaphragm haemorrhaging. Physical recovery - six weeks.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Full psychological recovery - six months.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Guy Ritchie offers us a streetwise and swashbuckling Sherlock,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15inhabiting a fantasy Victorian world.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19It's a comic-strip version of Conan Doyle, with lots of technology.
0:57:19 > 0:57:25It's steampunkish, a kind of comic-strip 19th Century.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29If Downey Jr is Holmes as a superhero,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32then Cumberbatch is Holmes as a reluctant one.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34I've disappointed you.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36That's good. It's a good deduction.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38Don't make people into heroes, John.
0:57:38 > 0:57:40Heroes don't exist, and if they did, I wouldn't be one of them.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44- PHONE BEEPS - Excellent.
0:57:44 > 0:57:45'They are more fallible,'
0:57:45 > 0:57:48it's definitely an uncertain time.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50I don't think that our Sherlock
0:57:50 > 0:57:52and John Watson solve everybody's problems.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57I think they speak more of the time we're living in,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01in the sense that they are slightly more on the edge.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06The latest Sherlocks, like all those that came before them,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09have been able to reanimate the character for our era
0:58:09 > 0:58:12because Sherlock Holmes is the man of many faces -
0:58:12 > 0:58:16a man who never lived, and so will never die.
0:58:16 > 0:58:17No point sitting at home
0:58:17 > 0:58:20when there's finally something fun going on!
0:58:20 > 0:58:22Look at you, all happy. It's not decent.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Who cares about decent? The game, Mrs Hudson, is on.