Sherlock Holmes: Difference between revisions

[[File:Sherlock_Holmes_Sherlock Holmes -_The_Man_with_the_Twisted_Lip The Man with the Twisted Lip (colored).jpg|framethumb| [[Catch Phrase|“The Game's Afoot!”]]]]

''And it is always eighteen ninety-five.''|'''"221B", Vincent Starrett'''}}

[[Sherlock Holmes]] is a fictional [[Private Detective]] (or, Consulting Detective, [[Insistent Terminology|the term he preferred]]), an analytical genius with generally unrivaled deductive powers (and a [[No Social Skills|complete lack of social skills]] <ref> Though various adaptations tend to overplay this; in the stories, he can occasionally be [[The Social Expert]]</ref>). The original version lived in [[Victorian London]], at 221B Baker Street.

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street]]'', a popular tongue-in-cheek "biography" of Sherlock Holmes written in 1962 by W.S. Baring-Gould, has been the source of many [[Epileptic Trees|interesting theories]] about Holmes, some of which are often assumed to be canon (even in this very entry). These include the idea that the King of Bohemia was Edward VII; that Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler became lovers in Montenegro during the time Holmes was hiding from Moran, and that Irene returned to New Jersey to bear his child, a boy later known as [[Nero Wolfe]] <ref>(This was actually suggested to him by Rex Stout, the writer of the Nero Wolfe novels, but given that Stout once wrote a paper suggesting that Watson was a woman...)</ref>; that Holmes in his twenties was a stage actor in a company that toured America; that he worked on the [[Jack the Ripper]] case; that Watson had three wives; that Holmes's bee-keeping in later years was intended as a way of producing royal jelly, then thought of as a "fountain of youth"; and that Holmes died in the 1950s after spending the war years - when he would have been roughly 90 years old - fighting Nazis. In ''[[The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother|The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother]]'', the title character, Siegerson, is named for Baring-Gould's Holmes ''pere''. As a way of freeing up Sherlock and Mycroft for their various occupations while still ensuring they were members of the "right" class, Baring-Gould invented Sherringford, the eldest--and smartest--brother, who stayed home in Yorkshire to take care of the responsibilities of a country squire. Sherringford was Holmes's original name in Doyle's first draft of ''A Study in Scarlet''.

* ''[[The Hound of the D'Urbervilles|The Hound of the Durbervilles]]'' by [[Kim Newman]] focuses on Professor Moriarty and his subordinate, Sebastian Moran, as they share a series of adventures that oddly echo Holmes's famous cases and have them meeting [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover|numerous other characters from Victorian and Edwardian fiction]]. The last story in the collection, "The Problem of the Final Adventure", retells "The Final Problem" from Moran's point of view.

* Sherlock Holmes first appeared on American television in the 1937 [[Made for TV Movie]] ''[[The Three Garridebs]]''.

* 1951 saw [[Sherlock Holmes (1951 TV series)|the first regular TV series]] based on Holmes' exploits, airing on the BBC with Alan Wheatley as Holmes.

* ''[[Sherlock]]'', a BBC miniseries beginning July 2010. Created by [[Steven Moffat]] and [[Mark Gatiss]], the series stars [[Benedict Cumberbatch]] as Sherlock Holmes and [[Martin Freeman]] as Dr John Watson in a 21st-century [[Setting Update]] of the original stories. The show has been a critical and commercial smash hit both in the UK and abroad and cleaned up at the 2011 [[BAFTA|BAFTAs]]s, including wins for Best Supporting Actor (Freeman) and Best Drama Series.

* ''[[House MD]]'' owes quite a bit to Sherlock Holmes. Besides the acknowledged parallels -- GregGregory House/Sherlock Holmes and James Wilson/John Watson -- there are a number of references and running jokes that pay homage to Sherlock Holmes, such as House's house number 221B (Baker Street), the name of the man in "No Reason" who {{spoiler|shoots House}}, named as "Moriarty" [[All There in the Manual|in some documentation (although never onscreen)]], and the fact that the very first patient that he treats in the pilot episode is a woman named "Adler". Also, in the episode "Whac-a-Mole", House diagnoses the patient and seals his diagnosis in an envelope, with the words "The Game is a itchy foot." written on it. This is a blatant reference to Holmes.

* A number of radio adaptations, both adaptations and original stories, starring Nigel Bruce as Watson and first Basil Rathbone and then Tom Conway as Holmes. (Rathbone and Bruce were associated with the roles from a long-running film series. Several are available here [http://www.archive.org/details/HQSherlockRathboneTCS\ here].)

* [[Big Finish]], most famous for their extensive range of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Big Finish Doctor Who|audio plays]], have been producing a series of Sherlock Holmes dramas. There are four in the series so far:{{when}} one is an adaptation of a canonical story, one is set during Holmes' elderly years after the passing of Dr. Watson, one is a metafictional tale in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Professor Moriarty conspire against Holmes, and the most recent installment pits Holmes against [[Jack the Ripper]]. The Great Detective is played by Roger Llewellyn and Nicholas Briggs.