The Best Sherlock Holmes And The Worst Ever Watson

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The debate as to whether TV’s Jeremy Brett was a better Sherlock Holmes than the movie star Basil Rathbone or Benedict Cumberbatch, (who I keep calling Dominic for some reason) has raged for years. My own support would be for Brett by a narrow margin, as Rathbone was superbly cast in the role. Brett had a distinct advantage though – the two actors who played Watson to his Holmes were terrific. David Burke left half way through the run of episodes, to be replaced almost seamlessly by Edward Hardwicke, who stayed with the series up to Brett’s untimely death in 1995. Rathbone was sadly lumbered with the screen’s worst Watson actor ever, Nigel Bruce, playing the good Doctor as a drunken, wide eyed buffoon, who was just there as comic relief and to be amazed and agog at everything his clever friend deduced. A running gag was that Holmes would don a masterful disguise fooling Watson into thinking he was someone else. Later, Watson would see some eccentric figure and assume it was Holmes in disguise again, and try pulling off his false beard, only to find that it was not Holmes at all, but someone coming to Baker Street for assistance in some matter. In Conan Doyle’s books, and short stories, Watson was far from stupid. He was a skilled doctor, and a decorated war veteran, as well as the chronicler of Holmes’s exploits. He often surprised Holmes and proved able to deal with his friend in the Great Detective’s severest bouts of depression, and cocaine fuelled madness. Holmes depended on Watson’s medical skills in establishing a cause of death and dealing with the needs of survivors of various assaults. Watson often contributed to the solving of the mysteries himself. Green would simply stare agog and mumble ‘by Jove’ or some equally surprised expression of astonishment when Holmes cracked a clue. The trouble was, his Watson was just as likely to be astounded by the cracking open of a boiled egg as the discovery of who was behind the Baskerville murders. That Rathbone shone so well in the role despite Bruce shows a great deal about why Rathbone is still so rightly revered. Arthur Chappell