Without a doubt, THE personification of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous mythical detective, Sherlock Holmes, the role Jeremy Brett was born to play. I consider Jeremy Brett’s performance of Sherlock Holmes to be a classic.
When Jeremy Brett earned the part of Sherlock Holmes in Granada Television's long running series, he brought a complexity to the role unmatched by others. His Holmes was mercurial, intense, sensitive, and melancholic -- characteristics that were part of the detective and Brett's own personalities.
Brett’s character was a man who had extreme mood swings such as Conan Doyle’s creation often did. That he was able to realistically portray these personality shifts is undoubtedly due, in part, to Brett’s own bipolar disorder. He also portrayed Holmes as a man who could be arrogant, intolerant, and impatient, while, at the same time, being a man of self-doubts and loneliness who could have feelings toward others.
Brett, a Holmes fan, insisted that the adaptations of the stories should follow, as near as possible, the originals in both plot and characters. With one or two exceptions, his demands were met. In doing so, he created a Holmes that was different from the often stereotyped perception of him. He wore a homburg hat and suits more than a deerstalker and Inverness cape. He smoked cigarettes more than pipes. Most importantly, he was not a thinking machine who never failed, and his outer image was often shown to be a veneer.
The extent to which Brett had clearly immersed himself in the role proved irresistible. Sadly it also proved fatal for him, leading to a nervous breakdown, repeated illness and a premature death. Still, the early run of episodes, peaking in 1986, remain a master class in intelligent, entertaining period drama where the humorous ("Watson, this is no time for eating humbugs!") and the introspective ("It seems death is all around us") are just as exciting as the discovery of the next dead body.
When Jeremy Brett earned the part of Sherlock Holmes in Granada Television's long running series, he brought a complexity to the role unmatched by others. His Holmes was mercurial, intense, sensitive, and melancholic -- characteristics that were part of the detective and Brett's own personalities.
Brett’s character was a man who had extreme mood swings such as Conan Doyle’s creation often did. That he was able to realistically portray these personality shifts is undoubtedly due, in part, to Brett’s own bipolar disorder. He also portrayed Holmes as a man who could be arrogant, intolerant, and impatient, while, at the same time, being a man of self-doubts and loneliness who could have feelings toward others.
Brett, a Holmes fan, insisted that the adaptations of the stories should follow, as near as possible, the originals in both plot and characters. With one or two exceptions, his demands were met. In doing so, he created a Holmes that was different from the often stereotyped perception of him. He wore a homburg hat and suits more than a deerstalker and Inverness cape. He smoked cigarettes more than pipes. Most importantly, he was not a thinking machine who never failed, and his outer image was often shown to be a veneer.
The extent to which Brett had clearly immersed himself in the role proved irresistible. Sadly it also proved fatal for him, leading to a nervous breakdown, repeated illness and a premature death. Still, the early run of episodes, peaking in 1986, remain a master class in intelligent, entertaining period drama where the humorous ("Watson, this is no time for eating humbugs!") and the introspective ("It seems death is all around us") are just as exciting as the discovery of the next dead body.
More- Musgrave Ritual - part 1
And more can be found on YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment