The truest Sherlock ever seen: Jeremy Brett's struggle to get Holmes just right

Across the 10 years that Jeremy Brett played Sherlock Holmes, for the Granada-produced series which began in 1984, Brett always carried what Sherlockians call “the canon” – the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, encompassing the 56  short stories and four novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

During the production of some early episodes, Brett argued against scripts which deviated too far from Doyle’s original writing; he also insisted on using Doyle’s original dialogue. Later, when the series was running out of stories to adapt, producers suggested turning to a non-Doyle novel – one written by Sherlock Holmes expert David Stuart Davies – but Brett refused: “No, I’m not doing anything that isn’t pure Doyle!” 

In Brett’s near-forensic fidelity, there was a curious case of intertwining between the actor and character. In later years, when Brett battled both physical and mental health problems, he developed a complicated relationship with Holmes. “It was a love-hate thing towards the end,” says David Stuart Davies.

All 41 episodes of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes are available on BritBox, which now has the largest collection of Holmes on any UK streaming service. Like James Bond or Doctor Who, personal preference could be generational – some young Sherlockians may always regard Benedict Cumberbatch as “their” Holmes, a fact which might rankle some old school purists – but it’s hard to dispute that Jeremy Brett is the definite Sherlock Holmes on screen.

“I think the character of Sherlock Holmes is frankly inhuman,” says Gus Holwerda, who hosts the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast with his brother, Luke. “Jeremy was a ‘becomer’, as he would say – a method actor [‘Try to become the creature and erase yourself,’ Brett once said]. Becoming such a heavy and challenging character is a feat that few actors would have seriously attempted. Fans of the show appreciate the enterprise, and the toll it took on him.”

Originally, Jeremy Brett didn’t want to be Sherlock Holmes. A classical actor, he was known for his roles in My Fair Lady and The Three Musketeers, and his theatre work. Brett was put off by Sherlock’s darker tones – a contrast to his own sunny disposition – and what he recognised to be well-trodden ground.

“I suppose you could say I panicked,” said Brett, being interviewed for David Stuart Davies’s book about the series, Bending the Willow. “I didn’t want to do it. ‘Why me?’ was another reaction. Holmes seemed to me to have been done to death and I couldn’t understand why they wanted to do it again. I was sure I’d have nothing original to contribute. Any number of actors would have been better for the role.”

Indeed, some would argue that the definitive Sherlock Holmes had already been done, as played by Basil Rathbone, who portrayed the character in an incredible 14 films between 1939 and 1946. In the Sixties, the BBC produced its own series: first in black and white, starring Douglas Wilmer as Holmes; then in colour, with Peter Cushing replacing Wilmer and reprising his role from the 1959 Hammer version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Granada series was several years in the making. It was first conceived in 1980 by producer Michael Cox – whose vision was for full-colour, prestige adaptations – and developed by John Hawkesworth, the co-creator and writer of the period mega-hit Upstairs, Downstairs. But the series was held up by over two years of legal wrangling over its distribution in the US.

Jeremy Brett changed his mind after taking a trip to Barbados, where he read the complete works. “He thought about it very seriously,” says David Stuart Davies. “He stressed to the producer Michael Cox that he wanted to do justice to Conan Doyle’s character and not play about with it.”

The series cost £5 million and constructed a full Baker Street set at Granada Studios in Manchester. (The set became a lucrative tourist attraction – which caused a conflict with production during later series.) “It was remarkable that they went to all that expense,” says Stuart Davies. “It was next door to Coronation Street!”

Brett described how by the time he arrived in Manchester for the shoot, he was “thoroughly marinated in Holmes”. He also described how, armed with the canon, he would “fight for Doyle”.

“The thing that no one had done was Doyle,” says Gus Holwerda about previous Holmes adaptations. “No one ever said, ‘We’re going to stick to the story’. And Jeremy Brett would constantly push back.

He knew deep down that very few scriptwriters would out-Doyle Doyle. The canon that he carried around was earmarked and bookmarked and had notes throughout. It was like his bible. No piece of minutiae was overlooked.”

The original series – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – debuted on ITV with A Scandal in Bohemia on April 24, 1984. Starring alongside Brett was David Burke as Dr. Watson, and Rosalie Williams as Mrs. Hudson. Thirteen 50-minute episodes were split into two blocks, broadcast between 1984 and 1985. Among them are some of the finest stories from the series’ decade-long run: The Greek Interpreter, The Red-Headed League, and – of course – The Final Problem, which features Holmes’s dramatic showdown with arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, played by Eric Porter, at the Reichenbach Falls.

True to the parallel between Holmes and Moriarty's intellect, Eric Porter is an equally brilliant choice to play opposite Brett – a seething, flesh-crawling baddie who looks like he’d outsmart you first, and kill you with his bare hands second.

Brett’s dedication to Doyle included recreating poses and scenes from Sidney Paget’s original illustrations, which appeared along Doyle’s stories in The Strand Magazine; Brett also consulted the author’s daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle.

“He often spoke in interviews about how he had a great relationship with Dame Jean,” says Gus. “Dame Jean said that he was Sherlock Holmes to her. Jeremy ran a lot by her.”

The strength of the series really hinges on Brett. He’s almost predatory, stalking and picking at witnesses; elsewhere, he flits between a steely decorum – relatively unmoved by the tragedies he investigates – and an unspoken tenderness for Watson. He's also highly physical.

“The physical side is something we love,” says Luke Holwerda. “It’s the dedication – throwing himself to the ground to look for clues, or these little half-smiles and eye darts, or hand gestures, which come right out of the original sketches. He really personifies every aspect.”

For me, Brett's laugh reveals the real measure of his Holmes – a sudden, cruel, mocking eruption. It comes like a burst of energy, with a sound and sense of humour that allude to some inaccessible intellectual plane. In the stories, Holmes’s trademark outbursts are called “ejaculations”.

“When you dig deep into the portrayal of the character, you see just how hard he was constantly working,” says Gus about Brett. “Not just to keep the screen version in line with the original written work, but to fully understand the mind of this enigmatic character. He spent over a decade of his life trying to fully realise Holmes. By his own admission, it was an ongoing challenge that he never completely achieved.”

The question – for hardcore Sherlockians or casual fans alike – is what makes a great Sherlock Holmes? David Stuart Davies has written extensively on Sherlock Holmes (he's on his ninth novel when we speak) and tells me that many good actors have failed as Holmes. He cites John Gielgud, who played Holmes on the radio in the Fifties, as an example who was (rather diplomatically) “less than good”.

“It’s a very difficult part,” says Stuart Davies. “Essentially, Holmes – if you take the bare bones of the character – is not a very likeable man. And yet he is one of the most famous and most-loved literary characters. It's that knife edge thing of making him interesting and attractive while still being true to the ‘cold, calculating machine’ – that’s the phrase Doyle used.”

The issue of what makes a good or proper Holmes is contentious. A friend of mine who’s a keen Holmes fan hated the Benedict Cumberbatch version, mostly because Sherlock didn’t do enough smoking or cocaine for his tastes (amusing, but an interesting insight into what fans see as authentic or inauthentic). “I think Sherlockian fans might have had a knee jerk reaction to that series, ” says Luke. “'Who is this new guy? What is is is this new iteration? I don’t like this!' But most people saw it was done with love and reverence.”

Recently, the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle took umbrage with the portrayal of Henry Cavill’s “emotional” version in the Netflix series, Enola Holmes. It filed a lawsuit against Netflix, claiming that Holmes’ emotions were exclusive to stories under copyright in the US, but the case was dismissed.

The Granada series was also notable for reestablishing Dr. Watson, Holmes’ chronicler and partner-in-crime-solving. To the layman, Watson had been miscast a bumbling sidekick. “He’s not a bumbler,” laughs Gus. “He’s a doctor for god’s sake! He’s also an accomplished writer. He’s not a fool. David Burke gutted everything that everybody knew about Watson.”

Arguably, Burke’s version laid the groundwork on TV for Martin Freeman’s serious-minded war hero in the Cumberbatch series.

But when Holmes and Watson returned for another 13 adventures – now aptly titled The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and broadcast between 1986 and 1987 – Edward Hardwicke replaced David Burke as Watson. It’s one of the series’ great debates: who’s the definitive Watson to Brett’s definitive Holmes? “Both Watsons are beloved,” says Luke. “In different ways but in equal measure.”

Highlights of the second series include The Empty House, The Musgrave Ritual, The Six Napoleons, and The Devil’s Foot. The series included two feature length episodes, including a disappointing Hound of the Baskervilles – hampered by budget and production restraints. 

The series returned for The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, between 1991 and 1993, and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in 1994. There are still some strong episodes – particularly The Illustrious Client, in which Sherlock faces a new nemesis: the murderous Baron Gruner – but it’s fair to say the earlier series are the strongest.

The series was blighted by a shakeup at ITV; some scathing reviews; and a depleting number of top-tier stories, which forced them to stretch some of Doyle's shortest works across a feature length runtime. Brett was also struck by personal tragedy and health problems. At the end of shooting the first series, Brett’s wife Joan Wilson was diagnosed with cancer; she died in 1985. Brett was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and suffered from heart problems. His relationship with the great detective seemed increasingly complex.

“It became stressful to him towards the end,” says Stuart Davies. “In a way he saw Holmes as a very isolated, cold character. As a detective he had to reject emotion. But that was totally at odds with Jeremy Brett’s friendly, generous, bonhomie nature. He was a very outgoing fellow. Suddenly, he had to put on the dark suit and become this cold, precise individual, which caused him stress – partly because of the bipolar and the fact he was a sensitive individual.”

Medication from both his bipolar and heart conditions caused him to put on weight and slow down (“He hated looking at the later series,” says Stuart Davies. “He said to me, ‘There I am, waddling down the street!’”). At one point, he collapsed during production, and later returned with a wheelchair and breathing apparatus. The character and man were so linked, Brett's real-life deterioration became all-too prevalent in the show. Watching the final series, his poor health is impossible to look past. Jeremy Brett died on September 12, 1995. 

There was, as David Stuart Davies tells me, an “outcry” that Brett was never officially recognised or awarded for his performance. Stephen Fry – lifelong Sherlockian and narrator of the Holmes audiobooks – was part of a petition for Bafta to award Brett posthumously, which Gus and Luke Holwerda have continued to support.

“Whatever it is that the Baftas represent – it’s something to do with a depth of excellence and, if you like, Britishness,” Fry told the brothers in 2019. “Jeremy Brett was a representative of that, an ambassador of a particular British way of expressing something internal in the form of the Sherlock Holmes stories, which have penetrated every corner of the world, and that needed recognition.”

The real trick to Jeremy Brett’s performance is not just his fidelity to Doyle’s original texts, but the fusion of character and self. Stuart Davies explains that his book on the series, Bending the Willow, was named after a phrase Brett used to describe the process. 

“He said to me, 'I think I’ve been true to Sherlock Holmes but I’ve actually been bending the willow,'’’ Stuart Davies recalls. “In other words, he was just adding a little bit extra. That extra was from elements of his own personality, I suspect. He was bipolar and I think he recognised, or believed, that Sherlock Holmes was bipolar as well. This sudden burst of energy and then lassitude that you see in the stories was part of Jeremy’s own character.”

“I think he had a struggle within himself to tamp down the explosiveness, and he became the marble statue that is Sherlock Holmes,” says Gus Holwerda. “That’s what led to such a nuanced performance. He often said he was trying to find the cracks in the marble. I think what you see in those cracks is Jeremy Brett. He tried to understand the character in a way that no one ever has. He had more time with it than anyone ever has.”

David Stuart Davies credits some of the other great Holmes actors – including William Gillette, John Barrymore, Ian Richardson, and Peter Cushing – but puts Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett on equal footing as the best ever. “Personally, I first came to Sherlock Holmes through the Basil Rathbone movies on telly,” he says. “I still love those very much. But if we say, ‘Who’s the best that represents Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes?’ It’s got to be Jeremy Brett, it really has.”

All episodes of Sherlock Holmes are available on BritBox now. Listen to The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast here