The genius, witty, fantastic Sherlock Holmes, a man we all love and admire, who never really existed. Sherlock is more of a legend than a myth, known by most to be a work of fiction but one that has manifested itself in popular British culture. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson's adventures were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and they were first published in 1887. The fascinating character of Sherlock who uses his incredible mind and skills of observation to solve many complicated crimes has become much loved and the interest in Conan Doyle's stories is evident as over a century after his first story was published we now have two popular modern films and a recent Television Series of Sherlock. Robert Downey Jr. portrays a very action orientated Sherlock in the 2009 film by Guy Ritchie, with brilliant wit and mind he also brings a more 'James Bond theme' to the spotlight in the recent adaptation of Doyle's suave detective. Along side his loyal sidekick Watson (played by Jude Law) Downey Jr. did a fantastic job and the film was so popular that a sequel was made soon after in 2011; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
In the second film Sherlock, Watson, and Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) collaborate to thwart the evil arch nemesis of Holmes, Moriarty. Again the film was very successful and we can only hope that Guy Ritchie is in the middle of producing another. In the meantime Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have produced three incredibly successful series of the BBC's own Sherlock TV series starring Benedict Cumberpatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson. Cumberpatch portrays a quieter and more arrogant Holmes than Robert Downey Jr. and many argue that it is most similar to the Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle created in his books. Personally I love both the films and TV series and believe that both portrayals of Holmes and Watson are constructed excellently, amusingly and intriguingly. I believe this so much so that I will include a clip of both for you to view at the end of the article.
Let us not forget the originis of Sherlock of course. Scottish Doctor and Physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a character like no other, revolutionizing the crime solving genre. Amazingly his first published story, 'A Study in Scarlet', did not sell as well as one may expect but Doyle wrote 56 short stories for Holmes in total and overall they became a brilliant succes. Doyle is said to have based the character of Sherlock on a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh named Joseph Bell. He was said to, like Sherlock, be able to understand situations entirely from the smallest of details that many a man would not even have noticed. Furthermore, it is also stated that Sir Henry Littlejohn who was a police surgeon gave the inspiration for Doyle to create a crime solving detective with the wit and skills of Bell. Many argue that in fact Sherlock echoes Doyle himself in many ways and the character does graduate from the University of Edinburgh Medical School much like Doyle and his inspirations. Whatever his origin, the character of Sherlock Holmes and loyal friend Watson have become true legends in British culture and the books are still bought and sold today, perhaps given a fresh breath of life by the recent films and TV series. If you love and admire the crime solving hero Sherlock as much as I do and haven't read the books or seen the films which are rated 12A then what are you waiting for? Here are two clips, the first Robert Downey Jr's Holmes from the films and the Second Benedict Cumberpatch's Holmes from the TV series.
Downey Jr. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hXhGt5XPg ( There are some dark scenes in the film which may be intimidating and if you are below the age of 12 you should seek Parental permission before watching the entire film)
Cumberpatch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQq_bC5kIw (Again though rated appropriate as a 12+ by the BBC be aware of some dark scenes)
The first picture is Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock, the second is Benedict Cumberpatch's Sherlock.
IMAGE 1: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/23900000/Holmes-sherlock-holmes-2009-film-23934645-1280-1024.jpg
IMAGE2: http://cf.badassdigest.com/_uploads/images/24926/sherlock1__span.jpeg
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