So it was just the other day I reviewed episode 1 of Sherlock and expressed a couple thoughts about the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Holmes stories of the 1940’s and the relationship of forensic science and Holmes’ deductive powers.
I’m not above patting myself on the back and saying, “Hey, I really was on same wavelength with the co-creators of the series.”
It didn’t take long, though, for us both to shyly admit that our favourite versions of the oft-told tales were the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce films of the 1930s and 1940s. Particularly the ones where they brought them up to date.
This may sound like heresy but really it isn’t. Although Steven and I are second to none in loving the flaring gas-lit atmosphere of a lovely old London, it felt as though Sherlock Holmes had become all about the trappings and not the characters.
and
Doyle virtually invented forensic detection. How can Sherlock exist in a world where the police do all the finger-printing, criminal profiling and analysis that were once his unique attribute?
The answer, in our version anyway, is that Sherlock Holmes is still, and always, the best and wisest man there is. The police may be able to put clues together, but only Sherlock has the vast brain power and imagination that can make the huge leaps of deduction.
I’m really looking forward to the next episode.