This adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, starring Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock, first aired on the BBC on 23 September 1968, the third episode of the second series.
Who are your favorite Holmes and Watson?
Chips’s Favorite Holmes and Watson Team
14 Replies to “Chips’s Favorite Holmes and Watson Team”
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Selena, Thank you. That is a better picture of the these two great detectives then what I had, We make a great team. Chips.
Any time 🙂
As a pair? Ron Howard and H Marion Crawford. I don’t think Howard looks the part but I do think he acts the part, and I like the adventure mystery feel of these stories. Marion Crawford hits a better comic sidekick tone than Bruce imho. Of course Watson shouldn’t be a comic sidekick in the first place, but if one must, HMC does it right.
I haven’t seen these (yet). I’ll have to track them down somehow.
If I really consider it, it was to be Cumberbatch and Freeman for me. Their relative youth made them the first pair get into the proper Canonical range and their abilities as actors brought some great life to characters who so often get played superficially.
I think the entire world knows of my love for the first 2 seasons of BBC Sherlock by now, and that it made Ben C and Martin “my” Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. (In much the same way as Eccleston is “my” Doctor.)
My favorite Holmes and Watson are the two guys in Doyle’s Canon. You can keep all those pale shadows flickering in the artificial light.
A fair point! They are definitely the best Holmes and Watson team. 🙂
I watch them on YouTube. As I recall the user that posted the ones I watch was named something like PizzaFlix. I would grab a DVDs set if I ever saw it but the only region 1 set I’ve ever seen only had 20 episodes and were only available from secondhand sellers.
You can get the complete 39 episodes on DVD. I have them on a set called “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” which contains three Arthur Wontnor films and the Rathbone/Bruce “Woman in Green” copyrighted 2011 Mill Creek Entertainment. I’m including a link to Hamilton Books where you can have your choice of collecting the complete Howard series: https://www.hamiltonbook.com/products/search?q=sherlock+holmes&cat_id=TV I do like Crawford’s Watson and would have loved to see him costar with Rathbone.
Pippin, You are right.Before the pale Shadows there were and
always will be Starlet’s immortal words” Only the things the heart knows are True.”
So, we should better say “Who are your favorite Holmes and Watson ON SCREEN?”
I’d say Brett and Burke, closely followed by Cushing and Morell (1959 Hammer HOUN) and by Livanov and Solomin (USSR series, 1980s).
Oooo, what an excellent question! And such a tough one!
My adoration for Ron Howard and H Marion Crawford in the 50s TV show knows no bounds. I love the camaraderie they share, the fact that Howard manages to keep the fun, joyous, quirkiness of Holmes and that H Marion Crawford is a solid, dependable Watson who delights in adventure and is eternally exasperated with his roommate. They’re my comfort watch, in terms of Holmesian adaptations.
Clive Merrison and Michael Williams (later Andrew Sachs) in Coules’ radio plays are probably my favs in terms of the ones I feel most closely emulate Canon.
I find the 2013 Russian series is my favourite “twist” on Canon, in that it really focuses on Watson as an unreliable narrator, and the dynamic between Petrenko and Panin would be hard to replicate anywhere. Panin’s Watson is maybe my favourite Watson anywhere.
And Elementary has my favourite modern interpretation, with Watson able to stand as Holmes’ equal, and not just dragged along on the adventure. I also appreciate the focus on a Holmes that cares about justice and is deeply compassionate.
So that’s… four. I have four favourites. Today. Tomorrow my list might be different!
As I have said before, if the cinematic Holmes disappeared from existence tomorrow, my Sherlockian world would not feel one whit smaller. With all apologies to Saint Jeremy, no cinematic interpretation would rate higher than a C+ in my estimation. When one sees the high of BBC Sherlock’s “A Study in Pink” contrasted to the Mariana Trench scraping of Sherlock and Mycroft Howard and John H. Fine in “The Three Stooges in Fellini’s Ringu”, otherwise known as “The Final Problem”, perhaps a legislated moratorium might be in order. Just. Kidding.