Sherlock Holmes: Do we need another version?

1887 the world’s number one sleuth was born and made his first appearance in print. Sherlock Holmes was created by Scottish born Physicist Arthur Conan Doyle,  the fictional detective  based in baker street London a master technician of observing, deductive reasoning  and expertly logically concluding and solving extremely difficult cases.

When we see Sherlock Holmes we picture him magnifying glass, the deerstalker hat, the calabash pipe and the great man always is some deep (logical)thought. Holmes has been in hundreds of books, aired in many radio dramas, appeared in countless Movie & TV movie adaptations and this Christmas Madonna’s ex hubby Guy Ritchie will release his version of the great detective, so do we really need another version?

Go away back to to turn of 20th century sherlock Holmes has been on the big screens from the great days of silent movies with the earliest been 1900 with Sherlock Holmes Baffled a one minute production, this was followed by a number of 1-2 reel films by the Nordisk Film company from Denmark (1908-1911). British company Stoli films took over and west-end actor Ellie Norwood spending majority of his career as Holmes. John Barrymore, Robert Stephens, Nicholas Rowe (Young Sherlock Holmes), John Neville but it was Basil Rathbone who was to become the actor who came iconic from playing Holmes.

The Hound of The Baskervilles and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes both made in 1939 by 20th century fox where Rathbones introduction to the movie world as Sherlock Holmes  and many fans believed the actors protrayal faithfully captures who the detective is as well as the stories. The Adventures story gave Rathbone a chance to show the variety of character he could play, playing under a number disguise. Basil Rathbone played Holmes another 12 times on screen (for Universal) along with over 200 times on radio along with a number theatre performances.

The definitive TV sherlock Holmes many regard Jeremy Brett (Granada TV, UK 1984-94) as the actor who truly defined the sleuth master, Jeremy also played the detective in theatres as well. Some do argue that Vasily Livanov who played the role between 1979 – 1986 was better and he was recognised for his efforts with been awarded  with MBE

Over 70 actors in 200 films have played Sherlock Holmes and virtually portrayed the man as a eccentric but very educated intelligent crime solver, a musician and a master of disguise, but the new Guy Ritchie version is portraying the detective in a different way.

Some small Television versions have tried and failed maybe due to picking actors who made it so obvious they couldn’t create a proper Englishman’s upper-class accent, possibly making the man to clean  with well attire, and Holmes was the opposite. The new version shows the human side of the character the parts that no other director was willing to touch or go into too deeply; The man’s love life (Iren Adler), his possible lack of trust for women, Financial troubles, his use of hard drugs (cocaine, opium), erractic eating habits and personality and the fact he was a bareknuckle street fighter.

So are many fans scared that the image of there beloved fictional hero be tarnished? oh no read the books it tells you all, just the new film is the first to cover in more detail, or is it the simple fact this film will show the humanity and vulnerabilities of a great icon? yes. So is there a need of another Sherlock Holmes? Yes if its going to cover the full story of Sherlock, dive into his darkside, show the man is not immortal but a man that suffers from a lot of temptations anyone else can suffer from. Im unsure if this is going to to follow the current trend as a reboot or just simply to show the true Sherlock Holmes and if the latter is true YES there’s room for one more.