Woooooooooot.
So I'm randomly doing nothing on yet another Saturday night. Except making icons, and browsing Phanwank. ^_^
The Final Problem is on tonight!!!! Right now in fact, as I speak type. I am waiting for it to finish recording so I can watch it from beginning to end and rewind at leisure.
Cannot...maintain...composure...
Aaah, I love the Granada Sherlock Holmes series! I love it! Jeremy Brett is, hands down, the very best Holmes I have ever seen, and there could be volumes written about both him and his two remarkable Watsons, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke, who brought depth to that role that was rarely brought. Brett's interpretation is so perfect. From appearance, to voice, to mannerisms, he has everything down. I've heard it said before, and I wholeheartedly agree--it's like he was born to play the role.
That by no means implies that I'm cutting his ability down to an inherent, lucky personality defect. The man was brilliant. He has proved himself plenty of times to be a wonderful actor (anyone remember Freddy from My Fair Lady?...). And in fact, the reason he makes such a perfect Holmes is because he puts so much care and personality into the performance. He's said, in interview, that he was not accustomed to playing such a cold, detached character--he was a self-proclaimed "romantic/heroic actor" and had to "hide" a lot of himself in portraying Holmes. But it was his great love for Holmes and the Conan Doyle stories that made him so remarkable. Jeremy said he would take a copy of the entire canon to each screening, and often argued with the producers about the adaptation's departures from the original storyline.
In this case, Granada's series puts itself ahead again, in my opinion. Despite Jeremy Brett's dissatisfaction with their screenplay, that series is widely considered to be one of the most accurate and loyal adaptations of Doyle's stories. Even the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce films of the forties (which to many are preferable to Brett) usually went off on entirely different tangents or invented altogether new storylines (Holmes once saved bomb information from being given to the Nazis by Moriarty...). But the Granada version is remarkably loyal to the canon, often employing lines and lines of dialogue word-for-word straight out of Doyle. In this case, Jeremy Brett propelled the series even more, because every single "tic" of his manner and physicality can be backed up by Doyle. The way he draws his knees up in the armchair, how he folds his fingers in a pyramid when deep in thought. It's especially thrilling to hear his sharp, clear laugh when Holmes is onto a fresh clue, or see him nod languidly with hooded eyes, listening to his anxious clients. Every single bit is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own Holmes.
I could go on and on, for pages, but the fact is, Jeremy Brett was Sherlock Holmes. Through all the little subtleties of his manner, his voice, himself, Jeremy brought the detective to life. I love him for it, and wish he could have stayed around for me to tell him.
221B
by Vincent Starrett
Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game’s afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears-
Only those things the heart believes are true.
A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.