🎩87 Years of Sherlock Holmes: 21 Distinguished Actors: Who Was Your Favourite? 🔎

Sherlock Holmes has been played by timeless legends — from Basil Rathbone to Jeremy Brett to Benedict Cumberbatch. Tonight we revisit 21 actors who brought Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective and Dr John Watson to life, from Victorian-era mystery to modern-day London. Who was your favourite?

We begin with Jeremy Brett, for many the definitive Sherlock Holmes, brilliant and volatile across a decade of Granada television — his final episode aired just seventeen months before his passing. He was partnered first by David Burke, the energetic Dr Watson who returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company, and then by Edward Hardwicke, the gentler, steadier friend of the darker later cases.

Then it's back to Hollywood history, where it all began: Basil Rathbone, the poised master detective of fourteen films, who went on to win a Tony on Broadway. Nigel Bruce, his warm and devoted Watson, carried their partnership onto the radio, while George Zucco's Moriarty became one of Universal horror's most familiar faces.

Out on the moors, Peter Cushing confronted the Hound of the Baskervilles in 1959 — a Holmes he would return to twice more before finding screen immortality as Grand Moff Tarkin. André Morell stood guard as his steadfast Watson, and Ewen Solon, the scheming Stapleton, went on to fifty episodes as Maigret's Sergeant Lucas.

Douglas Wilmer brought a cool, austere Holmes to 1960s television — and half a century later returned for a cameo in Sherlock. Nigel Stock played Watson twice over, staying on opposite Peter Cushing, and Felix Felton's fearsome Dr. Roylott later turned up in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Christopher Plummer followed the Whitechapel murders into conspiracy in Murder by Decree, decades before winning his Oscar at eighty-two. James Mason lent the case his unmistakable gravity, earning another Oscar nomination soon after, and Peter Jonfield — the film's murderous coachman — went on to A Fish Called Wanda and Time Bandits.

Robert Downey Jr. reinvented Sherlock Holmes as a bohemian fighter-detective, on his way to an Oppenheimer Oscar and the role of Doctor Doom. Jude Law's soldier-doctor John Watson later became Dumbledore, and Jared Harris's chilling Moriarty found new acclaim in Chernobyl and The Crown.

And we close in the present day with Benedict Cumberbatch, the consulting detective of the digital age and now Doctor Strange; Martin Freeman, forever both Watson and Bilbo Baggins; and Andrew Scott, whose theatrical Moriarty gave way to Fleabag, Ripley and All of Us Strangers.

We remember with gratitude those timeless celebrities no longer with us — Jeremy Brett, David Burke, Edward Hardwicke, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, George Zucco, Peter Cushing, André Morell, Ewen Solon, Douglas Wilmer, Nigel Stock, Felix Felton, Christopher Plummer and James Mason. Their Holmes, their Watsons and their villains remain as vivid as the day the fog first rolled in.

Tell us in the comments — who was YOUR favourite Sherlock Holmes?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Jeremy Brett, David Burke & Edward Hardwicke
0:40 Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & George Zucco
1:20 Peter Cushing, André Morell & Ewen Solon
2:00 Douglas Wilmer, Nigel Stock & Felix Felton
2:40 Christopher Plummer, James Mason & Peter Jonfield
3:20 Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law & Jared Harris
4:00 Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman & Andrew Scott
4:43 Outro

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