A Darling Thing

Jeremy Brett and David Burke in Sherlock Holmes (ITV Granada) Season 1 Episode 6: “The Speckled Band” (1984)

The stone came from the goose.

Granada Holmes: One Gifset Per Episode → The Naval Treaty

The Red-Headed League // The Final Problem

The Red-Headed League // The Final Problem

Solomin’s Watson has a vulnerability to him that I really enjoy and that is very true to the traumatized and physically weakened Watson of the books. I love his boyish innocence and curiosity. Drawn in by Holmes and his world he quickly becomes a devout admirer. In this constellation it’s so much more obvious that Holmes fosters, protects, needs and loves him (because who wouldn’t?).

Burke’s Watson finally conveys the strength, style and smarts that I would expect of a military doctor (a man who has already recovered from his wounds both physically and mentally) while also being so very sassy. Him above all I see as an equal to Holmes. Because he puts up a fight against Holmes’ immense ego their interactions come off so very flirty, while still keeping the married couple vibe. This is also where I see the most sexual tension.

Hardwicke’s Watson is the one that depresses me the most. Older, meeker, quieter he seems a broken man full of concern for his back from the dead partner. His gentle, quiet, selfless love and care is a good match for a Holmes who is himself older, weaker, sicker, who is coming apart at the same speed as his actor. It feels like this Watson isn’t respected quite as much and it’s hard to watch the resignation on his face when Holmes is drawn once again to the drugs. Seeing him get schooled by an arrogant Holmes reminds me of the couples I have observed, where the arrogant husband thinks he knows it all and the gentle wife has learned to nod along quietly as not to cause any trouble. For better or worse they are very much an old married couple. This Watson has given up on changing things and will take care of Holmes to the bitter end.

Hello I’m invading your post, I love your points on Solomin and Burke Watsons (heck yeah the flirtiness is unbelievable) …Although I respectfully disagree that Hardwicke Watson is meek - it’s true that he doesn’t look up to Holmes in boyish wonder the same way that he used to before the Reichenbach incident, he’s more used to Holmes’ drama and shenanigans now, but he can still be sassy and even bossy at times. I especially love the moment in Second Stain when Watson orders Holmes to finish up his coffee and get dressed in two minutes, or the whole miffed married couple element in the Man in the Twisted Lip. Like. Amaze.

We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the name of our destination, when the station-master hurried towards us. “I suppose that you are the detectives from London?” said he. A look of annoyance passed over Holmes’s face. “What makes you think such a thing?” “Because Inspector Martin from Norwich has just passed through. But maybe you are the surgeons. She’s not dead—or wasn’t by last accounts. You may be in time to save her yet—though it be for the gallows.” Holmes’s brow was dark with anxiety.

David Burke and Edward Hardwicke share memories about working with Jeremy Brett. The anecdote about the backwards deerstalker (1st page, center column) is now one of my fave Jeremy stories. XD

http://scarletstreetmagazine.blogspot.com/2016/10/no-21-winter-1996.html