Hamming Holmes Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Two British TV series on Sherlock Holmes were released in 1965 and 1968 after a pilot episode in 1964. Peter Cushing only appeared in the 1968 series when Douglas Wilmer declined to do the second series, having taken the title role in the 1965 series. The 1968 series {"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes") ran to 16 episodes, adapted from a mix of Doyle's novels and short stories.

Nicholas Rowes gets a mention for portraying a schoolboy-aged Holmes in the 1985 American film "Young Sherlock Holmes" and then as the "matinee"-version of Holmes in the 2015 film "Mr. Holmes", which starred Ian McKellen as an elderly Holmes (see later). The 1985 film is notable for being the first feature-length film to have a completely computer-generated animated character, the knight which emerged from a stained glass window.

Jeremy Brett played Holmes in the British TV series "Sherlock Holmes" (1984-1994) for 41 episodes, five being feature-length specials. Brett was also Holmes in a 1988-89 stage version of "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes". He is one of the few Holmes actors to portray his sidekick Dr. Watson as well.

Christopher Lee has had a few appearances as Holmes. There were a couple of TV films ("Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" (1991) and "Incident at Victoria Falls" (1992)) where he was an elderly Holmes. He was 69 when these films were made. Some 30 years earlier, Lee also performed as Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (1962).

More recently, Robert Downey Jr. took a turn portraying Holmes in a couple of American-British films. These were "Sherlock Holmes" (2009) and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (2011). The first received two Oscar nominations. The British TV series "Sherlock" (2010-2017) had Benedict Cumberbatch as its Sherlock star and was set in the present day. There was also a one-off special in 2016 set in the Victorian era. Ian McKellen was a 93-year-old Holmes in a 2015 US film "Mr. Holmes", an adaptation of the 2005 novel "A Slight Trick of the Mind" by Mitch Cullin. In this film, Holmes was long-retired and having memory problems.

The American-British films "Enola Holmes" (2020) and "Enola Holmes 2" (2022) was focused on Sherlock's teenage sister Enola. Sherlock was portrayed by Henry Cavill in both. Back to TV for the American-British series "Sherlock & Daughter" (first shown in 2025) where, in Victorian-era London, British actor David Thewlis as Homes was visited by Blu Hunt who thought she might be his daughter. They worked together on solving a case.

None of the other actors listed have played Sherlock Holmes on TV or film. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, together with William Gillette, wrote a four-act play with the title "Sherlock Holmes", which premiered on Broadway in 1899 with Gillette performing the title role at various times over a 30-year period. A 1976 stage performance of this play in Birmingham Repertory Theatre had Alan Rickman as Holmes, however not on TV or film.