I don’t know how often that happens in real life, but it happens a lot in fiction.” “He’s a genius, therefore he’s a bit strange. “Even outside the world of detection, I think Doyle began the idea that super-intelligence comes at the price of some kind of social dysfunction, something that we’ve grasped as a narrative possibility ever since,” says Steven Moffatt. Those superpowers have a cost attached, however. “This is the supercilious Holmes who confidently intones, “Elementary, my dear Watson” in countless stage and film adaptations (though never in the stories).” Nils Clausson, author of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Art of Fiction: A Revaluation, says: “At the centre of the myth of Holmes is the iconic image of the man with a magnifying glass, the brilliant detective who uses reason, science, logic and acute observation to solve mysteries that appear to everyone else, especially the amiable and admiring Watson and obtuse and bureaucratic Scotland Yard inspectors, to be unsolvable.
Viewers and readers are also spellbound by Holmes’ otherworldly powers of deduction. Americans queue up at 221B Baker Street and wait outside for his autograph.” “Even more than The Doctor, people actually think he’s real. “A bit like The Doctor, Sherlock Holmes is one of those fictional creations who has simply become part of our culture,” he explains. Colin Baker, best known for playing Doctor Who, takes on the role of Holmes in a new stage production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The detective, who famously lives at 221B Baker Street, is so renowned as to be recognised by his distinctive aquiline profile – sporting a deerstalker hat and a Meerschaum pipe – alone.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most celebrated of Conan Doyle’s tales, is 120 this year, yet Holmes’ stature as themost popular fictional character on the planet shows no sign of waning. And fans have been responding to Sherlock Holmes in their millions ever since. On the day a new Holmes story was due to be published, readers would queue at newsstands to get the latest copy of The Strand hot off the presses.
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