The first episode of BBC TV's new Sherlock Holmes series “Sherlock” begins with British soldiers engaged in a fierce battle during the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The action then cuts to Dr. John Watson, played by Martin Freeman, waking in fear in his bedroom in London. The battle scenes are actually a nightmare suffered by Watson who has been wounded in Afghanistan and pensioned out of the army. He is still suffering psychological trauma, and is seeing a psychotherapist. There have been numerous TV and film adaptations of the adventures of the pioneering detective Sherlock Holmes who appears, with his loyal companion Dr Watson, in four novels and 56 short stories by the Scottish medical doctor and author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). But what makes “Sherlock” innovative is its updating of Holmes and his adventures to the present day. This 21st century Holmes, portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, communicates by text message, has a website entitled The Science of Deduction and uses new technology – just as in Conan Doyle's stories Holmes developed new detection techniques. Cumberbatch's Holmes cuts a dashing figure with his pale, high-cheekboned face, shock of black hair, and tall slim frame clad in dark tailored suits, a long coat and a scarf. A policewoman who has taken a dislike to him dismisses him as a “freak” and “psychopath,” but he prefers the term “a high functioning sociopath.” The references to the Afghanistan war in “Sherlock” are topical given Britain's current Afghan involvement. But such references occurred in the first-ever Holmes tale, the full-length novel “A Study in Scarlet” published in 1887. When Watson first meets Holmes in that novel we learn that he is an army doctor who was invalided out after being wounded in the shoulder in 1880 at the Battle of Maiwand in the second Anglo-Afghan war. The co-creators of “Sherlock”, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, have with flair and humor retained certain elements of the original stories and combined them with new material. The first of the three 90-minute episodes, “A Study in Pink”, is loosely based on “A Study in Scarlet”. The second episode, “The Blind Banker”, is inspired by “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” and features a series of threatening coded messages. In “A Study in Pink” Watson is introduced to Holmes as a prospective housemate by a mutual acquaintance who studied medicine with Watson at St Bartholomew's (Barts) Hospital in East London. Holmes and Watson move into rooms at 221B Baker Street, presided over by landlady Mrs. Hudson (Una Stubbs). From the moment he meets Holmes – when Holmes picks up on clues to tell him detailed information about himself – Watson is constantly astonished by Holmes's powers of observation and deduction. Holmes styles himself as the world's only “consulting detective”. He tells Watson: “I invented the job. When the police are out of their depth they consult me.” The series is imaginatively conceived and has high production values. The first and last episodes, written by Moffat and Gatiss respectively, are directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul McGuigan whose previous work includes the film “Gangster No 1”. The award-winning TV director Euros Lyn, who has worked on “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood”, directed the second episode, written by Steve Thompson. It is a tribute to the quality of Conan Doyle's storytelling that his characters and stories have endured and can be transplanted to the modern day. Gatiss says: “The fact that Steven, myself and millions of others are still addicted to Conan Doyle's brilliant stories is testament to their indestructibility. They're as vital, lurid, thrilling and wonderful as they ever were.” In the published stories Holmes was a pipe smoker, and sometimes indulged in cocaine. In “Sherlock” he has given up smoking and wears nicotine patches. In a famous saying from one of the original stories he described a thorny problem requiring lengthy concentration as “a three pipe problem”. In “A Study in Pink” the equivalent is “a three patch problem” – for which he wears three nicotine patches on one arm. Central to any successful dramatization of Sherlock Holmes is the chemistry between Holmes and Watson. The dynamic between Cumberbatch and Freeman works very well. Gatiss says: ““Benedict is playing a cold, almost alien-like man in Sherlock and John Watson is the person who humanizes him – they are a unit together.” Watson is revitalized through his involvement in Holmes's adventures. At the beginning of the series he walks with a stick and has a limp which his psychotherapist thinks is psychosomatic. After linking up with Holmes he is soon able to discard the stick and joins Holmes on madcap pursuits through streets and across rooftops. “Sherlock” has given Holmes a potential romantic interest in the person of Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) who works in Barts mortuary. She gazes on as Holmes thrashes a corpse in the mortuary with a riding crop as part of an experiment on bruising. But Holmes seems oblivious to her attractions, apart from commenting on her lipstick or hairstyle when he wants a favor. Watson embarks on a romance with fellow medic Sarah (Zoe Telford) in the second episode. He invites her on a date, but Sherlock invites himself along and Sarah is embroiled in their high-risk showdown with a gang of Chinese acrobats. Moffat and Gatiss are both winners of British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards and have written for hugely popular BBC TV “Doctor Who” series filmed in Cardiff, capital of Wales. The idea for “Sherlock” came to them during train journeys to Cardiff. “We talked about our love for Sherlock Holmes, how brilliantly modern Arthur Conan Doyle's writing was and how someone should do a contemporary version,” Moffat recalls. “So we decided to do it before someone else did.” There had not been a new version of Sherlock Holmes for some years, “and then all of a sudden you get two versions, the BBC contemporary update and Guy Ritchie's film happening at around the same time.” Ritchie's film “Sherlock Holmes”, starring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson, was released at the end of 2009 and was a box office success. But, unlike “Sherlock”, the film is set in the 19th century. Gatliss says: “We both enjoyed the Guy Ritchie film, but it's a totally different beast really.” There is a strong sense of London in “Sherlock”. Cumberbatch says: “London still remains at the heart of the drama. This includes using iconic locations such as Soho, China Town, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Bridge and everything that modern London life involves – London cabs, the River Thames, traffic jams, mobile phones and computers.” Several characters in “Sherlock” are familiar from the original stories. Inspector Lestrade, the Scotland Yard detective who calls on Holmes for help, is played by Rupert Graves. In “A Study in Pink” Watson is forced into a car and taken to meet a man, played by Mark Gatiss, who describes himself as Holmes's arch-enemy. Watson rejects the man's attempt to bribe him to spy on Holmes. At the end of the episode the character is revealed to be Holmes's brother Mycroft. There are strong indications that the shadowy figure behind the killing sprees in the first two episodes is Moriarty. Anyone familiar with Conan Doyle's oeuvre knows that Professor Moriarty is Holmes's nemesis, the “Napoleon of Crime”. “Sherlock” has been greeted with acclaim by TV critics, and the chances of a second series being commissioned look good. The series reinforces the status of Cumberbatch, who at 34 is one of Britain's most in-demand actors. It was announced a few days ago that he is in the cast of Steven Spielberg's new film project “The War Horse.”
