#but specifically jeremy brett's holmes

[vargdottern]

me with every character ever

saying “i want him” about the character but not in a romantic or sexual way . i just Require him i need to Obtain him

[blistering-typhoons]

jeremy brett acting moment of all time tbh, the way he clenches his jaw for a split second, gathers up the dressing gown around himself and the brief, sarcastic raising of his eyebrows on 'compliments'

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

GAYS OF TUMBLR MAY I PRESENT GRENADA HOLMES, THE GAY.

OR SOMETHING IDK. THAT'S WHAT BANANA (@lxvenderjewel) AND RAY (@thearoacemess) CALL IT. THEY INTRODUCED IT TO ME TODAY.

ANYWAY. IT'S ACD SHERLOCK HOLMES AND BY GOD IT'S SO GAY. AND JEREMY BRETT IS SO PRETTY DEAR LORD. OH MY GOD. SO PRETTY. WHY. HOW. PLEASE.

ONCE MORE, TUMBLR, I AM A SLAVE TO THE BEAUTY OF MIDDLE AGED TWINK WHITE BRITISH MAN. AND HIS HANDS.

THIS TIME, BONUS, HE'S LONG-DEAD.

SUCH IS FUCKING FATE.

OH HE PLAYS FREDDY IN MY FAIR LADY BTW. I LOVED THIS MAN BEFORE I KNEW TWAS HIM, BACK IN MY YOUTH.

OKAY BUT ASH (@random-doctor-on-the-internet) WAS A SKEPTIC AND THEN ZE SAW BRETT'S EYES AND ZE WAS A GONER TOO.

EVEN THE MIGHTY GOOD OMENS ARCHIVIST, VEL (@orpiknight), USUALLY SO REFINED IN THEIR MESSAGES, WAS REDUCED TO A BLUBBERING MESS BY HOLMES GROWLING "GOOD MAN" TO WATSON.

PLEASE PLEASE MAGGOTS TUMBLR YOU NEED TO WATCH IT BBC SHERLOCK FUCKED HIS CHARACTER UP SO BAD I SEE IT NOW PLEASE.

HOLMES IS GENUINELY SUCH A DECENT MAN AND KIND AND POLITE HERE JUST LIKE IN ACD CANON.

SO MUCH SO THAT WHEN HE'S MEAN TO WATSON, WATSON IS LEGITIMATELY SURPRISED AND SAD (HOLMES DESCRIBES IT "TEMPORARILY DEPRESSED" OKAY Y'ALL GAY ASS FUCKS WITH A PRAISE KINK)

THEY'RE SO MARRIED AND SO SOFT AND SO FUCKEING GAY

ANYWAY. SO FUCKING PRETTY. THAT HE INSPIRED POETRY FROM ME.

AND IT'S SO AMAZING AND GAY AND FUNNY AND INTERESTING AND PLEASE WATCH IT I BEG OF YOU.

OH AND. FOR MOST OF THE STREAM, I SPOKE ONLY IN "MMMS" BECAUSE FUCK YOU OKAY THAT'S ALL I COULD MANAGE IN MY STATE OF GAY.

WITNESS MY GAY POETRY:

HOW DARE YOU FLOWERS HIS HANDS ARE THE MOST BLOSSOMING PETALS OF ALL.

(the flowers in the shot hid his hand okay I was desperate)

OH PRETTY BOY KILL ME PRETTY BOY FOR I HAVE FALLEN SLAVE TO THE BEAUTY OF THE HANDS OF A MIDDLE AGED WHITE MAN ONCE MORE.

AND WORDSWORTH'S FLOWERS SHALL NOT BE MORE GAY THAN I, WHEN YOUR EYES TURN UPON ME AND I SEE THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN AS I FALL FURTHER FROM IT.

(THIS WAS COZ OF MY MMMMM LANGUAGE OKAY.)

THE STREAM THAT BROKE ALL THE FUCKING GAYS.

[somethingintheforest]

brb stealing his gender

[fruitviking]

I love the Granada adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles (did I want to see David Burke give it a go? Yes. Do I adore Edward Hardwicke in his Country Watson fashion? Very much also yes) for one specific reason

You have Kristoffer Tabori as Sir Henry Baskerville, aged 36 (he was born in 1952 and Granada's Hound came out in 1988), and then Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke aged 54 and 56 respectively, already older than their characters ought to be with Hound taking place around 1888(?) and Holmes retiring at 50 in the early 1900s

And this age gap completely alters the dynamic of the three characters; there's still a level of camaraderie, and respect for Sir Henry’s station, but otherwise it shifts into a parental, almost fatherly level of protectiveness on Holmes and Watson's part

They are much older than Sir Henry, older than Dr Mortimer, older than the Stapletons (Beryl Stapleton's actress was only 22!), and they become the de facto guardians of every victim caught in this terrible mystery

We get some lovely examples near the end, when Sir Henry has just been attacked, and Holmes holds him, rocks him, and assures him that everything is alright

Holmes, who doesn't really embrace people other than those he's particularly close to (e.g. when he returns in The Empty House and Mrs Hudson hugs him and cries)

Then, when he and Watson find Beryl Stapleton and rescue her, he does the same - and, at this point, these two have never met before! But we know how Holmes has a tendency to adopt young women in peril

I don't know, I just think it's neat

[ogsherlockholmes]

I'm rewatching Granada Holmes and I know everyone talks about this so I'd like to add my voice to the crowd: Jeremy Brett is magnificent.

Tempted to just leave it there but seriously, I'm in awe of his performance and I must find out if he won any awards for it because, as someone training to be an actor, I'm absolutely mesmerised by his facial expressions, his line delivery, his body language... it's so exact and everything is so meaningful and tells us so much that it comes to a point where it seems to come to him too naturally.

I'll admit, I don't find some of the other actors very believable, but it's fine because it's still entertaining.

But Brett just...shines. He does these quick flash grins, those hand flourishes, he enunciates specific words and rolls his 'r's, he never drops the act and it's unbearably impressive because, despite the theatricality, it still feels real.

As well as being an incredible person, I think he's an incredibly inspirational actor, and I'll be shouting about this to my grave. I'm obsessed.

[hopelesslyprosaic]

I feel like The Six Napoleons is one of the best Granada episodes, and part of why is, of course, That Scene.

By which of course I mean this one:

All genius, but of course, even more specifically, the bit starting at about 5:52. You know the scene I mean, and if you don't by all means watch it!

Honestly, it's an in-a-nutshell demonstration of the greatness of both canon and the Granada adaptation.

Here's the scene from the book:

“Well,” said Lestrade, “I’ve seen you handle a good many cases, Mr. Holmes, but I don’t know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than that. We’re not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there’s not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn’t be glad to shake you by the hand.” “Thank you!” said Holmes. “Thank you!” and as he turned away it seemed to me that he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than I had ever seen him. A moment later he was the cold and practical thinker once more. “Put the pearl in the safe, Watson,” said he, “and get out the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case. Goodbye, Lestrade. If any little problem comes your way I shall be happy, if I can, to give you a hint or two as to its solution.”

And here's the dialogue from the show:

Lestrade: I’ve seen you handle a good many cases in my time, but I don’t know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than this. We’re not jealous of you, you know, at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there’s not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn’t be glad to shake you by the hand. Holmes: Thank you! Thank you! Would you get down the Conk-Singleton forgery case please, Watson? Goodbye, Lestrade. If any little problem comes your way I shall be happy, if I can, to give you a hint or two as to its solution.

Not many differences! ACD knew what he was doing- he knew how to write a good yarn, he knew how to write good characters, and he knew how to write a good interaction. Granada wasn't filmed in canon order, so we don't get to see the progression of Holmes's relationship with Lestrade per se, but after a number of excellent, more "foiled again!" type Holmes-Lestrade interactions since A Study in Scarlet, ACD decided to do something cool and different here and pulled it off beautifully.

And when the director and writer of this Granada episode put this one together, they decided that the relationship between Holmes and Lestrade should be a focal point in this episode, and not only did they barely need to change a dang thing in the ending to do it, what small things they did change were all beautifully in the service of the tone of the original ending, taking advantage of the brilliant material they had to work with. I was just relistening to the excellent episode of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast discussing The Six Napoleons, and one of them points out that one of the few text changes is removing the word "very"- going from "we are very proud of you" to "we are proud of you." And it works so well- it accentuates the contrast with the previous suggested notion that they would otherwise be jealous, between what Holmes might have expected to hear (and, indeed, perhaps expected to WANT to hear) and the actuality, and how much more meaningful it turns out that is to Holmes.

The creators here- and I of course include the actors, as both Colin Jeavons and Jeremy Brett act the fuck out of this- are so smart with how they pull this off. They know that what they have on the page is gold, but they also know how they can buff it up for a stronger shine. They know that Brett will absolutely eat up all of ACD's stage directions about his response, he knows the character inside and out at this stage, so let's keep the scene the way it is and, instead, build the rest of the episode around setting up this scene in such a way that it will have maximum impact as written.

There is one thing that is added- and that's the handshake at the end, that Holmes offers to Lestrade. We don't know what happens after Holmes's final words in the story, but in the episode, the physical acting continues telling the story only implied in the text of the short story- Lestrade is a bit thrown by Holmes's reversion back to his old, casually cutting self, but rolls with it, only for Holmes to extend his hand to him. Lestrade seems, even, slightly surprised- this is, perhaps, Holmes's rare gesture of pride in him.

[atasteofholmes]

Omg, the response to this has been way more than I expected! Hi everyone!!!

I guess I better figure out how to make gifs 😅 I'll start a series soon for our sassy detecive!

Comment or send an ask if you have any specific scenes you'd like to see, or if you want to be tagged when I eventually post!

Thanks for the encouragement 💜🐝

I want to learn how to make gifs just so I can do a series of Granada Holmes being the most overdramatic man in all of London.

Idk if anyone else would want that, but I'm inclined to make it happen 👀

[makingqueerhistory]

have you done an article on Jeremy Brett by any chance? he was one of the most iconic Sherlock Holmes actors ever, and renowned for his commitment to the original canon stories. he was also possibly bisexual (as in he was publicly in relationships with both men and women, but as far as I know, he never gave his sexuality a specific label). his thoughts on Holmes and Watson as a romantic relationship? “if it cheers the gays up, I’m thrilled.”

I haven't yet! He looks very interesting, though; thank you for sharing!

[thenosyjournal]

B. 3 November 1933 - D. 12 September 1995. Jeremy Brett is the Holmes of my heart. There are other Sherlock Holmes performers, but he's my specific Holmes in voice and physicality.

[alittlecrow]

Portrait study from the Solitary Cyclist.

I started this in July with the intention of finishing it before the Letters from Watson substack finished SOLI and that did Not happen.

I’ve been gradually chipping away at it ever since with it being about 20hrs just for the digital rendering. And it only took that long because I had to keep scrapping and restarting Holmes’ face and hand. All my love for Jeremy Brett, but his face is so specific that it was the greatest struggle to get his likeness any decent. And I still find it lacking. But what can you do.

I appreciate the learning experience this gave and it’s made me increase my efforts in digital painting in the weeks since I started it. And my complaints aside, I really did enjoy the process. Frustrating at times, but very rewarding. And I’m quite proud to have finished it instead of leaving it in my wips folder for eternity.

Anyways, bonus traditional sketch with too big Holmes Head and too small Watson Head and initial color comp.

[lowliest-manifestations]

Okay! I'm finally putting together some of my more specific Bending the Willow thoughts and this passage:

"Perhaps it was as Jeremy Brett noted: 'Women want to possess him, while men want to be him.' There is certainly some truth in that statement, but the idea is incomplete. I believe male readers not only identify with Holmes, but also experience, in the same way that D. H. Lawrence identified what he referred to as a 'blood consciousness' between men, a kind of spiritual closeness akin to love."

Is making me the kind of insane that makes me want to write like 17 essays. But in absence of the time needed to actually do that here are some of my main thoughts in a more disorganized fashion:

Overall I've noticed a really wild amount of gender essentialism within Sherlockian communities/ scholarship, and I know that a lot of that can be chalked up to the fact that even modern writings are done mostly by older white men, but I also think there's something about the text itself that encourages this. Sherlock Holmes is pretty fucking victorian about gender (Irene Adler occupies a weird space but I do not believe she is in any way exempt from those attitudes.) and I think sometimes scholars find themselves reflecting the values of a text that they do not want to admit is imperfect.

I think this passage pinpoints exactly how a lot of people gender their expectations of how reader are to interact with Sherlock Holmes and texts like it, and Sherlock Holmes in turn becomes kind of weird for women to interact with. For the most part people want to see themselves somewhere in the text, but women in particular are told that we cannot find ourselves within the main character. Some people may be fine with that, lots of people don't want to relate to Holmes and their enjoyment of the text does not come from seeing themselves in that particular character. Some women also genuinely want to relate to the text by fantasizing about being in a relationship with Holmes, and more power to them, but their feeling is not a default, no matter how hard anybody pretends it is.

The fact is that plenty of women do want to be Holmes, and they face an interesting dilemma if they are trying to hold that while still operating under the framework hinted at in this passage. Instead of projecting onto him directly they must find ways to be close to him, be a reflection of him, be him but a girl (without replacing him! don't worry!). I think that's why there's sooo much fiction out there about secret sisters, female apprentices, wit-matching lovers etc. (I myself would pretend to be Sherlock Holmes' secret daughter as a kid. I bought into this shit!)

This framework is also not particularly normal about men who may not see themselves in Holmes at all and who may, in fact, also be capable of fantasizing about having a relationship with him! Queer men exist! (within this passage in fact.) And I know Stuart Davies did not mean to acknowledge this when he wrote of "a kind of spiritual closeness akin to love." but he does put it somewhat homoerotically in a way that left me reeling a little bit.

I do understand the feeling described by Stuart Davies, even if the way he writes of it makes me laugh a little in its dramatics. I simply do not think it is a feeling exclusive to men... I don't think any feelings are exclusive to any gender. And in the end I think that's the idea that really frustrates me.

Of course this passage is also from 1996, it's a product of its time, I get it. I also know that people have had More expansive/critical/interesting ideas about Sherlock Holmes in relation to gender before and since it was written, and I don't think it reflects what everyone really believes. BUT I do think it hit the nail on the head of a phenomena I have noticed since childhood and affirmed that I wasn't imagining things. While also being. Kind of funny.

[hotvintagepoll]

Please take my humble offering of propaganda for bisexual icon ✨️Jeremy Brett✨️ and his early career! <3

... in Hamlet (1959) Look at his hands and his neck gahhh

... as (a naive but very charming) Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady (1964) who certainly knows how to wear a coat

... as a dashing D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (1966/67) (Duelling is no problem! XD)

... aaaand several other photos of which I couldn't pinpoint the specific dates but I think they must all have been taken before the 70s!

Well, I couldn't even submit half of the pictures - *cough* Dracula *cough* Sherlock Holmes - I had on my mind as I discovered they were taken after 1970, and this man got only more unnecessarily handsome with age. (Take it from me, I'm both asexual and faceblind, and he regularly makes me question both. XD) Also, he was just the kindest, sweetest human being. ❤️ He would certainly be extremely flattered to win this poll and possibly burst into song to the slight embarrassment of everyone around! :D

I used several of these for the propaganda field but I found the tone of this whole ask so delightful that here, let's all enjoy it together.

Jeremy vs Charles

[bizarrebazaar13]

ok so due to the sleepy I might not be able to elaborate on this as much as I wanted. but.

given that the honey addled detective is a Sherlock Holmes reference, isn’t it weird that we don’t see a Watson counterpart? especially given that “Holmes and Watson but supernatural” is an established adaptation genre (the particular crossover of the Holmes stories and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is more common and more popular than you might expect).

however. Holmes and Watson meet essentially by chance; Watson returns from war in Afghanistan and is looking for a place to live, and runs into an old acquaintance, who introduces him to another man looking for someone to share rent payments. that man is, of course, Sherlock Holmes, and from there both of their lives change drastically.

in mask of the rose, Harjit comments that with London (and crucially, its rulers) now underground and cut off from the surface, England’s colonial influence is much weaker. Watson was wounded in the battle of Maiwand, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. the war was fought as part of the real life “Great Game”: a power struggle between the Russian and British empires in Central Asia.

so, in the Fallen London universe, would the battle of Maiwand ever have happened? maybe not. is it possible that Watson and Holmes might have met some other way? of course. but specifically in the context of Fallen London, it seems unlikely. Watson says that he “had neither kith nor kin in England” upon his arrival in London in A Study in Scarlet, and he specifically made his way to London in order to recover from his wounds. a spooky underground cavern is probably not conducive to rest and recovery.

assuming Holmes was born in 1854, he would have been only eight years old in 1862, when the fall happened, which (to me) rules out any possibility of him and Watson meeting before the fall. for context, A Study in Scarlet takes place in 1881, well after London has fallen. so we are left with a Holmes without a Watson.

Jeremy Brett, who played Holmes on screen for a decade, once compared Holmes’s relationship to Watson to “a drowning man clinging to a raft”. if the honey addled detective is indeed a direct reference to Sherlock Holmes, he makes for a very tragic one indeed, and that makes him extremely compelling to me.

[emmalovesfitzloved]

New intro post 🤓

Welcome! I spend all my time in my secret garden, where I dream up ideas for my Love Bomb blog (in no particular order)-

Bare minimum starter-pack to get to know a bit about me :)

1. I’m 26, living in England;

2. My favourite hobbies are reading, dreaming, drinking tea, and obsessing over my dog Jack;

3. I work in the legal profession;

4. My guilty pleasure is reality shows…;

If you like:

• Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb and Of Cats and Closed Doors by the Legendary @tragediegh 🙏

• The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare (specifically TLH, TDA, TID) and @edwinspaynes bonus chapters.

• Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes ITV series 🧐

• Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erickson

• All Souls series by Professor Deborah Harkness

• Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

• Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson

• Dead Boy Detectives (Tv show)

• Daredevil (Marvel Comics)

• X-Men - specifically Emma Frost and the new mutants (my namesake)

Please let’s moots 😇.

(I have also wrote some essays or addressed some commonly asked questions : -) :

• My response to Booktok turning the book community into fast fashion

• Ranking of SHC Novels

• Tessa Tessa Tessa

• Ranking Top 5 SHC Ships

• Wessa is the Best!!!!!

• Magnus Bane is the best Downworlder

• Love letter to @hazure-cyan’s realm of the elderlings mural

I also love to make moodboards for the All Souls universe by Deborah Harkness which you can find: here !

And if you have time please check out my favourite people ever (who are beyond talented therefore deserve your audience probably more then my fandoming - @edwinspaynes (greatest writer to grace fandoms with bonus content) , @hazure-cyan (my pookie and also greatest artist you’ll probably ever meet), @tragediegh the best gem for the ROTE (from her memes, her story, to her witty posts, just everything! Chefs kiss.) @inkedbydave (witty and beyond imaginative and an amazing essayist) @thebitchforjemcarstairs (an academic you’d be lucky to befriend).

Loads of love!

Gorgeous art from left to right : by pandyals_art on instagram ; @spacehero-23 on tumblr.