With more than 70 actors having played Sherlock Holmes in more than 200 films and television series, the fictitious detective has been reinvented so many times he makes the ever-changing James Bond look like a paragon of consistency. But rarely has the breadth of the possible interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle's character been more evident than it is today. Audiences currently have their pick of two wildly successful and critically praised Holmeses - and they could hardly be more different.
Returning to cinemas tomorrow in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is the Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr, who plays the sleuth as a dysfunctional brainbox with a flair for fist-fighting. And reappearing on the small screen over the coming weeks in the BBC's Sherlock is the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose 21st-century Holmes describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath". The former version has giant set pieces, explosions and cross-dressing, while the latter has forensic science, Routemaster buses and text messages.
"So far as people like me are concerned, if you can reinvent [Sherlock Holmes] and do so properly - with interesting allusions to the original stories - it's a wonderful thing," says Nick Utechin, a former editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal. "These two versions now are radically different. I think they're not to be compared."
Certain elements of the character are present throughout Conan Doyle's four novels and 56 short stories on his exploits - his brilliant powers of deduction, his companionship with Dr Watson and his address (221B Baker Street) - but almost everything else is open for reinterpretation. What's more, many of the best-known Holmes tropes actually have nothing to do with the original writing. The iconic deerstalker hat was the creation of the illustrator Sidney Paget, the curved calabash pipe was a prop used by the stage actor William Gillette, and even the supposed catchphrase, "elementary, my dear Watson", never appeared in print.
What's more, many of the elements of Downey's Holmes that seem the most egregious - his hand-to-hand combat skills, for example - are in fact directly supported in Conan Doyle's writing. "In a story called The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist, he talks about delivering 'a straight left against a slogging ruffian', then in The Sign of Four he is described as a bare-knuckle fighter," says Utechin. "He also knows about stick fighting and, in The Final Problem, he talks about baritsu, a Japanese form of wrestling."
The eccentric personalities of both Downey's and Cumberbatch's interpretations of Holmes also sit awkwardly with some people. However, the detective was once described by Watson as "bohemian", used cocaine, was prone to starving himself and kept his tobacco in the toe-end of a Persian slipper.
His less noble traits were downplayed in films, plays and radio productions from the early 20th century. Perhaps the most enduring Holmes actor, Basil Rathbone - who donned the deerstalker in 14 US big-screen productions from 1939 to 1946 - played up the character's fastidious and heroic qualities, while Watson (Nigel Bruce) became a bumbling oaf.
Decades before Rathbone, however, the detective's first appearance on film is believed to have been in 1900's 30-second US-produced Sherlock Holmes Baffled. By the end of the silent era, dozens of Holmes movies had appeared, made by studios in the US, UK and even Denmark. With the advent of sound came a slew of big-screen Holmeses, played by the likes of Raymond Massey and Arthur Wontner.
During the Second World War, Conan Doyle's character became a propaganda tool under Rathbone. Now inhabiting wartime rather than Victorian/Edwardian London, the sleuth would quote Winston Churchill and have adventures with anti-Nazi themes. While that might have raised some eyebrows, Conan Doyle himself painted Holmes as a patriot who often acted on behalf of the British government and even carried out counter-intelligence work in the short story His Last Bow, set during the First World War.
His dysfunctional tendencies finally made it on to film in 1970's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, directed and co-written by Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot). The melancholy comedy used the tagline, "What you don't know about Sherlock Holmes has made a great picture", and even implied that the detective (played by Robert Stephens) had fallen in love with Watson. Critics praised the film for its novel approach, but it was not a major box-office success.
Although the 20th century boasted many other notable Holmeses - not least Peter Cushing in the 1959 Hammer Films production - the fingerprints of Wilder's eccentric film can be seen in both Downey's and Cumberbatch's iterations. That, at least, is something they have in common.
artslife@thenational.ae
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Company%20Profile
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'Brazen'
Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
SPECS
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The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Company%20Profile
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THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
The%C2%A0specs%20
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Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Pakistan Super League
Previous winners
2016 Islamabad United
2017 Peshawar Zalmi
2018 Islamabad United
2019 Quetta Gladiators
Most runs Kamran Akmal – 1,286
Most wickets Wahab Riaz –65
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
THE SPECS
Engine: 3-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 424hp
Torque: 580 Nm
Price: From Dh399,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Afghanistan fixtures
- v Australia, today
- v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
- v New Zealand, Saturday,
- v South Africa, June 15
- v England, June 18
- v India, June 22
- v Bangladesh, June 24
- v Pakistan, June 29
- v West Indies, July 4
The%20Killer
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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De De Pyaar De
Produced: Luv Films, YRF Films
Directed: Akiv Ali
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jaaved Jaffrey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
- Steve Baker
- Peter Bone
- Ben Bradley
- Andrew Bridgen
- Maria Caulfield
- Simon Clarke
- Philip Davies
- Nadine Dorries
- James Duddridge
- Mark Francois
- Chris Green
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Anne-Marie Morris
- Sheryll Murray
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Laurence Robertson
- Lee Rowley
- Henry Smith
- Martin Vickers
- John Whittingdale
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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