Sherlock Holmes in Popular Culture Sherlock Holmes is the original Great Detective, his legacy has lived for over 100 years and his brilliance has surpassed that of other detectives. Not only was he incredibly popular when he first appeared in the late 1800’s, but he has stayed popular and stayed a staple in popular culture even up to today.

The modern Detective story with the modern detective began with the creation of Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with A Study in Scarlet, which was published in 1887 with illustrations by Sidney Paget. Most of the stories appeared in The Strand magazine. In 1893 Doyle tried to kill off Holmes after getting tired of writing the stories. This caused public outrage. The popularity of the stories was so great that after publication of The Final Problem, in which Sherlock Holmes apparently plunges to his death, Doyle even got letters accusing him of murder. Eventually public demand and the money from the stories was so lucrative that he began to write Sherlock stories once more and continued writing until 1927. The stories have lasted centuries with Sherlock Holmes becoming a household name in detectives. There have been countless radio programs, movies, and television shows, some as recent as this year. For this information and more check out www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk.

Sherlock Holmes has been remade hundreds of times, including the current BBC program “Sherlock” Even now Sherlock Holmes is a household name. There have been hundreds of adaptations of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. From Basil Rathbone, probably one of the more well-known portrayers of Sherlock Holmes, to Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Sherlock in the new BBC series that has updated the stories to modern London. On top of the BBC Sherlock there have been recent movies such as Sherlock Holmes and the sequel Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock and Jude Law as Watson. All the adaptations of Sherlock have much the same features as the original stories. Sherlock is always brilliant and oftentimes condescending. He is usually proficient in boxing and swordsmanship and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. He usually has to go up against James (Jim) Moriarity, the consulting criminal to his consulting detective. That’s just modern adaptations of the actual Sherlock character, traits of the Great Detective have permeated through to modern detective stories and modern detectives themselves.

The original Sherlock Holmes stories are so lasting that even their style has stayed the same The original Sherlock Holmes stories were so well written that even in todays modern Sherlock adaptations whole chunks of dialogue are taken directly from the stories. This is an example from the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet from Chapter 2 page 12 of the Barnes and Noble Leatherback published book The Complete Sherlock Holmes. In this excerpt Sherlock and Watson have just met and Sherlock is explaining what he does and how he does it. “Observation with me is second nature. You appeared to be surprised when I told you, on our first meeting, that you had come from Afghanistan. You were told no doubt. Nothing of the sort. I knew you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind that I arrived at the conclusion without being conscious of steps. There were such steps, however. The train of reasoning ran: ‘Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor , then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tone of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.’ The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan and you were astonished.”

In the BBC Sherlock the relationship between John and Sherlock is very true to the books Sherlock pulls this same kind of routine when he meets John Watson in the BBC rendition of the show entitled Sherlock. The show is created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as John Watson and first aired 2010. In the first episode ‘A Study in Pink’ he meets John in the hospital and is immediately able to tell some key things about him; like that he was a soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq, that he has a psychosomatic limp, and that he didn’t get along with his sibling. All this he was able to pull out of minute details that he observed in split seconds. When he breaks down how he figured these things out for John, John was amazed and astounded. He has the same reaction in this show as he does in the books. Throughout the television program when Sherlock shows his detecting prowess John frequently says ‘fantastic’ or ‘amazing’ or some such adjective which is the same sort of reaction he frequently emotes in the books.

All modern fictional detectives tend to have many of the same characteristics as Sherlock Holmes Batman is a Sherlockian type character. He is able to put small pieces of information together and make accurate conclusions based on his observations. By doing this he is able to anticipate and circumvent the villainous plans of his arch-nemesis. Very Sherlock Holmes of him. Psych is one of many modern detective shows that has a Sherlock archetype for a character. There are countless cases in popular television where the detectives have the deductive skills that Sherlock so often displays. Psych is one of the most interesting because it actually highlights the different objects that the main character Shawn Spencer sees, so if the viewer would like they are able to follow along through the crime solving process and try and piece the information that Shawn sees together along with him in order to solve the crime.

Batman and Robin are a prolific crime fighting duo as famous as Sherlock and Watson Batman and Robin are a great example of modern characters that take after Sherlock Holmes. Batman is extremely observant and is able to solve mysteries and crimes. In the DC comic book universe he’s even known as the Great Detective. To continue with the comparison he has his own Watson in Robin, an assistant that he trains to help him solve his mysteries. As far as partners go the Dynamic Duo is as famous as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Batman was first published in 1939 and has remained a staple hero since then. The comics are published by DC and the original stories are being republished in chronological order in volumes called “The Batman Chronicles” Volume 1 includes the introduction of Batman and his back story, the introduction of Robin, and even the introduction of the most infamous of Batman’s enemies the Joker. It contains Batman stories from Detective Comics #27-38 and Batman #1.

In Psych Shawn pretends to a have psychic abilities but really is hyper observant like Sherlock The USA Network show Psych is going on its seventh season and it revolves around a character that is hyper-observant. Shawn Spencer has a photographic memory and the series starts out with him phoning tips into the cops that solve cases, but then the cops call him in for questioning and accuse him of being an accomplice knowing information he could have only gotten on the inside. Shawn in attempt to come up with a way out of it after the police refuse to listen says that he’s psychic. The police end up hiring him as a consultant and he and his best friend and partner Gus solve mysteries together with Shawn pretending to be psychic all the while. Shawn solves his mysteries by noticing out of the way details and putting them together but announces them by having extravagant exaggerated psychic episodes. He has the same observation and deduction skills as Sherlock Holmes. Once again we see a partner that could be comparable to Watson in Gus. Gus is more levelheaded then Shawn and more grounded but he gets a thrill out of helping on his cases and being part of the detective agency much the same as the thrill that levelheaded, practical Watson gets out of helping Sherlock. For more information on Psych visit www.usanetwork.com.

Though the face of Sherlock Holmes has changed in the past century the man remains the same. Sherlock Holmes is a character that is so popular he is having new television programs and movies made about him as recently as this year. As I have shown other popular culture characters have roots in the Sherlock Holmes stories. No matter what face Sherlock has, or even what name, the idea of this brilliant detective has crossed cultural lines and has lasted over a century.

References Original Sherlock Holmes illustrations by Sidney Paget Original Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes excerpt ‘A Study in Scarlet’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapter 2, Page 12, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Barnes and Noble; New York, 2009 The Batman Chronicles, Volume 1, Bob Kane. 1939 www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk www.usanetwork.com