Customer Reviews

Bending the Willow: Jeremy Brett As Sherlock Holmes

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If you're a fan of both Jeremy Brett and Granada's Sherlock Holmes series, then this book is a must-read.

As the author stresses, this book is not a biography. Only about a page is spared to very briefly give on overview of Jeremy Brett's life before he became the definitive Holmes.

The book is a WONDERFUL behind-the-scenes look at the Granada Holmes production. It talks about each of the 40+ productions and gives interesting tidbits about what went on during the filming of certain episodes. If you like learning about those type of things, this book will certainly hold your interest.

One of the best things about the book is that the author himself had met and interviewed Jeremy Brett several times. This allows for many long direct quotes from Brett himself.

Thankfully, Jeremy Brett turned out to be a nice person in real life, seems to have gotten along well with co-stars, and cared greatly about his role of Holmes. Unfortunately, as Jeremy Brett became more ill with heart failure and manic depression, things with the Granada productions began to sour. This book does a good job of discussing those years in Brett's life.

Overall, it is a caring tribute to a genius of an actor, the Granada series, and provides a lot of interesting tidbits.

For anyone who appreciates Jeremy Brett, free from sensationalism and determined by fact and friendship, this book is for you. The pages document what life was like during production of the Granada series, and first hand situations are recounted by those who worked side by side with Mr. Jeremy Brett to help create a masterpiece for television.

Especially satisfying to read are the accounts of Edward Hardwicke, who provides anecdotes and thoughts for every chapter. A real cameraderie existed off camera between these two men, enhancing their performance for the world to see.

Mr. David Stuart Davies presents us with a simplified version of the fluctuating madness of Jeremy Brett's affliction, and the reader cannot help but hold up their hands and applaud the strength and courage of this dearly missed actor.

For many of us, the late Jeremy Brett supplanted Basil Rathbone as the definitive Sherlock Holmes. Whereas Rathbone faithfully represented - in a somewhat Jack Webb/Joe Friday manner - Holmes as the master detective, Brett added nuances to the character that were both faithful to the original yet bold and contemporary. That he did this while struggling with manic-depression and degenerative heart disease is a tribute both to his skill as an actor and to his courage as a human being.

Is love possible from a distance, without ever having actually known or met the object of one's love? The worlds of literature and film answer "yes" to this question, and many of us do indeed love both Sherlock Holmes and Jeremy Brett, along with Dr. Watson and his eminent portrayers, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke. David Stuart Davies' tribute to Brett, Burke, Hardwicke and all those associated with the Granada TV series is truly a labor of love.

Based on personal interviews with Brett and many others associated with the series, this book gives insight into Jeremy Brett the actor and the man, as well as his co-stars and supporting actors. There is much substance here, as well as the delightful "trivia" of how and why things were done or not done, and of the contributions of the actors to various nuances of the stories. This book is thus - for me - the Bible of the Granada Holmes series.

But it is not an uncritical, fawning tribute. Errors are acknowledged and lamented, as in the less-than-sterling version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," or the questionable decision to film the later episodes when Brett's health was in serious decline.

But if you are a fan of Brett's Sherlock Holmes, this book is a must, even if somewhat pricey and hard to find. It is rapidly becoming a collector's item, and get it while you can.

I can still remember the first time I watched Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. "At last" I said, "we finally have an actor who plays Holmes as Conan Doyle wrote him!"
I had been a fan of the Great Detective since I was a boy, reading and re-reading the adventures as much for the details of Victorian London as for the thrill of the chase, which, after the third or fourth reading, fails to create any real suspense. No, it was Holmes, Holmes all Holmes! What man does not aspire to be a "reasoning machine" free of distracting emotional entanglements? This is the Holmes I loved, and this is the Holmes that finally found its true expression on the little screen, the Granada series staring Jeremy Brett. Here, I thought, they had got it right.
My affection for the program is what let me to purchase this marvelous little book, "Bending the Willow" by David Stuart Davies. Unfortunately, it's now out of print; I hope they print it again soon.
As stated in its first chapter, this is not a biography of Jeremy Brett, but rather a portrait of an actor at work, pushing against the boundaries of a fictional character without its losing its shape, or, as Brett said, "Bending the willow without breaking it." There is much of Brett in his Holmes, but I never knew until I read this book just how much of a convergence there was between the actor and the character. It was Brett's struggle with Bi-Polar Disorder (then known as Manic-Depression) that illuminated much of the character of Holmes, for although Brett bristled at the notion, Holmes also was probably a Manic-Depressive. That, of course, is open for debate. What is obvious, though, is the energy that it gave to Brett's interpretation of the role.
This is not just a story about an actor in a television program; it is also a peek behind the scenes at a major television production studio in the process of bringing to the screen, and eventually diminishing, a series based on a major literary canon. What it took to produce these remarkable films in the face of conflicting schedules, a diminishing budget and unreasonable studio demands is incredible. It makes me appreciate the series all the more, even at those times when, as in "The Mazarin Stone" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" it failed to live up to its great promise, and in the case of the final series, the Memoirs, the results were unremarkable. In these cases, it is mostly our admiration for Brett that keeps us watching.
Ultimately, this is Brett's story filled with personal memories and bits of interviews with Brett, who gave the author unprecedented access to him. What emerges is a sensitive portrait of a charming, brilliant and troubled man who comes to realize and accept that his Holmes is probably going to be his greatest legacy. This is a must read book for any fan of the Granada series.

A little dry, but if you are a fan of Jeremy Brett, (The BEST Sherlock Holmes), this is a must read. It is remarkable how Jeremy Brett was able to work through all of the terrible things in his life. Above all, it is heartwarming to see his fellow actors and friends never left his side during his troubles. You just don't here about that sort of thing today.