John H Watson MD

Category: Media

  • I have even contributed to the literature on the subject [REDH]

    David Martin Dakin’s 1972 book, A Sherlock Holmes Commentary, critically examines Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective stories, exploring their content, themes, and inconsistencies. Dakin, a scholar and a dedicated Sherlockian, analyses each story in the Holmes canon, taking a humorous yet thorough approach that highlights Doyle’s writing’s strengths and quirks.

    Following a brief Foreword, each story is discussed in order of their first publication, addressing the date that the adventure is thought to have occurred, followed by essential considerations arising from the story.

    Two stories published at the same time as Watson’s reminiscences but not attributed to Sherlock Holmes are covered at the end. Two appendices round off the book – a chronological table and a list of people from the stories with beards and/or moustaches.

    Detailed Analysis of Each Story

    Dakin reviews every Holmes story in the canon, often focusing on plot structure, character development, and the realism (or lack thereof) in Holmes’ deductions. He also identifies and discusses narrative inconsistencies within the stories, a hallmark of traditional Sherlockian scholarship.

    Insights into Conan Doyle’s Methods

    Dakin examines Doyle’s storytelling techniques, such as his use of red herrings, recurring themes, and particular settings that create a distinct atmosphere. He also assesses Doyle’s approach to Victorian society and views on justice, often reflected subtly in Holmes’ actions.

    Exploration of Character

    Dakin delves into Holmes and Watson’s personalities, their relationship, and the evolution of their characters for the stories. He compares the detective to real-life figures of the time and analyzes Watson as a reliable narrator and a somewhat overlooked character in his own right.

    Sherlockian Traditions and Canonical Playfulness

    Dakin’s commentary is rooted in the Sherlockian tradition of treating Holmes and Watson as real people. He addresses many of Doyle’s puzzles and contradictions, such as the dating of certain cases, conflicting timelines, and “errors” in Watson’s narration, which Sherlockians playfully analyze as part of the Holmes mythos.

    Critical but Affectionate Tone

    Dakin approaches the stories with respect for Doyle’s genius and a critical eye on the flaws and inconsistencies. His commentary is both scholarly and accessible, making it a valuable resource for fans and researchers alike.

    About the Author

    My copy of Dakin’s book is signed by the author “With the compliments of the author,” and below that, he quoted Holmes from The Red-Headed League, “ . . . and have even contributed to the literature of the subject.” However, in this case, it is solely the study of tattoos, having noticed the fish tattooed on Jabez Wilson’s wrist and deducing that he had been in China.

    Dakin was the first Brain of Britain Series Champion in 1954 and is reported, in addition to his extensive knowledge of Sherlock Holmes, to have been able to quote the chapter and verse number of any verse from the Bible.

    He served as a Religious Education teacher at Dagenham County High School, Dagenham, Essex.

    He died in 1979, aged 71, four years after signing my copy of his book.

  • The Ocular Helmsman

    The Ocular Helmsman was a website titled “A Vede Mecum Upon the Personal Effects & Environs of Sherlock Holmes & John H. Watson of 221B Baker Street for the Victorian Layman”.

    For those who do not speak Latin, a “Vede Mecum” is “a handbook or guide that is kept constantly at hand for consultation”. Unfortunately, the website no longer exists. It went offline around March 2016. It contained much helpful information and was often quoted by other websites and publications as a useful reference.

    Archive

    The Internet Archive includes a beautiful facility called the Wayback Machine. It allows you to go back to 1996 when they began archiving the Internet itself, a medium that was then beginning to grow in use. Like newspapers, the content published on the web was ephemeral – but unlike newspapers, no one was saving it. The Internet Archive has over 28 years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine.

    Not all websites are archived there, but The Ocular Helmsman is one of them!

    Website Content

    The website has 14 sections, and here is the front page (Index):

    The Index and Contents pages are self-explanatory, but the other 12 sections are worth exploring in more detail.

    The author explains that the website was continually updated, but that further work was planned.

    Transport

    This section covers the different modes of transport, including horses and carriages, trains, bicycles, cars and ships.

    221B Suite

    This section examines the exterior of 221B and Baker Street and then the interior, including the sitting room, furniture, and newspapers they would have perused.

    Sustenance & Spirits

    This section examines the food they might have eaten, the restaurants they visited, and the spirits, wine, and other drinks they occasionally drank.

    Tobaccana

    This section examines how tobacco is prepared, the variety of pipes used, and other types of tobacco, such as cigars and snuff.

    Attire

    Attire looks at the fashions of the day for men and women, walking sticks (typical in the Victorian Era), and the attire of Holmes and Watson.

    Acquaintances

    This section starts with the other residents at 221B Baker Street. It then covers family, neighbours, army acquaintances, school friends, other detectives, unofficial assistants, Watson’s early acquaintances, and mutual acquaintances and ends with Sherlock’s arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty.

    Mr Sherlock Holmes

    This section begins with an analysis of Holmes’s character and then details his personal effects, family, the arts and music, his writings, his travels and his pastimes.

    Dr John H Watson

    A similar analysis follows for Dr. Watson, including his character, family, personal effects, art and travel, and his writings.

    Art in the Blood

    This section covers the arts and sciences of deduction. Among the more prominent of these arts are Tracking, Handwriting Analysis, Cryptography, Studies of Paper & Watermarks, and Tobaccana (which is analyzed elsewhere on this website).

    Monographs

    This is one of the few empty sections where one thought Holmes’s monographs would be listed.

    Lost Archives

    This is a long list of the unpublished cases mentioned by Dr Watson.

    Essentials

    This is a list of the barest essentials of web resources relating to Holmes and Watson, though some of these may not be current.

    There are many links to other websites from the pages of this website, some of which are no longer working, but again, Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine still provides access to these now archived web pages.

    Authorship and Future Use

    I do know the author’s identity, though I do not know why the website has not been maintained. There is much helpful information there, so I plan to use it for the purpose for which it was designed—as a vide mecum.

  • The Oxford Sherlock Holmes

    Setting aside for the moment the question of whether Holmes went to Oxford, or Cambridge, or both, the Oxford Sherlock Holmes has been my favourite annotated collection of the stories for many years.

    Owen Dudley Edwards (General Editor) Edition

    The original set of nine volumes, with Owen Dudley Edwards as the general editor, is not available new but second hand copies are still around.

    Some of the volumes were republished later as paperbacks but not all nine volumes in this format – only A Study in Scarlet, The Adventures, The Memoirs, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return, The Valley of Fear, and The Case-Book.

    To further confuse matters, some of the volumes are available in Amazon Kindle format, but again are hard to track down as they are not all marked out as part of the actual Oxford Sherlock Holmes collection on Amazon – you have to scan through the sample pages looking for the required details to confirm they’re the annotated versions.

    To help, I have compiled the following list to help anyone trying to buy the set or add to their existing collection. But please take care if you order second-hand copies to stipulate that you require the Oxford Sherlock Holmes editions as these are the annotated versions. A well-meaning but unaware bookseller may send you another version without the detailed notes.  Those that are available are listed below and the links lead to them in the Amazon catalogue with the ISBN for books and ASIN for Kindle versions.

    Darryl Jones (General Editor) Edition

    In March this year, Oxford World Classics announced a new set of annotated versions to be published over the next year or so.

    So far, three have been published, A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Return. The Adventures is due to be published next May and publication dates for the remaining five volumes are not yet available.

    The following list will be updated with the remaining volumes when their publication dates are known.

    • Volume 1 – A Study in Scarlet
    • Volume 2 – The Sign of Four
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available
    • Volume 3 – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available
    • Volume 4 – The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available
    • Volume 5 – The Hound of the Baskervilles
    • Volume 6 – The Return of Sherlock Holmes
    • Volume 7 – The Valley of Fear
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available
    • Volume 8 – His Last Bow
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available
    • Volume 9 – The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
      • Paperback not yet available
      • Kindle not yet available

    There are, at present, no plans to produce hardback versions or a boxed set of all nine volumes.

    If you want to read an interesting discussion about Holmes’ college years, please refer to Dorothy Sayers, Unpopular Opinions, pages 134-147.

  • Behind every great man is an even greater woman, demanding rent

    Following the success of their book, Mrs Hudson’s Diaries: A View from the Landing at 221B: Behind the Apron with Sherlock Holmes’ Land Lady, the writers Barry and Bob Cryer, brought Mrs Hudson (played by Patricia Hodge) on to the radio in her own series (well, two episodes, anyway).

    As Dr Watson was reminded by the good lady many times, she was their landlady – not their housekeeper, and in the BBC Sherlock series, viewers were also reminded of Mrs Hudson’s standing. She has always been “an independent woman, who was taking advantage of the change in the law that allowed a widow to inherit her husband’s property for the first time” as Bob Cryer points out.

    The radio cast with Barry Cryer, Bob Cryer, Ruth Bratt, Miriam Margolyes, Patricia Hodge, Orlando Wells, Stephen Critchlow and Jeremy Limb

    The writers suggested that the radio series may move to television but that now seems less likely with the sad passing of Barry Cryer.

    The two episodes are listed on the BBC website but the recordings are not currently available. To whet your appetite for when they do become available, here are the synopses of the two episodes.

    Episode 1 – A Rare Medium

    When her tenant, a magician known as The Great Mysto, goes missing, Mrs Hudson is suddenly in urgent need of rent money and new lodgers.

    This half hour episode sees Mrs Hudson attempting to reclaim her lost money and encountering everything from crooked showgirls and Music Hall eccentrics to German strongmen and dodgy clairvoyants. Meanwhile, Mrs Hudson’s maid Martha (Ruth Bratt) has secretly advertised for new tenants and it’s not long before a doctor (Stephen Critchlow) and a consulting detective (Orlando Wells) come knocking.

    Time is not on her side as villainous Sir Charles Swift is ready to swoop and reclaim her house if she doesn’t pay her ground rent.

    Episode 2 – Wild Geese

    In this second episode, a dead goose and a battered hat are found by Inspector Lestrade (Bob Cryer) lying in the middle of Baker Street. It’s not long before Mrs Hudson is leading her friends out into the night on a very silly seasonal adventure.

    However, one thing you can be sure of, Sherlock Holmes (Orlando Wells) and Dr Watson (Stephen Critchlow) are never far away and usually ahead of the game.

    So come in from the cold, turn on the wireless and make a date with Mrs Hudson.

    But don’t forget to wipe your feet first.

    Did I say it was a comedy?

  • Jeremy Brett

    For some people, Jeremy Brett, will always be the Sherlock Holmes. He portrayed Holmes over 40 times in what the creator of the Granada Series, Michael Cox, meant to be the genuine article. 

    There was a dangerous and eccentric edge to his playing of the role which fascinated men and attracted women. His portrayal included some mannerisms that are so uncannily similar to those that are described of Holmes in the original stories. 

    The programmes spanned six series plus five feature-length episodes and a short episode broadcast as part of Telethon ‘92. The latter has never been officially released though it is available on the Internet. 

    The whole project started with the best intentions – of keeping true to the stories as Watson had recounted them – but the commercial considerations of the powers that be at Granada and Jeremy’s failing health meant that the promise was not to be fully realised. 

    Some liberties were taken with the Canon. For instance, it was decided that Watson should not be married. So at the end of The Sign of Four, Mary and Watson go their separate ways. 

    In The Mazarin Stone (from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes), the penultimate episode to be shown, Jeremy was too ill for filming having collapsed at the end of filming , sadly somewhat prophetically, The Dying Detective (from His Last Bow). The script was rewritten using Holmes’ brother Mycroft in his place. The script also includes elements of the Three Garridebs (from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes) with the result that David Stuart Davies (see below) calls it “a mess”. There was also a lost opportunity to bring in the poignant moment from The Three Garridebs where Holmes thinks that Watson has been shot. Mycroft also appears to take Watson’s role in The Golden Pince-Nez (from The Return of Sherlock Holmes). 

    Two of the feature-length episodes strayed too far from the Canon for most people’s liking. These were The Last Vampyre (based perhaps too loosely on The Sussex Vampire from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes) and The Eligible Bachelor (based on The Noble Bachelor from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes). 

    The Hound of the Baskervilles was another two-hour episode that was so disappointing that Jeremy Brett wanted to do it again. David Stuart Davies refers to the hound jokingly with a reference to Silver Blaze as “the dog that did nothing in the ratings”. The Sign of Four was the only feature length episode that provided a creditable performance. 

    In the midst of all this, in 1988 and 1989, Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke toured with a stage play entitled The Secret of Sherlock Holmes in which it is proposed that Moriarty is just a figment of Holmes fevered brain. 

    You can judge for yourself as the Granada series is available on DVD as Sherlock Holmes – Complete Collection. 

    If you want to know more about Jeremy Brett, his life and career, I can recommend two books. The first is my favourite as it’s written by someone who knows Holmes and Watson very well, David Stuart Davies, Bending The Willow. There is a revised 2022 edition now available (but not yet on Amazon). David’s enthusaism for Holmes led him to become a founding member of The Northern Mugraves Sherlock Holmes Society. He has also published Holmes of the Movies surveying the Great Detective on film. 

    The second is The Man Who Became Sherlock Holmes by Terry Manners – his first foray into the world of Holmes. 

    None of these books appear to be available new so you will need to consult a good second-hand bookseller to obtain a copy – or maybe your local library. The Sherlockian holds further information about Jeremy Brett as Holmes.

    Few people realise that one other person called Brett also portrayed Holmes. It would be an erudite scholar who knew the answer to that little puzzle!