SCRIPT FOR “SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR. WATSON”
by Anna B, Maria G and Ester P
Hello, good morning everyone, we are Anna, Maria and Ester and today we are here to talk about Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson.
In our presentation we will first give you a brief description of Sherlock and in which real person was he based on. Later on, we’ll describe Dr. Watson and, at the end, we’ll compare the characters to other TV series and films that have been produced after the original one.
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character that was created by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. He is an English consulting detective who lives in London at 221b Baker Street.
Physically, he is tall (over 6 feet) and gaunt, he has a long, thin, eager face. His nose is long and thin too, and his lips are firm. His eyes are grey and particularly sharp, he also has thin hands and arms. His hair is black and he usually wears a tweed suit or frock-coat.
As everyone knows, Holmes likes smoking cigars, cigarettes, and of course, pipes. He is interested in music too, as he plays the violin. Moreover, he is into sports as boxing.
Watson describes him as an automaton, a calculating machine with something positively inhuman in him. He is very impatient, nervous, and has the habit of biting his nails. He is also egotistical and with didactic manners. His most obvious weakness is that he is impatient with less intelligent people than him.
He loves admiration and applause and has an old carelessness of manner and a half-humorous, half-cynical vein which is his habitual attitude and this behaviour is most often annoying to Watson.
Arthur Conan Doyle based his characters on real people and so he did with Sherlock. The character was inspired by Joseph Bell, who was a professor who served at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as Arthur Conan Doyle did.
He based Sherlock's personality on Joseph's because he also had an obsession for close observation.
Then we have Dr. Watson, in full Dr. John H. Watson, who is also a fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle for his Sherlock Holmes saga.
Watson has served as an army surgeon in India for a long time, and has returned to London due to his impaired health. There is where he meets Sherlock, and they share a flat at the popular 221B Baker Street. Sherlock and him become very good friends and he is the one who narrates all their adventures and crimes.
Physically, Watson is middle-sized, strongly built, with square jaw, thick neck, and a small moustache. Furthermore, he is quite handsome; Sherlock Holmes talks about his natural "advantages" with women.
About his character, he is modest and intelligent. He is a patient and sensitive observer, but his detecting skills are not as bright as Sherlock’s.
As the character of Sherlock, Watson was based on a real person too. It’s not hundred percent sure but people think that Watson was based on William Smith. Smith was a doctor in Osteopathy who met Joseph Bell while he was studying in Edinburg.
In Shelocks’ cases he always follows a method of investigation, which is based on observation. What Sherlock proposes is to question facts before believing.
First of all, he observes. No questions or decisions made. Observation of the scene sufficed to solve the most elementary questions. Then, he raises a hypothesis, a truth that he has to corroborate or refute. Later, he follows every line of investigation, discarding wrong ones until the only one left proves to be the right one.
Holmes normally uses different kind of tips in his investigations, the ones he uses the most are:
Fingerprints: he is quick to realize the value of fingerprints evidence.
Typewritten evidence: Holmes analises the idiosyncrasies of the suspects typewriting.
Handwriting: Holmes has an exaggerated ability on interpreting documents. He is able to tell gender and make deductions about the writer.
Footprints: Holmes also uses footprint analysis to identify culprits.
Ciphers: Holmes always deduces ciphers that help him to hunt the culpable.
After describing these two iconic characters, we are now going to compare several TV series and films which have been inspired in the original Sherlock Holmes.
1.Sherlock
“Sherlock” is a 2010 TV series, which became very popular and it still is. In this series, we can see a modernized version of Sherlock and Watson. They live in the 21st century in the city of London.
It is very revealing to see how they resolve the famous Connan Doyle original crimes but this time with the help of technologies, such as smartphones, iPads, internet… Also, Watson writes a blog where he explains all the adventures they take part in. Documenting these cases makes Holmes become known.
2.Sherlock Holmes by Hayao Miyazaki
Sherlock Holmes by Hayao Miyazaki is a cartoon series for children. We think it’s a very contrasted version to the original because in it, the characters appear as anthropomorphic, as animals, mostly dogs and foxes.
3.Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing)
Here we have another of the hundreds of Sherlock Holmes films and series. We have selected this old version because of the performance of the british Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. He did an extraordinary interpretation and he is still known for it.
4.Sherlock Holmes by Guy Ritchie
This mysterious film is based on a case in the 80’s. The film has differences with the original one because it is a cinematographic adaptation of Lionel Wrigam’s comic, where Sherlock shows a brilliant ability in boxing and Watson is a veteran warrior besides a doctor.
5.Enola Holmes
Enola Holmes is a 2020 film in which the principal character isn’t Sherlock Holmes. This time, Enola, which is played by the well known Millie Bobby Brown, is the main character. She is the youngest sister in the Holmes family, and she is as smart and brilliant as his brother, or even more. The plot of the film starts when her mother disappears and she has to follow her tracks to try to find her.
Arthur Connan Doyle never talked about a younger sister, although he mentioned a brother named Mycrof, who also appears in the film. We have chosen to talk about this film because we think it’s very innovative.
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As a conclusion we would like to say that we weren’t expecting to find so many TV series and film versions of Sherlock as we have found. And, that both Sherlock and Watson, are very mysterious and interesting characters.
Thank you for your attention, we hope you’ve liked it.
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