Jeremy Brett: Gone Three Decades

by Scott Monty September 12, 2025

"the stage lost a fine actor" [SCAN] 

On September 12, 1995, Jeremy Brett passed away at the age of 61 (although contemporary accounts gave his age as 59). It's hard to believe that one of the most influential impersonators of Sherlock Holmes has been gone 30 years.

Many have hailed Brett as the definitive Sherlock Holmes, although it can be argued that each generation has its own definitive Holmes. In our estimation, the value of Brett's performance in the Granada series are due in part to three things: 

1. The careful crafting of the Victorian setting and (in the earlier episodes mostly) 
2. The faithful adaptation of the many of the Sherlock Holmes stories
3. Brett's own interest and expertise in the Canon and Sherlock Holmes

In A Study in Celluloid (Wessex Press), Michael Cox, the producer of the Granada series, noted that often times in script readings, Jeremy would make suggestions to steer the writing toward the Canon, with entire paragraphs of dialog being lifted directly from the original writings. Indeed, the team even had their own reference guide that kept the production crew and cast well informed as to Holmes's appearance and habits called The Baker Street File.

Jeremy Brett: Playing a Part (MX Publishing) is Maureen Whittaker's performance biography of the actor with hundreds of incredible photos of Brett throughout his career. With a foreword from David Burke who played Granada's inaugural Dr. John H. Watson alongside Brett in the series, this book is a comprehensive review of Brett's career on stage and screen. It contains hundreds of rarely seen and some exclusive photographs with the kind permission of the Brett family, Granada Studios and many others. We interviewed Whittaker about the undertaking.

We personally remember the outpouring of grief and memories that Sherlock Holmes fans shared online in 1995 — the early days of the Internet — through discussion forums and listservs, and wonder just how the web would have exploded had his death occurred in the present day. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and the like would have exploded with emotion.

In 2020, we used the 25th anniversary of Brett's passing to hear more about him. The late David Stuart Davies, BSI ("Sir Ralph Musgrave"), author of Bending the Willow, joined us to give his personal perspective on the matter: Episode 201: Remembering Jeremy Brett.




Here are some happier memories of Brett, in his incarnation of Sherlock Holmes.

Tell us how Jeremy Brett affected your view of Sherlock Holmes in a comment.