Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) "Rathbone "was" Sherlock Holmes". The choice of Nigel Bruce as Watson was more contentious, with Davies pointing out that "Bruce's characterisation bore little relation" to the written Watson, even though the portrayal eventually produced "an endearingly avuncular figure". The historian David Parkinson agrees, and wrote that Bruce's "avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone's briskly omniscient sleuth". Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: "after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him". With the combination of
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes 1960s, there was a BBC TV series entitled "Sherlock Holmes" with Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock. Peter Cushing, who had earlier played the detective in the Hammer version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", later took over from Wilmer in the lead role. The 24 part series "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" (1979–1980) starred Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson. In 1982, Granada Television aired an eight-part series entitled "" which told the story of Holmes' youth. The show starred Guy Henry as Sherlock Holmes. Also in 1982, the BBC produced an adaptation of The Hound of