Jeremy Brett Playing A Part

A comprehensive performance biography of the incomparable Shakespearean actor, Jeremy Brett, by Maureen Whittaker. It covers the years 1954 – 1995 and is a singular view of the history of theatre, film and TV of this time period. For the fan it is chock full of hundreds of rarely seen and exclusive photographs. For the researcher, it is a treasure trove of knowledge.

For millions of viewers Jeremy Brett was, and remains, the quintessential Sherlock Holmes. The star of the number one Granada TV series, a co-production with WGBH Mystery for Independent Television Network and PBS for its ten year run. One of the shows that built the “delicate bridge” between UK and US TV. Following a spectacular thirty year career in Film, TV, and Theatre, this was the role that brought Mr. Brett to a much deserved international stardom. His outstanding success as the remarkable genius detective would forever link him with the role much as Basil Rathbone had been fifty years earlier.

But like no other actor, or series before this, Mr. Brett spoke Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dialogue and acted in the original stories surrounded by the incomparable style of Granada’s superbly crafted and historically accurate shows.

For the first time, Doyle’s stories were treated as literature. The book covers his decade of work steeped in Sherlock Holmes. The role he said was more difficult to play than Macbeth or Hamlet. He became for viewers and for Sherlockians and Holmesians the world round, the definitive Sherlock Holmes. 

With a foreword by David Burke who played Granada’s inaugural Dr. John H. Watson alongside Brett in the series. A breakthrough performance designed to return Dr. Watson to his status as the gentleman, doctor, soldier, and author he was, not the buffoon. Mr. Burke achieved this with skill, style, and beauty. The youthful interaction between Burke and Brett and the duet of their voices created a fantastic beginning to the series.

Ms. Whittaker is a lifelong Brett fan and has taken her interest to the next level, with every word she shares her devotion with us in a book that Brett fans have awaited for many years. This hefty book, 450 pages and 8.5″ x 11″, and the enormous amount of research compiled make this an encyclopaedic performance biography of Jeremy Brett, one the UK’s most iconic actors. The superb research in this volume places it on every book shelf next to Lesley Klinger’s The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Mattias Bostrom’s From Holmes to Sherlock. As the study of a great actor it also shares the shelf with Michael Cox’ A Study in Celluloid and David Stuart Davies’ Bending The Willow. Jeremy Brett – Playing a Part released on the date of Mr. Brett’s 25th Anniversary, 12 September, 2020.

Ms. Altabef is a Contributor to the Sherlock Holmes section of this book and one of the book’s Editors.

Gretchen Altabef is an MX author of Sherlock Holmes novels. Mondadori Publishing has contracted to translate her novels into Italian. Ms. Altabef strives to emulate Dr. John Watson’s and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary style. The first, These Scattered Houses, is in Holmes’ own voice and resourcefully chronicles the last two months of his ‘great hiatus’. The second in the series is, Remarkable Power of Stimulus. After 3 years away, Holmes finds London awash in murders, No. 221B under siege, anarchists threatening Paris, and the return of Irene Adler. Fully aware he is being watched by Moriarty’s men, Holmes steps out of the cab into Baker Street knowing he will find Watson’s friendship and unerring aim are as dependable as the British Rail.