Back in December, we asked you to choose your favourite screen Sherlock, either from our shortlist of ten, or by suggesting your own preferred deerstalkered diagnostician.

Advertisement

That Benedict Cumberbatch, dashingly infuriating sociopath of BBC One’s Sherlock, remained way out in front throughout — and won the day — is testament to the welly of his fanbase.

It was warming to see Jeremy Brett (whose eccentric Holmes fronted Granada TV’s 41-episode 1980s/90s series) come in second. Basil Rathbone was third (and the most popular of the big-screen Holmeses), his 14 feature-length cases (ten on TCM this week) moving from the Victorian era to the 1930s and 40s.

Favourites not on our original shortlist who made your top five include Robert Downey Jr in Guy Ritchie’s pair of steampunk revivals, Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows, and Jonny Lee Miller as Benedict’s funkily contemporary rival in Elementary on Sky Living/Sky Witness.

Full marks, too, if you voted for Soviet TV star Vasily Livanov or Englishman Douglas Wilmer, inaugural star of the BBC’s mid-1960s run, later replaced by Peter Cushing. Cushing and Wilmer came in at six and seven, respectively.

More like this

Here's the full list of your top ten Sherlocks:

1. Benedict Cumberbatch

2. Jeremy Brett

3. Basil Rathbone

4. Robert Downey Jr

5. Jonny Lee Miller

6. Peter Cushing

7. Douglas Wilmer

8. Vasily Livanov

9. Ian McKellen

10. Robert Stephens

Advertisement

Now vote to have your say on the greatest film theme of all time!

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement