THE GAME'S AFOOT, WATSON, OR POSSIBLY THIRTEEN INCHES.

Just as every fan has their preferred James Bond or Doctor Who actor, everyone has a favourite Sherlock Holmes. Although Jeremy Brett was definitely the best and most accurate portrayal of Conan Doyle's character, I’ve always had a huge love for Basil Rathbone. With the brilliant Nigel Bruce as Watson (anyone else would be unthinkable) he played Holmes fourteen times onscreen between 1939 and 1946 and every film is still a nostalgic treat. It was also one of the few times Rathbone got to play the hero. In most dramas he was cast as the suave, handsome villain, often dying in a final sword fight, most memorably at the hands of Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood.Only the first two Sherlock Holmes films with Rathbone are set in Victorian England. With the war raging all around, the studio decided to use the detective as a propaganda tool and the stories were rewritten and brought into the modern day, where Holmes could foil Nazi spy plots and keep England and America safe. It isn't difficult to guess which side Moriarty was fighting for.Nigel Bruce's Doctor Watson grows progressively dafter during the film series, and quite why the genius Holmes would have him as an assistant is a greater mystery than the cryptic puzzles he attempts to solve. This Watson would be the ideal guest to invite over at Christmas - a lovely, kindly old uncle, all bumbling and silly - but he probably wouldn’t be your first choice as an ally when going up against Moriarty or hell hounds on Dartmoor. Thankfully, Rathbone doesn’t share these doubts and the inseparable pair are absolutely wonderful together.Captain Kirk never said ‘Beam me up, Scotty,’ and most people are aware that Holmes never said ‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ in any of the books or films. Over the past few weeks, however, I’ve been playing on this line with a series of Facebook posts to promote my novel Cat Flap. These follow at the end of the blog.Published by MX Publishing on the first of February, Cat Flap is the first in a series of humorous detective novels chronicling the exploits of eccentric private investigator Bernie Quist. Based in York, Quist is a contemporary Sherlock Holmes. His methods, looks and personality are remarkably similar to the celebrated Victorian sleuth and his assistant is named Watson, although this Watson is a black youth from the notorious Grimpen housing estate and he's definitely no doctor. The pair tackle bizarre cases which invariably lead them into the murky realms of the supernatural, a world the secretive Quist is only too familiar with.Elementary, my dear Watson...