RIP Douglas Wilmer (1920 - 2016)

Often forgotten among the Bretts and Rathbones is Douglas Wilmer's performance as the titular detective in BBC's 1965 - 68 production Sherlock Holmes. The veteran actor who passed away on 31st March at the age of 96 starred as Holmes in 12 episodes of the 1965 series before turning down a chance to return in the 1968 series.

Wilmer, a lifelong-fan of Conan Doyle's stories took his role with much seriousness and attempted to portray both a dark as well as unpleasant side of Holmes. Here is a clip [credit BFI] of Wilmer's performance:

The series was marred by incompetence and awful scripts - some of them  so bad that Wilmer rewrote them himself. He subsequently turned down a chance to return for the second season. Despite having a bad experience in the series Wilmer never managed to completely stay away from the character portraying him in Gene Wilder's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother (1975) and also playing a Holmes-esque professor in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1973) . Most recently he also appeared in the BBC adaptation of Sherlock starring Cumberbatch. He put in a guest appearance as an old man in the Diogenes Club in the episode Reichenbach Fall (2012).

His compelling and thoughtful portrayal deserves to be better remembered and recognised. He was voted by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London as the best screen Holmes of all time.