The Many Resurrections of Sherlock Holmes

Why the Great Detective is always in fashion.

- Amy H. Sturgis

On a recent trip to London, I stood outside the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street for three and a half hours in the rain. (I do understand the concept of opportunity cost, I swear. The wait wasn’t just worth it; it turned out to be part of the fun. And this from someone who usually approaches long lines with all the zen of a Chihuahua on its third espresso.) Just ahead of me, a Japanese mother and teenage daughter adjusted their deerstalker caps and stood their ground with firm determination while the rest of their party appeared periodically to try to tempt them away to other sightseeing. Just behind me, a family from the North of England served as a patient audience while their youngest member, a tween boy, deconstructed every scene featuring Moriarty in the BBC’s hit series Sherlock as compared to the character’s appearances in Arthur Conan Doyle’s canonical writings.

Even the heterogeneity and perseverance of my fellow Sherlockians didn’t prepare me for the most compelling item in the museum, however: a simple cork bulletin board where visitors had posted handwritten personal messages and drawings for the Great Detective by the dozens, layers deep, in many different languages. The docents had their hands full clearing away the loving tributes to make room for more.

Guinness World Records announced in 2012 that Sherlock Holmes holds the distinction of being the “most portrayed literary human character” in television and film worldwide. And it’s true, we enjoy an embarrassment of riches in the Holmes department these days: Ian McKellen in the movie Mr. Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. in the Guy Ritchie film franchise, Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary in the United States, Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC’s Sherlock, and even Vidar Magnussen from the Norwegian sketch comedy show Underholdningsavdelingen’s parodies of Sherlock.