Today’s blog was inspired by two separate trains of thought, that converged like iron behemoths becoming derailed in the dark tunnels of the mind. An analogy too far, perhaps.
Firstly, I was writing my latest book, and I started to
imagine each of my characters as an actor – asking myself the question ‘Who
would play this character in the TV drama version, or the Hollywood
blockbuster version’? I can dream, right? But it helped me a surprising amount
with the characterisation. Suddenly I could picture them in my head – their
expressions, their accents, the timbre of their voices. Like a virtual
director, I was imagining them saying the key parts of the dialogue, and
bouncing of each other’s performances, to the point where I could visualise
their bits of ad-lib so clearly that the dialogue and interactions almost wrote
themselves. A cool trick, I thought, and one that I’ll definitely use again. I can almost see the ITV drama adaptation of my latest in my mind's eye...
The second element of this blog came about recently as I was
watching the movie version of one of my favourite books: The Hound of the Baskervilles. There are lots of film and TV
versions, and as this particular version unfolded before my eyes (it was the
old Peter Cushing one – great stuff!), I started to think about the cast of the
movie, and how they differed from my reading of the characters in the book, or
even exceeded my expectations. This got me thinking so much that, over the next
few days, I actually re-watched all of the film versions of the Hound of the
Baskervilles. Yes, I know… a bit obsessive! This in turn made me compare and
contrast the various character portrayals, weigh up their pros and cons, and
consider my favourites. Of course, in some versions the characters are
completely different from the book, or even made up (the alteration of Beryl
Stapleton to the very different Cecille in the 1959 version, for example), but
they usually have a comparator somewhere in the other versions regardless.
So all of this set me up to think about my ultimate
Baskervilles cast. If I had to choose my favourite member of the cast for each
role, who would I pick? Well, that wasn’t an easy process, because so many of
the actors are really good, and you kind of wonder if their performance was in
part due to the chemistry they shared with their co-stars… but then you’re just
over-thinking it. So here’s my list – my favourite actors for each key role in
the Hound of the Baskervilles. Think of it as kind of a Fantasy Football
League, but for literature-to-film adaptations. Do you agree with my picks?
Sherlock: Basil Rathbone
Watson: Edward Hardwicke
Sir Henry Baskerville: Martin Shaw
Stapleton: Richard E Grant
Beryl Stapleton: Marla Landi (as ‘Cecille
Stapleton’)
Dr Mortimer: John Nettles
Barrymore: John Le Mesurier
Mrs Barrymore: Eily Malyon (as Mrs. Barryman)
Selden (Convict): William Ilkley
Honourable Mentions: Spike Milligan and Roy Kinnear (as the
policeman and Selden respectively, from the 1978 spoof), and the hideously
miscast William Shatner from the 1972 TV movie. Brilliant!
A quick point to explain – it’s no great secret that my
favourite Sherlock Holmes (in any guise or setting) is the wonderful, late,
Jeremy Brett. However, in the Hound of the Baskervilles, Rathbone puts in a
particularly stellar performance, and he has the ‘look’ down exactly right. In
this one movie adaptation of any Holmes story, Rathbone is my favourite, and
Brett a close second.