Part Two

Sherlock Holmes in New York...

...was the title of a 1976 TV movie starring Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee, but that’s a story for another time. In the January of 2012, the CBS network - home of the all-powerful CSI franchise - announced that their Fall schedule would include Elementary, a mystery series in which Sherlock Holmes sets up shop in modern day New York.

Obviously, it would be foolish to suggest that no connection exists between the commissioning of Elementary and the runaway success of the BBC’s show. In fact, Sue Vertue, executive producer of Sherlock stated in an interview with the Independent that CBS had initially approached the production company Hartswood Films about remaking the programme. “We are very proud of our show,” she said, “and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and well-being of our offspring.” So fingers crossed this book doesn’t make things worse.

It’s likely that CBS chose to go their own way because of the public domain status of the source material, and because several US TV shows of recent vintage have drawn their inspiration from the Canon, particularly Monk and House (Hollywood execs, keep an eye out for my forthcoming spec script, Monkhouse). It would be insane not to exploit the original tales at some point, and what better time than with one Sherlock Holmes riding high at the box office and another enjoying strong ratings and uniformly positive reviews across the pond? The situation is not unlike the famous Battle of the Bonds, with Roger Moore’s Octopussy and Sean Connery’s Never Say Never Again being released within months of each other.

This wouldn’t be the first that Holmes has been seen in the modern day America - the TV movies The Return of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes Returns (starring Michael Pennington and Anthony Higgins respectively) both had the detective revived from suspended animation and resuming his career Stateside.

But nor is this the first series called Elementary written for US television. In 2000, nine years before Sherlock’s pilot episode began shooting, scriptwriter Josh Friedman - presently co-writing Avatar 2 with James Cameron - penned a pilot script entitled Elementary, based in present day San Francisco.

The storyline is a pretty close adaptation of The Musgrave Ritual (the subject of another updating in the 1943 Basil Rathbone picture Sherlock Holmes Faces Death) and features an American Holmes and Watson, both male, who are on first-name terms. Sherlock favours the piano to the violin, and Watson is a former psychiatrist, struck off following an affair with a female patient.

Friedman litters the script with references to the Canon in general: the presence of Lestrade, the brief appearance of a fat Mycroft, mention of Holmes beating corpses with a golf club in order to establish bruising after death, and somewhere in the background, the baleful influence of Moriarty. Almost prophetically, Watson declares “I believe in Sherlock”, and onscreen subtitles are used not to establish location but to relay relevant plot information to the viewer.

The story is told as a flashback from Watson’s perspective following his arrest for the murder of none other than- Well, perhaps it’s unfair to go into too much detail. Had it ever been filmed, the script might well have undergone many changes. In fact, who’s to say that it won’t ever be filmed? Just because it seems improbable doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Friedman obviously intended certain plot threads to be pursued over a number of episodes, and it’s a shame that we might never find out just what he had in mind for Elementary Mk 1.

It may be that there’s no direct connection between Friedman’s script and the show devised by Robert Doherty for CBS. Stranger coincidences have occurred - for instance, two entirely different comic strip characters called Dennis the Menace appeared in the US and the UK on the very same day, the 12th of March 1951, without any collusion between the creators or the slightest hint of plagiarism. Indeed, the title and contemporary setting aside, there’s little real similarity between the two Elementarys.

Robert Doherty’s version focuses on an aspect of the detective’s life that, while undoubtedly important, merits little more than a paragraph in Conan Doyle’s The Missing Three-Quarter: namely, his recovery from “that drug mania which had threatened once to check his remarkable career.” This series, therefore begins with Holmes having checked out of rehab and finding himself lumbered with a sober companion, former Dr Joan Watson, who must accompany him on all his investigations in order to ensure that he remains drug-free.

Many die-hard Sherlock fans smell conspiracy in the casting of Jonny Lee Miller in the lead role. Miller had earlier starred alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in an acclaimed stage adaptation of Frankenstein. By the same logic, CBS came perilously close to casting a CGI horse as Holmes.

Appearing alongside Miller is former Ally McBeal and Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. Liu is not the first female Watson, by any means. Joanne Woodward was psychologist Dr Mildred Watson opposite George C Scott in the 1971 film They Might be Giants (the first motion picture to collapse under the weight of its own whimsy), Margaret Colin played Jane Watson in The Return of Sherlock Holmes and Debrah Farentino, though her character is named Dr Amy Winslow, fulfilled the same function in Sherlock Holmes Returns.

Elementary was no moderate success for CBS - Episode Fourteen, The Deductionist, was selected to follow the 2013 Superbowl (a big deal for any network show) and the first season’s run was extended from 22 to 24 episodes, a notable achievement in an era when budget restraints mean that many programmes manage only 17 or so instalments.

Looking back, I now realise that I should’ve called this section of the book “It’s Miller Time!” Too late now. Damn.