8 Essential Sherlock Holmes Movies & TV Series Every Fan of the Great Detective Must Watch
Each generation of viewers gets its own Holmes, and each generation finds something new in him.
Sherlock Holmes remains the most frequently portrayed literary character in film history.
For over a century, fans of Arthur Conan Doyle have seen dozens of interpretations of their beloved detective, ranging from the strictly classical to the boldly postmodern and from the strictly Victorian to the contemporary.
8. 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', 1959
IMDb Score: 6.9/10
Gothic mansions, fog, family curses, and the acting of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are what make any Hammer horror instantly recognizable. The creators of the low-budget Dracula and Frankenstein movies seized the opportunity to transform Conan Doyle's prose into studio horror.
The Hound of the Baskervilles deviates significantly from the original text, relying on ritual sacrifices and exotic horrors, yet it retains the classic detective storyline.
Actor Peter Cushing, an admirer of Holmes, deserves credit for maintaining the subtlety of the iconic detective amid the vicious plot, outperforming Christopher Lee himself.
7. 'Elementary', 2012-2019
IMDb Score: 7.9/10
Elementary is a classic procedural that features familiar characters but barely touches on Conan Doyle's plots. Jonny Lee Miller plays a character that is exceptionally charismatic, more like Dr. House than Holmes.
The showrunner of Elementary made Dr. Watson a woman. Holmes is sent to a rehabilitation center in New York and Dr. Joan Watson monitors the former drug addict while assisting him with his cases.
6. 'Without a Clue', 1988
IMDb Score: 6.9/10
Without a Clue is one of the most original interpretations of the Sherlock Holmes legend, completely upending it. In this version, Holmes is not a detective but an alcoholic actor who plays the role of the great detective for the public.
The movie completely changes the narrative, transforming Dr. Watson into an intellectual hero and reducing Holmes to a drunken street slob who participates in other people's investigations.
Michael Caine plays this pseudo-Holmes – a Cockney-speaking London imposter living in Watson's shadow.
5. 'Young Sherlock', 2026-...
IMDb Score: 7.6/10
The series about the 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes is based not on the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but on the Young Sherlock series of novels by English author Andrew Lane. Eight books were published, focusing on the detective's youth.
In the first book, the inexperienced and rebellious Sherlock gets a job as a laborer at Oxford University with the help of his brother Mycroft. There, he meets student James Moriarty.
The two friends take on the investigation of the murder of mathematics professor Charles Thompson.
4. 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes', 1984-1985
IMDb Score: 8.7/10
In the UK, the iconic Sherlock Holmes iteration is portrayed by Jeremy Brett. In his home country, all new incarnations of Holmes are compared to the character portrayed in the 1984 series.
The show aired for four seasons over 11 years and the creators faithfully adhere to the literary source material.
In their first joint case, the detective and Dr. Watson search for a compromising photograph of the King of Bohemia with his mistress, Irene Adler.
3. 'Sherlock', 2010-2017
IMDb Score: 9.0/10
Showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss made a bold move by setting the events of Conan Doyle's works in modern-day London.
In the show, Sherlock, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, uses his mobile phone and other gadgets, and viewers are given an immersive look into the detective's thought process.
Holmes and Watson reconnect at Mrs. Hudson's apartment. Their first case together involves investigating a series of mysterious suicides.
2. 'Mr. Holmes', 2015
IMDb Score: 6.8/10
Although Conan Doyle himself mused about Holmes's old age, it was only after the detective's works entered the public domain that fans and writers developed this narrative.
In Mr. Holmes, Ian McKellen plays the 93-year-old retired detective, who is no longer captivated by London's sensational crime scenes but by his own apiary.
The value of Mr. Holmes lies not in the detective storyline, but in the perspective of a man who has lived through two world wars and the loss of his loved ones and is gradually losing his memory.
1. 'Sherlock Holmes', 2009
IMDb Score: 7.5/10
Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is not the reserved, intellectual detective he once was. Instead, he is a trickster and an adventurer who can use both wit and force when necessary and races through the whirlwind of Europe's industrial revolutions.
Downey Jr.'s Holmes is a wacky eccentric partly inspired by the actor himself.
Guy Ritchie has always created universes where the winner isn't the most deductive, but the bravest and most agile. Ritchie's Holmes is a licensed detective and a master at getting out of sticky situations.
