Douglas Wilmer

"I think you could complain that my Holmes was unpleasant. I'm sure that on the face of it...Holmes was unpleasant.... It didn't mean that he had no heart, and in the books, you see, Watson says he has. Watson softened the impact" - Douglas Wilmer

With Nigel Stock

With Thorley Walters in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

Born January 8th, 1920 in London, and educated at King's, Canterbury, Douglas Wilmer's film debut was in 1954, in Laurence Olivier's Richard III as Dorset. Established as a supporting actor, his best-remembered film role is Nayland Smith in the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu series, when he was cast after Nigel Green declined the part.

Produced by David Goddard in 1964, the BBC production of The Speckled Band was the first of Wilmer's appearances as Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Stock as Watson. Wilmer and Stock were brought back in 1965 for twelve more episodes with a supporting cast that included Mary Holder as Mrs Hudson, Peter Madden as Lestrade and Derek Francis as Mycroft Holmes and guest stars such as Peter Wyngarde. However, the series suffered from lack of time, money and production values.

Two episodes have been released on video by the BBC, The Speckled Band and The Illustrious Client.

One reviewer has described Wilmer's performance as:

"smooth and sardonic without seeming bitchy and rude. He's intelligent and quick on his heels without seeming neurotic and egotistical. All in all, he's exactly what Conan Doyle wrote. Even the physical resemblance to the Sidney Paget illustrations is startling" - a point picked up by a contemporary Times review. Nigel Stock's Watson was seen as more serious and intelligent than audience's familiar with the Nigel Bruce interpretation, a trend begun by Andre Morell in Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles, and continued by actors such as James Mason and Edward Hardwicke.

Bert Coules has commented:

"To a general, modern audience they would appear sorry things indeed: slow, clumsy, ill-rehearsed (they were taped as-live, with only the barest number of recording breaks) and (especially) saddled with some of the worst, most inappropriate, appallingly unatmospheric incidental music known to man. The writing on the shows was inconsistent, too. Wilmer tells a good story of how he and Stock, armed with a copy of the story and not much time, rewrote The Devil's Foot into something rather more Doylean than the screenplay they had been handed. It remains one of the better-all-round episodes."

In the event, Wilmer left the series, although Nigel Stock stayed on to play opposite Peter Cushing in 1968. However, the association with Holmes didn't end there.

In 1973, Wilmer played Professor Van Dusen in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes on BBC TV and in 1975 appeared in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson.

An interview broadcast on Radio Orwell (Ipswich) on August 20, 1980, revealed that Wilmer ran Sherlock's wine bar in Woodbridge, Suffolk and in October 1990 Philip Weller edited "Under the Deerstalker and Other Hats": Conversations with Douglas Wilmer, published by The Franco-Midland Hardware Company, a slim illustrated volume (Share Issue No. 1) that was limited to 200 numbered copies. "This Company Share Issue is the transcript of an interview of an Honorary Director of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Douglas Wilmer. The interview took place at The 7% Convention, the first international Sherlock Holmes convention held in Britain, at the Shepperton Moat House Hotel on Saturday 25 August 1990."

Douglas Wilmer is currently enjoying a revival in the Sherlockian world; he has recorded a series of the stories on audio cassette and has appeared as a guest at several UK and US events, the most recent being the Society's Golden Jubilee Dinner in January 2001.