The stories of Sherlock Holmes were very popular as adaptations for the stage, and later film, and still later television. Continuing in Pop culture references to Sherlock Holmes. The Universal Sherlock Holmes (1995) by Ronald B. DeWaal lists over 25,000 Holmes-related productions and products.

The actor most associated with Holmes on stage was William Gillette, who wrote, directed, and starred in a popular play about Holmes in seven different productions on Broadway from 1899 (filmed in 1916), while the stories were still being published, to 1930. His version of Holmes, dressed in deerstalker hat and Inverness cape and smoking a large curved calabash pipe, contributed much to the popular image of the character. There are occasional hints of the deerstalker hat in Paget's original illustrations for The Strand, but it is by no means a regular accoutrement. Doyle's text is even vaguer, referring only to a travelling cap with earflaps in the passages with the relevant illustrations. He is also described as smoking several different types of pipes, varying them with his mood.

The calabash pipe is associated with Sherlock Holmes only because such a large pipe is easy for spectators at a play to see and because it's easy to hold in the mouth while doing other things. The air chamber in the pipe has a cooling and mellowing effect on the smoke. Holmes preferred harsh and strong tobaccos and would therefore eschew such pipes.

In subsequent revivals of this production, Holmes was played by John Wood, John Neville, Patrick Horgan, Robert Stephens and Leonard Nimoy.

A number of plays, two musicals -- Baker Street, and Sherlock Holmes: The Musical -- and a ballet have been written around Holmes.

Composer Jon Deak wrote a work for solo double bass based on The Hound of the Baskervilles, complete with narration and sound effects to mimic radio plays of the 1920s.^[1]

Sherlock Holmes are the second most frequently filmed fictional characters^{[citation needed]} with almost 200 film appearances to date. Only Count Dracula (239 movies) has beaten this record.

The first known film featuring Holmes is Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a one-reel film running less than a minute, made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1900. Many similar films were made in the early years of the twentieth century, most notably the 13 one- and two-reel films produced by the Danish Nordisk Film Company between 1908 and 1911. The only non-lost film is Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerkløer, produced in 1910. Holmes was originally played by Viggo Larsen. Other actors who played Holmes in those films were Otto Lagoni, Einar Zangenberg, Lauritz Olsen and Alwin Neuss. In 1911 the American Biograph company produced a series of 11 short comedies based on the Holmes character with Mack Sennett (later of Keystone Cops fame) in the title role.

The next significant cycle of Holmes films were produced by the Stoll Films company in Britain. Between 1921 and 1923 they produced a total of 47 two-reelers, all featuring noted West End actor Eille Norwood in the lead with Hubert Willis as Watson. A later British series produced between 1933 and 1936 starred Arthur Wontner as Holmes.

John Barrymore played the role in a 1922 movie entitled Sherlock Holmes, with Roland Young as Watson and William Powell in his first screen appearance.

In 1931 Raymond Massey played Sherlock Holmes in his screen debut, The Speckled Band.

Many other films have been comedies and parodies which poke fun at Holmes, Watson, their relationship and other characters. These have included Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes with Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely as Holmes and Watson.

More serious, non-canonical films were A Study in Terror (with John Neville and Donald Houston) and Murder by Decree (with Christopher Plummer and James Mason) both of which involved Holmes and Watson investigating the murders by the Whitechapel serial killer Jack the Ripper. And Young Sherlock Holmes with Nicholas Rowe as Holmes and Alan Cox as Watson playing the duo as schoolboys (in this film one of Holmes' early mentors becomes an enemy who, in the final credits, hides out in the Swiss Alps and signs his name as Moriarty) which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not write.

The 1974 novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a "lost manuscript" of a Holmes adventure, was also made into a film in 1976 starring Nicol Williamson as Holmes and Robert Duvall as Watson.

The 1988 film Without a Clue was a comedic twist on the familiar Holmes legend. Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley) is a genius crime fighter and successful author. Fans of his novels clamor to see the real Sherlock Holmes and Watson realizes that his audience simply would not accept the fact that Holmes was a fabrication and to reveal himself as the creator and brains behind him would be tantamount to literary suicide. To solve his dilemmas, Watson hires Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine), an alcoholic, womanizing, ne'er-do-well actor to impersonate Holmes.

Robert Downey, Jr. appears as the detective in the Guy Ritchie–directed Sherlock Holmes (2009), with Jude Law as Dr. Watson. Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures is planning a Holmes comedy with Sacha Baron Cohen as the great detective. It is being written by Etan Cohen and will be co-produced by Judd Apatow.^[2]

See also the 1971 film They Might Be Giants, starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward, which portrays a man who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes

Rathbone's career as Holmes began with The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, both made by 20th Century Fox and released in 1939 — the first Holmes films to be set in Victorian, rather than contemporary, times. These were followed by a series of 12 films (and a cameo appearance in the 1943 comedy Crazy House) produced by Universal from 1942 to 1946, set in the present and frequently pitting Holmes against Nazi agents. Although only the first of Rathbone's films was based directly on material by Conan Doyle, e.g. The Spider Woman (1944) was an amalgam of two stories, many fans feel that his portrayal most faithfully captures the Holmes of the original stories, due in part to his resemblance to Sidney Paget's original Strand illustrations. The Adventures also gives Rathbone a chance to show his range — in one scene he plays a disguised music hall actor, doing a very creditable version of "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"!

As well as his film performances, Rathbone has played Holmes in 219 radio performances, on television and on the stage. One of these, a record of The Red-Headed League, was sampled 19 years after his death to provide the voice of Holmes for the 1986 Disney animated film, The Great Mouse Detective.^[3]

Nigel Bruce played Watson to Rathbone's Holmes, playing the man as a bumbler and somewhat foolish, and in some films as retired, which is contrary to Doyle's depiction (although, as supposed chronicler, it is unlikely Watson would have dwelt over-much on his own deficiencies).

One famous radio appearance starred Orson Welles as Sherlock Holmes in an adaptation of one of William Gillette's plays. This was broadcast in September 1938 as part of the "Mercury Theater on the Air" series on CBS Radio.

Throughout the early 1940s on American Radio, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce performed as Holmes and Watson, respectively, in several series of canonical and original Sherlock Holmes stories on the The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio show. These broadcasts were loosely based on Doyle's cases. When Rathbone finally departed the role before the 1947 season, Tom Conway played Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce for one season. After a change of networks, there were two more pairings: John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson in 1947-1948 and John Stanley and Ian Martin in 1948-1949.

John Gielgud played Holmes for BBC radio in the 1950s, with Ralph Richardson as Watson. Gielgud's brother, Val Gielgud, appeared in one of the episodes, perhaps inevitably, as Mycroft Holmes. As this series was co-produced by the American Broadcasting Company, known American actors also appeared, such as Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty in The Adventure of the Final Problem.

Carleton Hobbs portrayed Holmes in a series of BBC radio broadcasts that ran from 1952 to 1969, with Norman Shelley playing Watson. Many of these were broadcast on Children's Hour. Of the many actors who have portrayed Holmes and Watson for the BBC, the Hobbs and Shelley duo is the longest running.

There have been many other radio adaptations (over 750 in English), including a more recent BBC Radio 4 run featuring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Together, the two actors completed radio adaptations of every story in the canon between 1989 and 1998. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a new series consisting of original stories written exclusively by Bert Coules was then commissioned, but following Williams' death from cancer in 2001, he was replaced by Andrew Sachs. The episodes of The Further Adventures were based on throwaway references in Doyle's short stories and novels. The complete canonical run is available on CD and audio tape. Four of the five original stories transmitted in 2002 are also available on audio cassette and CD, and four of the five original stories transmitted in 2004 are available on CD.

Starting in 1998, U.S. radio producer Jim French was given permission from the Conan Doyle estate to produce new, original Sherlock Holmes stories for radio in North America. These are presented within the Imagination Theater program on radio stations and XM satellite radio. The new stories are also broadcast under the banner The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. John Gilbert played Holmes until 2000, and subsequently by John Patrick Lowrie. Watson is played in all shows by Lawrence Albert. Scripts are by Jim French, M. J. Elliott, Matthew Booth, John Hall, Gareth Tilley, J R Campbell and Lawrence Albert. In 2005, with adaptations written by M. J. Elliott, French and his company began a new series based on Conan Doyle's original tales called "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Many episodes are available on CD as well as downloadable from the Imagination Theater website.

In 2010, Strobie Studios in Riverside, Iowa began releasing new original adventures titled "The Watson Files". The premise: "A hundred years after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson had their many adventures in London, their grandchildren, Spencer Holmes and Jack Watson, experienced their own adventures. As his grandfather did, Jack Watson often kept notes about these adventures and has decided to share them with the world. These are his stories..." These shows starred Michael Helgens and Greg Kilberger as Spencer and Jack with additional voices provided by Steve Rimpici, Craig Dahlen, Vickie Strosahl and Stacie Frede. New episodes are still being released and are available for free download.

A short-lived half-page Sherlock Holmes comic strip appeared daily and Sunday in the 1950s, written by radio scriptwriter Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia.

There have been a number of Sherlock Holmes comic books, notably from Dell and DC. The 50th anniversary issue of Detective Comics features a cameo from a 135-year old Holmes, who congratulates Batman for defeating Professor Moriarty's descendants. He explains "A proper diet, a certain distillation of royal jelly developed in my beekeeping days, and the rarified atmosphere of Tibet, where I keep my primary residence," have kept him alive. When Batman tries to light his pipe, Holmes states "Thank you, but I'm afraid the pipe is purely for show these days."

Holmes was also featured prominently in issue 13 of the DC/WildStorm series Planetary. Holmes is shown to be in league with Bram Stoker's Dracula in the story. A Charlton Comics series depicted a Holmes based in New York City.

SelfMadeHero published "Hound of the Baskervilles", adapted by Ian Edginton and illustrated by Ian Culbard, in May 2009.

Holmes is referred to and briefly featured in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Holmes appears in a flashback sequence depicting the climactic scene of The Adventure of the Final Problem and is still believed by the public to be deceased following the events of that story, although it is revealed in the second volume that Mina later meets with him.

Warren Ellis's Aetheric Mechanics is primarily inspired by Sherlock Holmes, while being a mashup of Holmesiana with other contemporary works.

There have been many television adaptations of the better-known Sherlock Holmes tales, notably The Hound of the Baskervilles, over the years. Many aficionados consider the Granada Television adaptations screened from 1984 to 1994, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with Jeremy Brett as Holmes, as the most faithful depiction of the stories ever produced. Initially with David Burke and subsequently Edward Hardwicke as a capable Watson, all but 19 of the Conan Doyle stories were filmed before the premature death of Jeremy Brett from a heart attack in 1995. Between 1984 and 1994, 36 episodes and five films were produced over six series. Many regard Brett's performance as near-perfect; although his portrayal of Holmes as neurotic and somewhat arrogant, masterly as it is, is seen by some as being at odds with Doyle's descriptions of Holmes as more suave and congenial. Brett and Hardwicke reprised their roles as Holmes and Watson in 1988-89 in a West End stage play, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, written by Jeremy Paul (the secret being that Holmes had "invented" Moriarty as a challenge to his investigative ability).

One of the earliest televised versions of Holmes and Watson was produced by Sheldon Reynolds in 1954, and starred Ronald Howard as Holmes and Howard Marion-Crawford as Doctor Watson. In the 1960s, there was a BBC TV series with Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock. Peter Cushing, who had earlier played the detective in the Hammer version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, later took over from Wilmer in the lead role. The 24 part 1980 series Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson starred Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson.

John Cleese played Holmes in a 1973 episode of "Comedy Playhouse": Elementary My Dear Watson. William Rushton played Watson. Cleese later starred as Holmes' grandson - Arthur Sherlock Holmes - in the one-off TV special The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977). Arthur Lowe played Dr. William Watson, the original doctor's grandson.

Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five television films at the Lenfilm movie studio, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The series were split into eleven episodes and starred Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson. The series were referred to as "the best Sherlock Holmes screening ever" by the British Queen.

The android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: The Next Generation had a personal interest of visiting the holodeck and playing Sherlock Holmes with his friend Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) as Dr John H. Watson , as can be seen in two episodes of the series. On these occasions, Commander Data would replay and try to solve some of his favorite Holmes stories, or let the computer improvise a new mystery in the style of Doyle's stories. On most of these occasions, these exercises would result in a quick solution, since his android brain would immediately pick up all available clues, and his superior deductive skills would quickly solve the problem. Attempting to let the computer create a more difficult mystery for him however, resulted in the computer creating a holographic Professor James Moriarty which was imbued with a measure of consciousness, and who formed the basis for a story arc for said two episodes. The holographic Moriarty quickly caused problems when he realised he was a holodeck creation, and demanded a 'full' life, with the possibility to leave the holodeck.

The contemporarily-set 1987 television movie The Return of Sherlock Holmes starred Michael Pennington as the detective and Margaret Colin as Dr. Watson's granddaughter, Jane. Jane, after following directions written by her grandfather years ago, finds out that she has thawed Holmes who had been cryogenically frozen by Dr. Watson for 88 years due to Bubonic plague. They become a team—the essential Victorian gentleman and a post-feminist young woman—to solve a case that combines elements of "The Sign of the Four" with elements from the celebrated news story of a plane hijacked for ransom by B.D Cooper.

An animated series, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, brings Holmes into the future through the marvels of science. There is also a Japanese animated series called Sherlock Hound featuring anthropomorphic canine characters. Several of its episodes were directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Another Japanese anime series called Case Closed, based on the manga of the same name, features a main character by the name of Conan whom is heavily influenced by Sherlock Holmes.

The children's television series Wishbone featured Holmes and Watson in two episodes: "The Slobbery Hound" (based on The Hound of the Baskervilles) and "A Dogged Exposé" (A Scandal in Bohemia). Another children's television series, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, which ran from 1996 to 1999, features a main young, modern-day female character who claims to be a distant descendant of Sherlock Holmes himself and has inherited his intellect in solving crimes.

In the series, Sherlock Holmes the Golden Years (1991-1992 TV films), where Sherlock Holmes (played by Christopher Lee and Dr. Watson played by Patrick Macnee are older adults continue investigating the cases — two files: Incident at Victoria Falls and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady.

In 2001, Charlton Heston played Holmes in the Turner Network Television production of Paul Giovanni's play The Crucifer of Blood.

In 2000 the telemovie Murder Rooms featured Ian Richardson as Dr. Joseph Bell, who solved (fictional) crimes with the aid of his young pupil Arthur Conan Doyle. Four more telemovies followed in 2001. The series was subtitled "The Dark Origins of Sherlock Holmes" for US syndication.

From 2000 to 2002, Muse Entertainment Enterprises produced four television films for the Hallmark Channel, starring Matt Frewer as Holmes and Kenneth Welsh as Dr Watson, in The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000), The Royal Scandal (2001), The Sign of Four (2001) and The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002).

2002 saw a new version of The Hound of the Baskervilles featuring Richard Roxburgh. Ian Hart played Dr. Watson then and also in the 2004 BBC airing of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, alternatively billed as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. An original screenplay "based on the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", this film takes place in 1902, with Dr. Watson "saving a dear friend from narcotics and boredom", this friend being an opium-addicted and increasingly weak Sherlock Holmes. Rupert Everett plays the Great Detective.

2002 also saw the made for television cable movie, Case of Evil, about a 20-something Sherlock Holmes (James D'Arcy) and a Doctor Watson who worked as an early practitioner of autopsies, on the trail of Holmes' archenemy, Professor Moriarty (Vincent D'Onofrio).

In 2007, the BBC released Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, a children's series focusing on the Baker Street Irregulars and starring Jonathan Pryce as Holmes.

In 2008, the BBC announced Sherlock, a contemporary remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Originally commissioned as a one-off 60-minute pilot, a further three episodes were ordered in 2009. Benedict Cumberbatch will star as Sherlock Holmes, with Martin Freeman as Doctor Watson, and Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade. The series will be broadcast in 2010.

On 20 March 2009, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson appeared in the episode, "Trials of the Demon!" of Batman: The Brave and the Bold where Sherlock Holmes finished the magic spell to bring Batman to his time after the mob put Jason Blood a.k.a. Etrigan on the blame of "missing souls" of the women. After the rescue of Jason Blood, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Batman and Etrigan hunt for Gentleman Ghost who was responsibility for missing souls. At first, Dr. Watson suggests that maybe James Moriarty is responsible. Sherlock was voiced by Ian Buchanan and Watson was voiced by Jim Piddock.

Sherlock Holmes and his world are on board games

• Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (1981) (Sleuth Publications) (book-based game)
• 221B Baker Street (Gibson Games)

Sherlock Holmes and his world are also used in video game universe as computer games and video games.

• Sherlock (1984) (Philip Mitchell) (PC text adventure)
• 221B Baker Street (1987) (Datasoft) (PC and Mac)
• Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (1988) (Infocom)
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (1991) (ICOM Simulations)
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II (1992) (ICOM Simulations)
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. III (1993) (ICOM Simulations)
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel (1992) (Electronic Arts) (PC)
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo (1996) (Electronic Arts) (PC)
• Sherlock Holmes series: (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Mummy (2002) (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Silver Earring (2004) (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2006) (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes versus Arsène Lupin (2007) (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet (Frogwares) (PC)
  • Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper (2009) (Frogwares) (PC)(X360)

Additionally, Sherlock Holmes was spoofed in the Lozenge and Hampshire online adventure game series by James Evans.

In January 2004, the BBC posted five new Sherlock Holmes short stories on their "Cult" website, along with RealAudio files of the stories, as read by Andrew Sachs and Hannah Gordon. The audio productions were done in association with BBC 7, but are no longer available. The texts of all five short stories are still posted, with accompanying illustrations and illustration galleries, as well as an edited transcript of an interview with Bert Coules. The short story texts can also be downloaded as eBooks in three different formats.

• BBC Cult Page for five original Sherlock Holmes short stories, posted in January 2004.
• List of Sherlock Holmes games at MobyGames
• "Brief and Incomplete History of Sherlock Holmes on TV" by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.
• The Russian TV films
• Open audio collection of various Radio broadcasts (archive.org)
• Strobie Studios - producing new original (with occasional adaptations) adventures