Tag: sherlock holmes

David Burke: Film History

David Burke as Dr. James Hamish Watson, 1984, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, Color Photo, Independent Television (ITV), London

Born in Liverpool on the twenty-fifth of May in 1934, David Patrick George Burke was a British actor trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His career of fifty-three years encompassed theatrical, film and television roles.

The son of the deeply Catholic Patrick and Mary Burke from County Cork, Ireland, David Burke decided early in life, despite his mother’s disapproval, to enter into the world of theater. His first small role was in an Oxford University performance during his studies at the college. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Burke was a classically trained actor whose passion was the theater. He worked for the National Theatre of Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal Lyceum Company.

In 1971, Burke married actress Anna Calder Marshall, a graduate of  the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, who had just finished a lead role opposite Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 drama film “Wuthering Heights”. Both David and Anna Burke continued their careers in theater after their marriage. David Burke acted in a series of Shakespearean plays: the role of Othello (1975), Hector in “Troilus and Cressida” (1985), Kent in “King Lear” (1997) , and John of Gaunt in “Richard II”(2000).

David Burke did not confine himself to the classics but acted in such theatrical productions as Alfred Neumann’s 1962 adaptation of “War and Peace” at the Phoenix and Old Vic Theatres in London; Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” at the Olivier, National Theatre; Nermin Hamzagic’s 2008 production of Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen” at the Royal National Theatre; and James Macdonald’s 2013 production of Arnold Wesker’s raw drama “Roots” at London’s Donmar Warehouse. Burke also recorded audio versions of Shakespeare’s plays as well as such modern works as playwright Samuel Beckett’s 1952 “Waiting for Godot”.

The most constant and solid support for Burke’s career came from his many diverse roles on the television screen that began in 1963. These appearances broadened his audience and heightened his acting reputation. Burke became a familiar face on many of the era’s classic detective shows including “Dixon of Dock Green” and “Barlow at Large”. He portrayed Joseph Stalin in the 1983 “Reilly, Ace of Spies” and performed in such television productions as “The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling”, “The Guardians”, “The Winter’s Tale”, and the 1963 Hercules Poirot film “Pension Vanilos”.

Of all his roles, David Burke is most often recognized for his performance as Sherlock Holmes’s companion, Dr. John Watson. However, his initial role in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes series was not that of Watson but the cynical Sir George Burnwell in “The Beryl Coronet”, the eighth episode of the 1964/1965 British Broadcasting Company series “Sherlock”. British producer and director Michael Cox, who had worked previously with Burke, immediately gave him the role of Watson for the upcoming Granada Television series “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. In that role, Burke successfully embodied the alert, curious, caring and sympathetic attributes of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Watson as he was envisioned by the author.

Asked to sign a contract for another season (The Return of Sherlock Holmes), Burke declined, citing his wish to return to his wife, Anna, and young son, Tom, in the family’s Kent home. For his replacement, he recommended the perfect successor, Edward Hardwicke, an actor whose accomplishments paralleled Burke’s career. After leaving the Holmes series, Burke and his wife accepted an offer to perform together with the Royal Shakespeare Company and continued to act in their later years. Burke also appeared with Anna Calder-Marshall in Clare Holman’s 2018 short drama film “Only the Lonely”.

David Patrick George Burke died on the tenth of May in 2026. A British postage stamp commemorating the Sherlock Holmes series featured an image of David Burke and Jeremy Brett as Watson and Holmes. David and Anna Burke’s son, Tom Burke, became an actor and is best known for the BBC series “The Three Musketeers” and his starring role in “Strike”, an episode of which he performed with his parents.

Notes: Clare Holman’s 2018 “Only the Lonely”, featuring David Burke and Anna Calder-Marshall, can be seen in its entirety on the Klipist website: https://klipist.com/watch/only-the-lonely/

Biographies of both David Burke and Jeremy Brett as well as the history of the BBC “Sherlock Holmes” television series can be found at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia located at: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/David_Burke

For those who wish to known all the episodes of Granada Television’s  1984/1994 “Sherlock Holmes”series, the episodes titles and dates are listed on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sherlock_Holmes_episodes

Top Insert Image: David Burke as John Hale, “The Crucible”, 1990, Olivier Theatre, National Theater, London

Second Insert Image: David Burke as Camillo, 1981, “The Winter’s Tale”, Director Jane Howell, BBC Television/Video

Bottom Insert Image: David Burke as Vilhelm Foldal, 2007, David Eldridge’s Adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman”, Donmar Warehouse, London

Calendar: December 1

A Year: Day to Day Men: 1st of December

The Painted Wall

December 1, 1887 marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in print.

The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes was in the detective novel “A Study in Scarlet” written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It appeared in the magazine “Beeton’s Christmas Annual” on December 1st of 1887, published by Ward Lock and Company of London. Although Sir Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, “A Study in Scarlet” is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon.

Sir Conan Doyle, a general practice doctor,  wrote “A Study in Scarlet” at the age of twenty-seven in less than three weeks. The novel was originally entitled “A Tangled Skein” but changed for publication in the Christmas Annual. Doyle received twenty-five pounds for the novel, but no royalties.

“A Study in Scarlet” begins with a heading which establishes the role of Dr. John Watson as narrator, setting up the point that the work to follow is not fiction but fact, being a reminiscence of Dr. Watson. The novel introduces Holmes to Watson, establishes their friendship, and brings in the character of Inspector Lestrade. It is also the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

There are only eleven complete copies of the 1887 “Beeton’s Christmas Annual” known to exist; each now having considerable value. Ward Lock and Company published “A Study in Scarlet in a book form in July of 1888 with featured illustrations by Charles Doyle, Conan’s father. A second edition was published in the following year, this time illustrated by George Hutchinson. In 1890 the first American version was published by Philadelphia-based J.B. Lippincott and Company.

As the first Sherlock Holmes story published, “A Study in Scarlet” was among the first to be adapted to the screen. In 1914, Conan Doyle authorized a silent film to be produced by G. B. Samuelson. Holmes was played by James Bragington, an accountant who worked as an actor for the only time of his life. He was hired for his resemblance to Holmes, as presented in the sketches originally published with the story. Due to the nature of film at that time and the rarity of archiving, it is now a lost film. The success of the film allowed for a second version to be produced that same year by Francis Ford, which has also been lost.

The novel “A Study in Scarlet” has rarely been adapted in full: the 1933 film entitled “A Study in Scarlet” with Reginald Owen actually bears no plot relation to the novel. The most notable instance closest to the novel is the episode in the second season of the BBC television series “Sherlock Holmes” with Peter Cushing as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson, which put more detail into the screenplay.

Bottom Insert Image: Sidney Paget, “Holmes Gives Me a Sketch of the Events”, 1892, Illustration for “Silver Blaze”, Strand Magazine, December, 1892, Private Collection