sherlock holmes with jeremy brett

What makes Brett's performance so magnificent is how he treats Holmes' physicality. Holmes is a gifted actor and athlete as well as a detective, and Brett plays that up. Whether he's flinging himself on a couch in despair or practically quivering with eagerness for a new case, Brett lets his body complicate the stereotype of Holmes as super-cerebral.

Sadly, I don't think the series gives a modern viewer enough context to understand Holmes' social transgressiveness with regard to class - which is too often interpreted as rudeness in modern takes - but there are still places where it shines through.