Sherlock Holmes is a fictional British character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, first published appearance in the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual, in the short story A Study in Scarlet. The character of Sherlock Holmes works as a "consulting detective" both for london metropolitan police and for private hire. He is not an official police detective nor does he have any of the powers of one. Apart from few select stories, Holmes appears alongside his trusted companion, Dr. John Watson. Together, they investigate and solve incredibly elaborate and almost impossible cases, using Holmes incredible skills of deduction, observation, disguise and forensic science. With 56 short stories and four novels, the last being published in 1927, the character of Sherlock Holmes has become world renowned as a gold standard for the fictional detective character. With 100s of societies, museums and books dedicated to one of the most celebrated literary figure of all time, it is no surprise that Sherlock Holmes has played such a major influence in the world of television detectives. .
Now in order to draw on any influence between the literary character of Sherlock Holmes and that of other TV character inspired by the detective, we first have to dissect the ethos of Sherlock Holmes and analyse the distinct features of both the character that are uniquely individual to character of Holmes. Once we've identified the specific archetypes of the Sherlock Holmes character, we can begin to look at what makes them such a successful formula that they can be reinterpreted, in one way or another, into the medium of television. Although many of the aspects found in the stories of Sherlock Holmes have now become almost staple archetypes in modern detective style dramas, they were in there time, quite original.
Firstly, the most obvious and well known archetype of the Sherlock Holmes character is his genius.
