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Speaking with Tony Earshaw

Author of ‘An Actor and a Rare One: Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes’
By Christopher Gullo

Christopher Gullo: What inspired you to write this book?
Tony Earnshaw: The book came about in a peculiar manner. A friend runs a Sherlock Holmes society and he asked me to write a monograph on Cushing and his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. I did so, but the project grew far bigger than the scale of a monograph and so we decided to publish it as a bonafide book. That also fell by the wayside and so I took it to the US publisher Scarecrow Press. Like many people who have seen Peter Cushing’s films, I happen to think he gave his best performances as Sherlock Holmes. It was a treat unearthing stories and anecdotes that had never been told. I’d been a fan ever since I was a kid (I saw him first in Star Wars when I was 11, and my interest grew from there) but as I got older I realised there was far, far more to this incredibly versatile actor than first met the eye. He was a true cinema great.

CG: How long did it take for you to complete the book?
TE: I started writing the book in the late summer of 1996 and finished it in about March 1997. The huge amount of time between finishing the manuscript and the published book – four long years – was due to the problems mentioned earlier and the difficulties in securing agreement over the use of copyright images. Once that was settled it took just six months for the book to be set, proofed and printed.

CG: Did you face any difficulties in getting access to material for your research?
TE: The main difficulty was in tracing decent interviews from Peter Cushing himself. By the time I began the book, Cushing had been dead for two years. In his later interviews he really re-hashed many of the same stories – good though they were. My initial problem was to dig up interviews he gave around the release of Hammer’s Hound, and both before and after the production of the BBC series. The ones I found were very good. Cushing approached the role of Holmes with great dedication and his comments about the interpretation were invaluable. The other problem I faced was that both Andre Morell and Nigel Stock were dead, and dear Johnny Mills was getting on a bit. Again, I dug up old interviews and spoke to Stock’s widow. Everyone else – writers, directors, actors, etc – fell into place in the normal way that they do when one researches a book of this type. They either wish to help, or they don’t. I was lucky in that everyone I contacted for an interview agreed to help.

CG: Were you able to find any of the BBC Sherlock Holmes episodes which seem to be impossible to get?
TE: I didn’t. A friendly mole at the BBC was able to assist me in watching the ones that survived that dreadful purge and they are examined in the book. The others really do appear to be lost forever, though I have a hope that tapes may turn up in obscure TV vaults in Nigeria or the Far East like some Dr Who episodes have. The episodes I did locate – the two-part Hound of the Baskervilles, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Blue Carbuncle and The Sign of Four – generally hold up extremely well. I also managed to get hold of a clip of A Study in Scarlet, but not enough to review it fully.

CG: Do you have any ideas why the BBC Sherlock Holmes episodes were ‘lost’?
TE: From those I have spoken to, it appears the BBC had a huge clear out in the early Seventies. Masses of tapes – everything from documentaries to news items to ‘classic’ TV shows – were erased because BBC bosses either:
a. wanted to re-use the tapes
b. wanted to identify for space in the vaults
c. both of the above
It caused a huge ruckus when the various professionals involved on the shows – Dr Who, Sherlock Holmes, Steptoe and Son, etc – realised their work had been casually destroyed. Some classic shows were erased, leading to a worldwide hunt by the various factions involved to track them down. Frankly, it was an unbelievable act of wilful destruction. I’m not just referring to Cushing’s work here – I mean everything. It makes me bloody angry.

CG: Have you ever met Peter Cushing?
TE: I met Cushing twice and then only briefly. The first time was at his Guardian Lecture in March 1986, at the National Film Theatre in London. I was there as a fan and asked him to sign my copy of his book. The only other time I met him was about four months later when he was on a promotional tour for the book and came to Leeds. I never met him socially or to interview him, more’s the pity.

CG: What is your favourite Sherlock Holmes story and why?
TE: The Hound of the Baskervilles, without a doubt. Try reading it at night, before a roaring log fire, alone. It’s superbly creepy. Think of all that fog swirling around your ankles and the baleful howl of a giant dog filtering through the damp darkness… Can’t beat it, really.

CG: Can you shed any light on why Hammer Films scrapped their plan for a Sherlock Holmes series?
TE: Hammer producer Tony Hinds told me that Hammer had no plans for a series, and that the stories were not in the public domain anyway. I think the rights were owned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s son, Adrian. He had been uneasy about Hammer filming the story and initially wanted them to drop any association with his father from their advertising. Later he agreed, but he remained unhappy with the way the story was treated. However the American producer, Kenneth Hyman, said while Hound was a financial success, no other story really matched it in terms of the elements Hammer wished to exploit – horror, shocks and gore. Only The Speckled Band came close, but it was a short story and would have needed a lot of padding to turn it into a feature film script.

CG: How do you think Peter Cushing fares among the other actors who have played Sherlock Holmes?
TE: I think he’s the best there has even been. For me, Basil Rathbone was rather stiff, and his double-act with Nigel Bruce was laughable. Then again, his later films suffered from poor scripting. I liked Douglas Wilmer and John Neville and, to a certain extent, Jeremy Brett, though he always seemed to wear a look as if he had a bad smell perpetually under his nose. I think Cushing was the best because he genuinely loved the character of Holmes. He went to great pains to get it right, he knew the stories backwards and understood the man. My only regret is that various elements of his films or TV shows went wrong. If he could have had Hammer’s production qualities, the BBC’s scripts and Granada TV’s budgets, then he would have gone down in history as The Greatest Sherlock Holmes in Screen History. I know everyone has his or her own favourite, but without a doubt he is mine. The book is a tribute to him.

CG: Was there any proposed sequel to The Masks of Death?
TE: There was. It was called The Abbot’s Cry, and was again scripted by NJ Crisp (who had written The Masks of Death). Bits of the story came from a script by Anthony Hinds called The Satanist, which Tyburn had optioned as long ago as 1975 but never made. The second film was tentatively cast with Cushing and John Mills, Leo McKern and Patrick McGoohan. It was held up, and then permanently shelved, when Cushing’s illness became worse. It was originally due to go into the studio in late 1985 or early 1986. Those involved say the story was better than The Masks of Death.

CG: What do you think are the main differences between Peter Cushing’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in Hammer’s Hound of the Baskervilles and the BBC’s version?
TE: Hammer had its own style. James Carreras said he wanted Cushing to “sex it up a bit” when he played Holmes. There was a reliance on the horrific, such as the tarantula, and the various Hammer personnel – from Terence Fisher to Bernard Robinson – made a great deal of the Gothic look. The BBC, on the other hand, stuck to the feel of Conan Doyle’s original stories. Their scripts reflected that – and Cushing urged them not to deviate. Consequently his performances reflected that. The Hammer film starred Cushing as an athletic, Byronic hero, dashing around like a mad thing with gun in hand. The way he played the character mirrored the entire feel of the film. For the BBC, nine years later, he was slower, more considered, more thoughtful. He was older too. I believe the BBC series was the closest he came to achieving his vision of the character. The shame is that he was let down by the BBC and its lack of budget. Nevertheless, Cushing grappled the part to his heart with hoops of steel. He understood every nuance, he relished every line (and those he didn’t like, he replaced with dialogue taken straight from Conan Doyle) and he gave 110 per cent to every performance. I firmly believe that if the BBC series was still available, Cushing would be considered the greatest-ever Holmes. I think Brett was good; Cushing was brilliant.

CG: Do you have any memorabilia related to Peter Cushing and, if so, what is your favourite item?
TE: I own a programme from the Old Vic tour of Australasia in 1948 which is signed by every member of the cast including Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Cushing himself. It’s unique, and very classy.

CG: Thank you for taking the time for this interview.

• This interview originally appeared in The Cushing Confidential (Issue # 1, Summer 2001) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Christopher Gullo. (© Christopher Gullo, 2001/2005)