You may have noticed that I read a lot. And that one of my favorite genres is mysteries. Mysteries tend to be serial. Most of my favorites (and I don't think I'm alone in this) feature characters that recur. Because of this, I tend to get attached to them. I feel like I know them. I'm a little proprietorial, even knowing I didn't actually create these people. Fictitious people.
Primarily, we readers have, set in our minds, a distinct impression of what the characters look like, based partially on our imagination and partly drawn from descriptive clues from the author. Because of this mental image, transforming a beloved mystery series into a movie or television program is touchy work. Should anyone decide to dramatize, say Martha Grimes' Richard Jury novels, the single most important task is finding an appropriate Inspector Jury. The world witnessed this in the selection of Daniel Radcliffe for Harry Potter.
Therefore, watching a dramatization of any well-liked series with the wrong actors is disappointing and unpleasant. It can leave a bitter taste in your mouth for the rest of the series, because, as we know, you can't "un-see" it.
All of this is leading up to the conclusion that 1.) I loved Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes (but I love Robert Downey, Jr. in most everything he does). And 2.) Ian Carmichael was a damn-near perfect Lord Peter Wimsey.
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