Description:
Covering a forty year period from first leaving Central School of Speech and Drama until his early death at the age of 61, Playing a Part is a full career book of "a very fine actor" who would delight audiences.
Review Quotes:
"Maureen Whittaker's 'Playing a Part' presents a remarkable and highly readable compendium of the professional career of the scintillating actor Jeremy Brett - who thrilled audiences for four decades onscreen and onstage in roles ranging from Orlando to Dracula, William Pitt the Younger, and Freddie Eynsford Hill - culminating, in his creation of what what is widely regarded as the definitive performance of Sherlock Holmes in Granada's legendary series. As a deep Sherlockian and fan of Jeremy, I loved this book - it is a thrill ride and a suitable way to honour the remarkable career of a courageous, gifted gentleman. Twinkle on, Jeremy."
Bonnie MacBird, BSI, Emmy winning producer, playwright, screenwriter (TRON) and author of 'The Sherlock Holmes Adventure Series'), HarperCollins.
A quarter-century after his death, the name of Jeremy Brett is known and honoured world-wide - because in the early 1980s Michael Cox chose him to play Sherlock Holmes in a landmark television series. That one rôle made him an international star and ensured his lasting fame, but it has, regrettably, overshadowed the rest of his career. The reason why Jeremy Brett was a great Sherlock Holmes (many would say the greatest) is that he was one of our finest actors. Yet his work pre-Holmes is little known, as his most notable performances were in the theatre or on television; no recordings exist of his work at the Old Vic, the National Theatre or the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and only a few are available from such small-screen productions as Love's Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice and An Ideal Husband. Maureen Whitaker's splendid book - "the fruit of pensive nights and laborious days"* - redresses the balance, and does justice to Jeremy Brett's whole remarkable career.
Roger Johnson, BSI, ASH
Editor, The Sherlock Holmes Journal
* Sherlock Holmes's description of his own magnum opus in "His Last Bow".