Submission from stillaseeker:
Hello! Just wanted to say I’ve been really enjoying your meta posts!! =)
I wondered whether you’ve ever come across this interview of Gatiss talking about The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes – I just saw it and it blew my mind, esp. as Mofftiss explicitly mention it’s their inspiration for BBC Sherlock: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/07/mark-gatiss-sherlock-holmes
Gatiss: “It’s a fantastically melancholy film. The relationship between Sherlock and Watson is treated beautifully; Sherlock effectively falls in love with him in the film, but it’s so desperately unspoken.”
Gatiss has referenced The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes SO MANY TIMES, and has referred to it as seminal in his own life, and a major source for him for the show and Sherlock’s character. Here is just a small sampling of the times he has brought it up:
In 2010: http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/sherlock/20536/steven-moffat-and-mark-gatiss-interview-sherlock
Also 2010: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/07/mark-gatiss-sherlock-holmes
2012: http://markgatisssexualfrustration.tumblr.com/post/15848057956/sherlock-q-a-with-mark-gatiss
Also 2012: http://sherlockology.tumblr.com/post/6434822691/q-a (he hosted the viewing!)
Also also 2012, where they flat-out state it’s a major source for the show: http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s129/sherlock/news/a401708/sherlock-series-three-teasers-revealed-by-steven-moffat-mark-gatiss.html
And here’s him (also in 2012) mentioning it in conjunction with S3: http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s129/sherlock/news/a401708/sherlock-series-three-teasers-revealed-by-steven-moffat-mark-gatiss.html
And here he brought it up in an interview he did with Martin Freeman that was published just this week: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-01-05/sherlock-mark-gatiss-interviews-martin-freeman
An excerpt from that last one:
“I sometimes think, though, that in striving to get as far away as possible from Nigel Bruce, the result can be just a dull Watson. What Martin shares with Bruce (and with Colin Blakely in Billy Wilder’s 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes – the influence on our Sherlock) is that he’s an immensely gifted straight actor who’s also funny.”
That bit I bolded is the relevant bit.