Inspector G. Lestrade, or Mr. Lestrade,
is a fictional character appearing in
several of the Sherlock Holmes stories
written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle
used the name of a friend from his days
at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint
Lucian medical student, Joseph Alexandre
Lestrade. In "The Adventure of the
Cardboard Box", Lestrade's first initial
is revealed to be G. He is described as
"a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed
fellow" in A Study in Scarlet and "a
lean, ferret-like man, furtive and
sly-looking," in "The Boscombe Valley
Mystery". He was summarised by H. Paul
Jeffers in the following words:
"He is the most famous detective ever to
walk the corridors of Scotland Yard, yet
he existed only in the fertile
imagination of a writer. He was
Inspector Lestrade. We do not know his
first name, only his initial: G.
Although he appears thirteen times in
the immortal adventures of Sherlock
Holmes, nothing is known of the life
outside the Yard of the detective whom
Dr. Watson described unflatteringly as
sallow, rat-faced, and dark-eyed and
whom Holmes saw as quick and energetic
but wholly conventional, lacking in
imagination, and normally out of his
depth—the best of a bad lot who had
reached the top in the CID by bulldog
tenacity."
Appearances in canon
History
In the popular London media, Lestrade is
depicted as one of the best detectives
at Scotland Yard, chiefly because Holmes
regularly allows him to take the credit
for his deductions in cases such as "The
Adventure of the Empty House" and "The
Adventure of the Norwood Builder". In
truth, he was already well-established
as a respected policeman with 20 years
in the Force before A Study in Scarlet.
It is observed by Holmes that Lestrade
and another detective, Tobias Gregson,
have an ongoing rivalry, and he
identifies the two as "the best of a bad
lot ... both quick and energetic, but
conventional — shockingly so." Holmes
once remarked in "The Adventure of the
Cardboard Box" that, although Lestrade
had almost no skill at actual
crime-solving, his tenacity and
determination are what brought him to
the highest ranks in the official police
force. His conventional nature leads him
to grow frustrated at Holmes' methods,
becoming "indifferent and contemptuous"
to his exploration in "The Boscombe
Valley Mystery". In both "The Boscombe
Valley Mystery" and "The Adventure of
the Norwood Builder", he states that he
is "a practical man" in dismissal of
Holmes' apparently trifling actions.
Nevertheless, Lestrade's appreciation of
Holmes' methods grows — likely aided by
being credited with Holmes' successes —
and by the time of The Hound of the
Baskervilles Watson observes "from the
reverential way in which Lestrade gazed
at my companion that he had learned a
good deal since the days when they had
first worked together."
Additionally, despite his disdain for
Lestrade's single-mindedness, Holmes
appears to have an affection for the
detective. In The Hound of the
Baskervilles, Holmes comments to Dr.
Watson that Lestrade "is the best of the
professionals, I think," meaning the
professional detectives employed by
Scotland Yard as opposed to himself. In
the reported cases, Holmes works with
Lestrade far more often than any other
official. In "The Adventure of the Six
Napoleons" it is revealed that Lestrade
regularly drops in on Holmes and Watson
at 221B Baker Street, sharing the news
of Scotland Yard and discussing his
current cases with Holmes. For his part,
Lestrade gradually develops an
appreciation of the detective's methods,
going so far as to say at the end of the
story "We're not jealous of you down at
Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of
you, and if you come down to-morrow
there's not a man, from the oldest
inspector to the youngest constable, who
wouldn't be glad to shake you by the
hand." Watson notes in passing that this
little comment is one of the few
instances where Holmes is visibly moved.
Character
Lestrade is somewhat difficult to pin
down as a character. His impatience with
Holmes clashes with his kindness to
clients, and his level of education
appears limited. Despite being described
uncharitably by Dr. Watson, Lestrade is
pleasant to him, even implying to Watson
in a comic way that he doubts Holmes'
sanity in "The Adventure of the Noble
Bachelor". He uses basic working-class
language without embellishments and
occasionally archaic words such as
"shivered" for "smashed" and described
his reaction to a nauseating act of
murder as "sickish". He describes
himself as being "no chicken" for
"inexperienced.". His greatest
compliment to Holmes' methods was to
describe them as "workmanlike". Although
he does place a high value in first-hand
detecting, Lestrade is not uneducated.
He is fluent in shorthand, dresses well,
and his language is predominantly free
of street-slang and 'coarse' talk—his
only linguistic failing is the
aforementioned archaic speech which is
more indicative of a rural origin He has
gained the trust of the public enough
that he is brought in to a case
involving a major landowner of
Herefordshire.
Despite a French surname, he shows no
overt French ties. Conan Doyle wrote him
as a very particular dresser, who
nevertheless will get muddy in the line
of work. He prefers to get out and find
his evidence in person rather than solve
crimes in his head. He closely resembles
another Yarder, Peter Jones, whom Holmes
describes as "an absolute imbecile" but
"tenacious as a lobster" in "The
Red-Headed League". His appearance and
style very much contrast with Tobias
Gregson which visually increases their
rivalry. The two were never paired up in
the Canon after A Study in Scarlet.
Lestrade is unique in that he works with
Holmes throughout most the spectrum of
the Canon, from the first adventure to
one of the latest, "The Adventure of the
Three Garridebs". His character is the
only one to appreciably grow and adapt
with his exposure to Holmes. By the same
token, Lestrade is one of the few people
besides Dr. Watson who is capable of
moving Holmes on an emotional level in
"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".
Depiction in derivatives and adaptations
The author M. J. Trow wrote a series of
sixteen books using Lestrade as the
central character, beginning with The
Adventures of Inspector Lestrade in
1985. In these stories, Trow shows
Lestrade to be a more than capable
detective. He is given a first name,
"Sholto", a young daughter whom he
seldom sees, and a series of adventures
set against a historical backdrop. In
one book Lestrade meets G. K. Chesterton
and in another he suffers a broken leg
in a fall from the gangplank of the RMS
Titanic.
Lestrade's lack of ability is frequently
exaggerated in adaptations, which often
characterise him as a bumbling idiot.
Notably, Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in
most of the Sherlock Holmes films from
Universal Pictures starring Basil
Rathbone as Holmes. This version had the
Yard man as a well-meaning fool
patronised by the detective, whose help
he greatly appreciated, rather in the
manner of that series' version of Doctor
Watson. Lestrade is nonetheless a
capable officer, and Holmes never
questions his honesty or his willingness
to solve a case. In the book Sherlock
Holmes: The Man and His World by H.R.F.
Keating, Keating notes that despite
Holmes' accusations of his lack of
observational skills, he knows Holmes
craves the outré and uses this to
collect his interest in the case of "The
Adventure of the Six Napoleons".
= Granada Television series=
Colin Jeavons played Lestrade throughout
the Granada Television adaptation of the
Sherlock Holmes stories, starting with
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder"
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The character was portrayed as a
capable, if slightly vain, career
policeman with a prickly but ultimately
affectionate relationship with Holmes –
as evidenced in the dramatisation of the
aforementioned "We're proud of you"
scene. So familiar did Jeavons become in
the part that when he was unavailable
for "The Adventure of the
Bruce-Partington Plans", Lestrade was
replaced by another of ACD's Yarders,
Inspector Bradstreet. Lestrade's absence
was explained as having gone to the
Leamington Baths on vacation, and Holmes
fumes that he hopes his wife was with
him. This is an embellishment on canon,
as Lestrade was never shown to be
married or attached. In other episodes,
Jeavons was given parts originally
belonging to other detectives, such as
"The Adventure of the Creeping Man" and
extra scenes in "The Master
Blackmailer". Lestrade was even
mentioned off-screen in the scripts,
emphasising his close relationship with
221B Baker Street. Jeavons' portrayal is
considered the most faithful to the
Canon. In Starring Sherlock Holmes,
David Stuart Davies wrote, "Lestrade was
played with great panache throughout the
Granada series by Colin Jeavons, who
humanised and enhanced Doyle's sketchy
portrait of the Inspector." Unusually,
in this series, Lestrade's name was
pronounced with a long a sound, rhyming
with "trade," as opposed to the usual
practice in screen or audio adaptations
of using the French pronunciation.
= In other media=
John Colicos played both Lestrade and
Professor Moriarty at the same time in
1989 TV role of My Dearest Watson.
Colicos and Colin Jeavons are so far the
only actors to play both the policeman
and the villain.
Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in several
of Universal's Sherlock Holmes films
starring Basil Rathbone.
Archie Duncan played Lestrade in the
1954–55 Sheldon Reynolds French-made
series Sherlock Holmes.
Patrick Newell played him in the 1980
Sheldon Reynolds Sherlock Holmes and
Doctor Watson series made in Poland.
This had Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes
and Donald Pickering as Watson.
Borislav Brondukov played him in all
five films of the Soviet series
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr.
Watson starring Vasily Livanov.
Frank Finlay played him twice, in A
Study in Terror and Murder by Decree,
both focusing on non-canon stories with
Holmes investigating the Jack the Ripper
murders.
Roger Ashton-Griffths played Lestrade in
Young Sherlock Holmes; his taking credit
for solving the mystery earns him a
promotion from Detective to Inspector.
Jeffrey Jones played Lestrade in Without
a Clue
Kenaway Baker made a brief appearance as
Lestrade in Incident at Victoria Falls
Lestrade was played by Peter Madden
opposite Peter Cushing as Sherlock
Holmes in the 1960s BBC series Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Ronald Lacey played Lestrade in the 1983
film The Hound of the Baskervilles,
starring Ian Richardson as Holmes.
Donald Gee played Inspector "Giles"
Lestrade throughout most of the entire
BBC Radio canon opposite Clive
Merrison's Holmes beginning with the
November 1989 broadcast of A Study in
Scarlet and ending with the October 13th
1993 broadcast of "The Second Stain".
Stephen Thorne took over the role
beginning with the January 12th 1994
broadcast of "The Cardboard Box" and
ending in the March 29th 1995 broadcast
of "The Retired Colourman"; he returned
to the role in the BBC Radio series The
Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes's
June 15, 2004 broadcast of "The Striking
Success of Miss Franny Blossom", the
January 2nd 2009 broadcast of "The Eye
of Horus" and the January 16th 2009
broadcast of "The Ferrers Documents".
Eddie Marsan plays him in Guy Ritchie's
Warner Bros. adaptation Sherlock Holmes,
alongside Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude
Law. This incarnation of Lestrade
expresses a high level of irritation for
Holmes, who in turn regards him with
affectionate mockery. Lestrade
nevertheless depends on Holmes, calling
him to crime scenes and even allowing a
fugitive Holmes to escape police
custody. He briefly reprised the role in
the 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game
of Shadows.
William Huw portrays Lestrade in the
2010 direct-to-DVD Asylum film Sherlock
Holmes. In this film, Lestrade does not
seem to recognise Watson, and often
takes credit for Holmes's
accomplishments. He becomes involved in
the chase of a criminal mastermind
dubbed "Spring-Heeled Jack", who uses
several mechanical creatures to commit
crimes across London.
In the 2010 BBC TV series Sherlock,
Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade is
played by Rupert Graves. In this series
set in contemporary London, Lestrade is
depicted as a competent detective who
uses Sherlock Holmes as a consultant on
difficult cases. The two characters seem
to have a complex working relationship.
Some of Lestrade's officers are openly
hostile to Sherlock and protest his
involvement with cases; Lestrade himself
oscillates between respect for
Sherlock's intellectual abilities and
annoyance with his callousness. Both are
not above doing 'petty' things to annoy
each other. Lestrade's underlying
respect and overall faith in Sherlock
are probably best demonstrated in his
stated opinion that "Sherlock Holmes is
a great man, and some day, if we're very
very lucky, he might even be a good
one." This incarnation of Lestrade also
interacted with Sherlock and John
socially on at least one occasion and in
"The Reichenbach Fall" he was visibly
disturbed at the thought of issuing an
arrest warrant for Sherlock. Lestrade
was also marked as one of Sherlock's
three friends by Jim Moriarty. It is
notable that, while many of the
characters, when learning that Sherlock
faked his death, react with anger or
utter shock, Lestrade's first response
is to happily hug the detective.
James Fleet portrayed Lestrade as the
lead character in the BBC Radio 4 drama
series called The Rivals in 2011. Each
episode had Lestrade team up with a
different fictional Victorian detective,
Sherlock Holmes' "Rivals" in the field.
The series returned in 2013, but the
role of Lestrade was recast and played
by Tim Pigott-Smith due to James Fleet's
non-availability. Fleet returned to play
Lestrade when The Rivals was renewed for
a third series in 2015.
Sean Pertwee plays Lestrade in the
season two premiere of Elementary, where
his first name is given as Gareth. His
character recurs later in the season, as
well.
Mikhail Boyarsky played the role of
Inspector Lestrade in the Russian TV
adaptation, Sherlock Holmes.
In the 2014 NHK puppetry Sherlock
Holmes, Lestrade is a tall, slender, and
earnest blond schoolboy with the
atmosphere of mod who lives in Cooper
house of Beeton School. He often solves
a trouble with Holmes for he is a member
of life guidance committee. Though he
and Holmes trust each other, Grimesby
Roylott, who is in charge of the
committee hates Holmes. In some cases,
he requests Holmes to solve troubles. He
is voiced by Daisuke Kishio. In the
episode 6 of the series, he tells Holmes
and Watson that his given name is
Gordon.
Other appearances
Inspector Lestrade is a logic puzzle
game online through Everett Kaser
Software.
In the alternate history novel Anno
Dracula, Lestrade becomes one of the
new-born during the reign of the Prince
Consort, and is one of the investigators
assigned to the murderer known as
"Silver Knife".
Lestrade is briefly mentioned in The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Volume I.
Lestrade is a recurring character in the
Moonstone Books versions of Sherlock
Holmes adventures. His "We're proud of
you" speech is adapted for a scene in
Holmes' birthday in "Return of the
Devil".
In the TV show Sherlock Holmes in the
22nd Century one of the main characters
was Inspector Beth Lestrade, a
descendant who is quite efficient in her
own way and has inherited Doctor
Watson's diaries.
In "Bat Attack/The Ballad of Reading
Gaol" the DWAM comic strip adventures,
Lestrade is aided in a case by the Tenth
Doctor and Rose Tyler. When the Doctor
wishes his name out of the case to Queen
Victoria Rose's suggestion of "Sherlock"
gives Lestrade a pseudonym.
A search engine, the Inspector Lestrade,
is used by MacIntosh, a "fast,
lightweight meta searcher."
"The Inspector Lestrade Award" is a
rising term among message boards for a
person who is "almost correct." It has
shown up on zdnet and "Bad Astronomy and
the Universe Today" forum
The Peterson Pipes company has a
Sherlock Holmes Series of handmade pipes
with silverwork. Two Lestrade pipes are
in the collection.
He appears in the book series The Boy
Sherlock Holmes as the son of a
ferret-faced inspector by the same name
who dislikes Sherlock greatly.
In the novel The Canary Trainer,
Sherlock Holmes uses "Inspector
Lestrade" as an alias while
investigating the phantom of the Paris
Opera while incognito.
Lestrade appears as a Non-player
character in the Sherlock computer
adventure game.
Lestrade appears as a woman inspector
with her first name being "Gina" at the
most recent game of popular saga "Ace
Attorney", Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō
Ryūnosuke no Bōken.
See also
Inspector Hopkins
List of Sherlock Holmes inspectors
References
Bibliography
"Starring Sherlock Holmes" David Stuart
Davies; Titan Books, 2001
External links
Inspector Lestrade at the Internet Movie
Database
