2. Benedict Cumberbatch - Sherlock
It may have seemed a bit of a strange, risky idea at the time - a modern day update of the quintessentially Victorian detective, starring the smarmy snob from Starter For 10 - but five years later Sherlock has produced a level of devoted obsessive Holmes fandom not seen since readers wore black armbands after Conan Doyle killed Holmes off at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893. It is not the first attempt to set the Holmes stories in a contemporary environment (Hugh Laurie medical detective series House, for example, was both a very successful loose adaptation of the character and an obvious influence on the BBC's decision to commission Sherlock), but the very mixed bag of previous attempts didn't necessarily bode well for the then largely unknown (not to mention unpronounceable) Cumberbatch. Now the show has become a major success, it's hard to imagine it any other way. Cumberbatch has seen himself become a major player in Hollywood, an Oscar nominee and Marvel superhero, all off the back of his Sherlock, but the Baker Street detective remains his finest role. Like fellow Frankenstein Cushing, Cumberbatch specialises in a kind of arrogant genius that finds its perfect outlet in Holmes. Unlike some of the more warm, generous-spirited Holmeses in previous adaptations, Cumberbatch's success is in playing up Sherlock's self-confidence and seeming self-sufficiency, before exploring his gradual opening up to forming emotional connections.