FANS of Basil Rathbone’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes will find little of the deerstalker sporting, hooked pipe puffing master detective in Guy Ritchie’s blockbuster.

Despite being still very much the Victorian gentleman, Robert Downey Jr’s version is younger, sexier and runs about a lot more.

He even gets his kit off twice in the movie – in a bare-chested, bare-knuckled fight and later when he is tricked by Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), the only person who has ever outwitted him.

But while Holmes seems destined never to get the girl, Dr Watson (Jude Law) is happily losing himself to romance. His decision to leave 221B Baker Street, and possibly his adventures, behind for his fiancee Mary (Kelly Reilly) sends Holmes into an adolescent sulk.

Fortunately there is the mystery of Lord Blackwood, a practitioner of the dark arts, to shake him out of it in a plot with plenty of twists, turns and motley villains.

Liverpool’s Stanley Dock doubles as the bank of the Thames, with sailing ships and a half-built Tower Bridge added through CGI.