This Christmas sees yet another version of Sherlock Holmes hit the screens in Holmes & Watson.

Reuniting Will Ferrell and John C Reilly for the first time since Step Brothers, the movie is a comedic take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic character as Holmes (Ferrell) and Dr John Watson (Reilly) seek to stop the villainous Moriarty (Ralph Fiennes) from assassinating the Queen (Pam Ferris).

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We've become used to Holmes as an arrogant, but brilliant, detective in Sherlock and Guy Ritchie's movie series, so the prospect of Holmes as a buffoon is a promising one, but it's far from the first time that we've had an unexpected take on the classic detective.

Here's six of the strangest on-screen incarnations of the iconic character.

1. A gnome!

Not content with turning Romeo & Juliet into gnomes for Gnomeo & Juliet, the animated sequel Sherlock Gnomes saw Johnny Depp voice the detective in gnome form.

He was accompanied by Dr Gnome Watson to investigate the mysterious disappearance of gnomes. In classic Sherlock fashion, it ended up being Moriarty's dastardly scheme to smash all the gnomes with Tower Bridge. And, of course, Moriarty was a pie mascot.

2. Fake!

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Decades before Iron Man 3's Trevor Slattery, there was Reginald Kincaid in 1988 comedy Without a Clue, starring Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine.

Here, Dr John Watson (Kingsley) is the real genius and has created the character of Sherlock Holmes for short stories and to solve crimes. But the public want to see Sherlock himself, so Watson hires alcoholic actor Reginald Kincaid (Caine) to play the part. Hilarity ensues.

3. A cucumber!

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One of the outings in the long-running VeggieTales movie series saw the Baker Street detective 'played' by Larry the Cucumber and given a slight rename to Sheerluck.

Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler saw Sheerluck and Watson find themselves embroiled in the case of the stolen Golden Ruler. The story sees Watson upset that Sheerluck always gets the credit, and moaning about Sheerluck not treating him as a friend. See, Sherlock's even a bit of a arse when he's a cucumber.

4. Futuristic! (kind of)

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We've cheated a bit with this one, but Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is still unique enough to be on this list.

The cartoon series sees Inspector Beth Lestrade take the preserved corpse of Sherlock Holmes and get a biologist to use cellular rejuvenation to revive him. So it's technically the original Holmes from the 19th Century, but at least we have a Moriarty, who's actually a clone, and Dr Watson, who's a droid.

5. A red fox!

Tokyo Movie Shinsha / R.A.I.

Yes, we know Sherlock Holmes has (kind of) been an animal before in Basil the Great Mouse Detective, but Basil wasn't actually Holmes.

Whereas in Japanese animated series Sherlock Hound, he's genuinely a red fox and is otherwise much like the Holmes we know, except for the fact that he has feelings for Mrs Hudson, who is a golden retriever. Doctor Watson is a Scottish terrier and Moriarty is a grey wolf, naturally.

6. A puppet!

NHK

Not only is Sherlock Holmes a puppet in NHK's television series Sherlock Holmes, he's also a 15-year-old at Beeton School.

When the series starts, Holmes gets a new roommate in the form of transfer student John H Watson from Australia. Moriarty is the deputy headmaster of the boarding school and while's not murdering anybody (they are only teenagers, after all), he still doesn't like Holmes that much.

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