The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

These comments apply to all series and full-length Holmes episodes filmed by Granada between 1984 and 1994 and starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, and David Burke (later Edward Hardwicke) as Watson. In my opinion, Brett was totally spot-on for the role. Never has Holmes in all his complexities been laid before us. Brett's Holmes is tragic, infuriating, funny, smart, human. He has his weaknesses to offset his sharp mind and encyclopedic knowledge of low-lifes, drugs, and cigar ash. Stand-out episodes include The Devil's Foot, The Speckled Band, The Master Blackmailer, The Eligible Batchelor, The Copper Beeches, The Empty House, The Six Napoleons ... as for the Watsons, David Burke was more amused than amusing, quietly tolerating his friend's unusual personality traits. Hardwicke was a comedy character, not in the vein of Nigel Bruce in the old movies, but a buffoon with a heart and a mind who could be relied on in a crisis, but often showed his irritation at being woken up in the middle of the night or missing his lunch! For a whole decade British TV was the better for this long-running series.

This is a Sherlock Holmes series that is absolutely faithful to the original stories. The excellent cast with Jeremy Brett in the lead leaves no wishes open. Many roles were given to icons of British drama and cinema, such as Charles Gray, Eric Porter, John Castle, Joss Ackland and Eric Sykes. Others went to upcoming stars of the late 80s such as Marina Sirtis and Natasha Richardson. The mise-en-scene was certainly not only developed true to the books, but it was also inspired by Sidney Paget's drawings, which were published together with the early stories in the "Strand Magazine" from the beginning of the 1890s onwards. Compare, for example, the King of Bohemia, who faces Holmes as a masked stranger, or the struggle of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland.

This series is a true masterpiece of television.

This superb series is not only the best adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories that I have ever seen (and I have seen a few), it is one of the best television series ever made, period. Some episodes are better cinema than many feature films made at the same time. It is amazing to see the way Granada and the cast and crew kept the quality consistently high in every episode of this series, as well as the second series of the ADVENTURES, the RETURN, and the adaptation of THE SIGN OF FOUR. Later shows showed some decline in the quality of the writing and direction, and the illness of star Jeremy Brett also had a deletrious effect. But there is no negating what went before. Jeremy Brett leaves all the other actors I've seen play Holmes in the shade, and both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke are marvellous as Dr. Watson. For the first time, I believed that these men were good friends. Why has it taken over a century for someone to play them in this fashion? The credit goes to the people involved in this landmark production. The biggest crime in the series: why no professional awards or nominations for such marvellous work? There is no excuse for this. Watch the shows on video, recent broadcasts butcher the life out of these wonderful treasures.

I must confess that until a few years ago I fully believed in the deer-stalker wearing, beak-nosed incarnation of Sherlock Holmes as seen on bill-boards and children's cartoons. Then one night my father persuaded me to watch this series on TV and after that I just had to read the stories to find out what had happened.

Ever since then I have watched every Sherlock Holmes movie that ever came on TV just so I could shout abuse at it, all except this series. Of course it has its faults as does every good thing but there can be little denying that when it came to the casting of the lead it could have not been more perfect.

Brett brings such an energy to the part that is sorely missing in other adaptations. Few other Holmes's have thrown themselves onto dusty floorboards with such gusto or made the veins stand out on their brows in anger. He is deceptively charming and at the same time faintly unsettling, not to mention immensely funny at the correct moment. With him we get a Holmes who, it can be said, is a full human being, flawed but only in the way that a diamond may be flawed, that does not mean it is not still a diamond.

The supporting cast is also excellent with David Burke and Edward Hardewick providing slightly different but equally good Watson's.

Anyone who claims to be a great fan of the stories but does not like this adaptation should look again at the narratives and hang their heads in shame.

When I started reading the Holmes canon in grade school, I was struck by the character of Holmes. He was obnoxious, priggish, intolerant of anyone who was beneath him intellectually (which is almost everyone but Mycroft) and anti-social. Dr. Watson was a more well-rounded character. A doctor trained at Edinburgh (which was stringent in Victorian times), a soldier who undoubtedly performed surgery under fire, wounded (twice) and a fine lad with the ladies. It was clear Holmes needed Watson to operate in society. Without Watson, Holmes would have been a freak. But in movie versions I caught later (such as the otherwise fine Rathbone/Bruce pairings, and perhaps most egregiously in Bernard Fox's Watson opposite Stewart Granger's Holmes) Holmes appeared to be Watson's keeper; or, as with Howard Marion-Crawford, Watson was the officious Britisher to a more cosmopolitan Holmes. Even as late as "Crucifer of Blood", Richard Johnson's Watson is something of a dunderhead. Some of this scurrilous misinterpreting of Watson was chipped away by Colin Blakely in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes", a misfired comedy; and some in "Murder by Decree" by James Mason's Watson, who, while not as incisive as Christopher Plummer's Holmes, is only dunderheaded on the exterior, and who proves he can take care of himself. But with the advent of the Jeremy Brett "Sherlock Holmes", David Burke's Watson, while still not an intellectual rival to Holmes (who is?) is competent, athletic, courageous, and more of a partner to the great detective. One senses that Holmes needs Watson to operate in society, and Watson needs Holmes as mental stimulation to take him out of his dreary medical practice.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is the finest adaptation of the Holmes canon yet. Taking a few liberties (such as giving Watson some of Holmes' lines or putting Moriarty in "The Red Headed League") it nevertheless presents a superb Holmes (Brett) and a Watson who, for the first time, is an invaluable colleague.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is a must for any Holmes fan and a great introduction to anyone who doesn't want to read the stories but wants to see a Holmes close to the original as possible. (Though I was disappointed Burke didn't return in the "Return of Sherlock Holmes" series, Edward Hardwicke continued the tradition of an accomplished Watson, but also giving him a mellowed flavor like fine old vintage wine).