Les souvenirs de Sherlock Holmes

Following on from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes continues to solve crimes in his own inimitable fashion. He is ably assisted by his friend Dr Watson.

The third Sherlock Holmes series to star Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. The first series, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was brilliant. Quite easily the definitive adaption of the novels as it replicated the Victorian England setting and atmosphere so perfectly. The plots were solid and character engagement was good. The engagement levels were aided by the fantastic performances of Jeremy Brett.

The second series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, was also great but not quite as good as the first series. Most of the ingredients were still there but it didn't quite have the darkness, grittiness, tension and engagement levels of The Adventures Of so brilliant. It just felt less polished.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes started very well and seemed a worthy follow-up to those two excellent series. However, from a point the episodes get weaker and weaker, as if all the best stories had been taken and the producers were happy to adapt any Sherlock Holmes story into an episode. Some very odd plots, culminating in the final episode which was pure style over substance.

Jeremy Brett also isn't quite in the same form as he was in the first two series, further diminishing the quality.

All in all it's okay but nowhere as good as the first two series.

My only problem with this series was that three short stories('The Master Blackmailer', 'The Last Vampyre', and 'The Eligible Bachelor') were expanded into feature-length, rather than the standard hour-long format, when it wasn't really necessary. In the case of 'The Eligible Bachelor', I felt that for the only time in the whole overall series, the creators stumbled, since I felt it was bloated and tedious, with unwise changes to the story.

Fortunately, I did like the other two expanded adaptations, and the regular episodes were equally superb, so I can't complain there, I just wish that for "Casebook", the producers remembered the old saying "If it isn't broke, don't fix it!" The team of Brett & Hardwicke are still superb though, which is to be expected.

The fascinating Granada series with the incredible Jeremy Brett as the master sleuth Sherlock Holmes continued well into the 1990's with episodes pertaining to the later life of the great detective. The stories, in read form, are quite fascinating and when brought to the screen, they were, as always carried over with care and panache.

Bendict Who? The consummate TV Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) returns with his loyal friend Doctor John H. Watson (Edward Hardwicke) in another series of fighting the foes of civilization.

Unfortunately, the ravages of time and illness have taken their toll on Brett. He looks bad (accentuated by the incessant close-ups). Somewhere in the middle of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" Brett began sounding like he had a permanent head-cold. That's gotten a lot worse.

The big take-away from this series is "The Boscombe Valley Mystery." It's almost like the glory days of the first two series. "The Disappearance of Lady Carfax" with guest stars Cheryl Campbell and Michael Jayston is acceptable, despite the changes to the story, the exreme downer ending, and the fact that Holmes spends the first part of the story playing with toys. "Shoscombe Old Place" sticks closely to the story but the Charles Augustus Milverton-based "The Master Blackmailer" is only good for a welcome appearance of Colin Jeavon's Lestrade, which is as iconic as Brett's Holmes. "The Last Vampire" marks a nadir not only for this series but the entire Brett/Holmes era. The other episodes, while not so dreadful as "Vampire," are unremarkable.

Jeremy Brett's reign as Sherlock Holmes was welcome from the start and Holmes/Watson fans rejoiced. But Brett's unfortunately failing physical and mental facilities (a sad story worthy of a TV movie of the week) unfortunately wrecked our hopes. By the final series, Charles Gray's Mycroft was picking up too much slack.

Too, the stories were given too much licence and produced weird anomalies.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" with Brett still stands as the best Sherlock Holmes series I've ever seen and "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," despite the changed Watson, while only occasionally touching those initial Olympian heights, is quite good. By "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" the whole shebang was unraveling. What a shame.

The best few episodes still stand up as first-rate Holmes. The rest . . . Oh, the humanity!

I just love anything to do with Sherlock Holmes, and while the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes isn't quite as good as Return or Adventures, it is a wholly creditable series, with superb acting and precise period detail.

The episodes are superbly adapted, yes maybe with a few liberties, but they are splendidly done all the same. The camera work is sensitive and brooding, and the period detail never fails to be splendid and precise. And I have to mention the music- the main theme is as I keep saying beautiful and also haunting, with rich background scoring.

The acting is of high calibre- Holmes is a very complex character, and while there are one or two subtle differences, Jeremy Brett is the perfect Holmes and by far the definitive one. Edward Hardwicke is just as superb as Watson; while David Burke is more humorous and younger, Hardwicke's the one I am admittedly more familiar with, and the truer of the two to the Watson in the books.

All in all, fascinating and splendidly done. 10/10 Bethany Cox