After the success of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" with Jeremy Brett and David Burke, more adventures were made with Sherlock Holmes returning from his watery grave. Edward Hardwicke plays a more mellowed Watson but the attention to Watson's character was the hallmark of the entire Granada production. Brett's performance was very literal and in "Adventures" and "Return" is the living embodiment of Sherlock Holmes from the printed page. But seeing that Watson got his due and is no longer a man in the first stages of senility is the great achievement of the series.
Some of the best episodes appear in "Return", among them "The Second Stain", "The Six Napoleons" and "The Bruce-Partington Plans". One niggling problem remains. Despite the "accuracy" of the series and its good intentions of doing Holmes and Watson right, and despite their success, it is still bothersome that they've decided (no doubt for convenience) to leave Watson unmarried. When they started rooming together Watson was pensioned out of the army on his wounds and he and Holmes were both young men trying to establish their respective practices in London, with little money between them. In the second story Conan Doyle told of these duo ("The Sign of Four", which is otherwise well-done by Granada) Watson gets married and moves out; and as his practice is coming along and Holmes is beginning to make a lot of money (as in "The Priory School", another excellent adaptation in the "Return") it seems peculiar to leave them as middle-aged bachelors in a three-room flat. Given Holmes' anti-social nature, the odd hours he keeps, the vile smells he must produce from his experiments, Watson must be a loony to live with him. "The Return" -- Holmes' literal return after his disaster in Switzerland -- should have been a good point for the series to adjust their living arrangements so that Watson is no longer at Baker Street (as it was clear in the first episode he didn't live there while Holmes was "dead"). It's the one glaring flaw in the whole Granada project and it begins to make everything after "The Adventures" look silly. Still, it's the best Holmes and Watson adaptations out there and "The Return", while not as ebullient as "The Adventures", is quality craftsmanship.
Some of the best episodes appear in "Return", among them "The Second Stain", "The Six Napoleons" and "The Bruce-Partington Plans". One niggling problem remains. Despite the "accuracy" of the series and its good intentions of doing Holmes and Watson right, and despite their success, it is still bothersome that they've decided (no doubt for convenience) to leave Watson unmarried. When they started rooming together Watson was pensioned out of the army on his wounds and he and Holmes were both young men trying to establish their respective practices in London, with little money between them. In the second story Conan Doyle told of these duo ("The Sign of Four", which is otherwise well-done by Granada) Watson gets married and moves out; and as his practice is coming along and Holmes is beginning to make a lot of money (as in "The Priory School", another excellent adaptation in the "Return") it seems peculiar to leave them as middle-aged bachelors in a three-room flat. Given Holmes' anti-social nature, the odd hours he keeps, the vile smells he must produce from his experiments, Watson must be a loony to live with him. "The Return" -- Holmes' literal return after his disaster in Switzerland -- should have been a good point for the series to adjust their living arrangements so that Watson is no longer at Baker Street (as it was clear in the first episode he didn't live there while Holmes was "dead"). It's the one glaring flaw in the whole Granada project and it begins to make everything after "The Adventures" look silly. Still, it's the best Holmes and Watson adaptations out there and "The Return", while not as ebullient as "The Adventures", is quality craftsmanship.