The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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.

Splendid television series about Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective. The series was catapulted by an intense performance by Jeremy Brett, who was a true vision and David Burke as the first Dr. John Watson. The role would later go to Edward Hardwicke, the son of actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke. The series was quite popular in the states as well as in England. Each episode was well paced and about 90 percent of the time faithful to Conan Doyle's literary works. It took chances. It took risks and it was successful. For Brett, it was the character he would be remembered for. Thank God for him...he played the part masterfully.

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 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 have only seen a few episiodes of the Jeremy Brett version of 'Sherlock Holmes' but already (to me) Jeremy Brett is THE 'Sherlock Holmes'. He gives the character a real personality and not only plays the character but BECOMES the character. I know that Jeremy Brett was not always comfortable with the character and lacked confidence in his portrayal of 'Sherlock Holmes' but to me he is the ULTIMATE Sherlock!!!! It's so unfourtunate that a character who ultimately brought such pleasure to so many people brought the actor such a mix of joy and misery!!!! Jeremy Brett was a great actor and a great man and thats why he is one of my all time favourite actors!!!!!