Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Boxed Set Collection)

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As there are already plenty of other reviews here detailing the specific episodes, let me just toss in my opinion along with the others that Jeremy Brett played the most authentic Sherlock I can imagine. His body, his voice, his mannerisms, his very BEING was true to the portrait of Holmes that Doyle wrote of. Even now, when I go to read the stories of Sherlock and Watson, Brett is easily pictured as Holmes--all the way down to his graceful fingers and small brief smiles. It was a tragedy to lose Brett, but we can be thankful that he was able to bring these classic mysteries to life before leaving us.

Holmes wasn't the only character that was played so perfectly, the role of John Watson is also played quite well by David Burke throughout the "Adventures" section of the Holmes series. In the later sections ("Return", "Casebook", "Memoirs" and all the longer stand-alone movie-episodes) Edward Hardwicke took over as Watson. I am not sure why Hardwicke took over, but I must say of the two I do prefer Hardwicke's Watson over Burke's. In any case, for this "Adventures" DVD set, it is Burke's Watson that you will see, and he does do an admirable job that in no way detracts from the spirit of Watson.

In one other area this entire series excells--the care taken with each and every episode. The people behind this series must have truly loved Doyle's Holmes. Every scene is done perfectly, from the idea of the locations to the photography to the scenery. The "mood" is set, and with Brett and Burke prowling the city and countryside, the stories of Sherlock Holmes come to life here like never before (and because of Brett's death, never again). If you love Holmes, you MUST see these!

Addendum: I contacted MPI video (the releasers of the Granada TV's Holmes series on DVD) and the person who responded to my e-mail said that they WILL continue to release the next series of Holmes DVDs "next year". When next year, I don't know, but just thought I'd pass the word on to other fans that MPI is in fact going to release more Holmes DVDs.

Jeremy Brett was The Sherlock Holmes. For those of us who love the cerebral and quirky detective of 223B Baker Street, this series was absolutely delicious. Sadly, Brett died in 1995 and there are no more of these to be made.

This DVD has the first 13 episodes, some of the finest stories extracted from the entire Holmes volumes. They are:
A Scandal in Bohemia
The Dancing Men,
The Naval Treaty
The Solitary Cyclist
The Crooked Man
The Speckled Band
The Blue Carbuncle
The Copper Beeches,
The Greek Interpreter
The Norwood Builder
The Resident Patient
The Red Headed League
The Final Problem

As is usual with DVD's you get extras, like info on Holmsian societies and photos.

Brett was SO right as Holmes. Even his little movements, that quick turn were right out of Doyle's descriptions. The scenes have that murky, foggy English air, the sets are exquisite. I am captivated every time I watch these and I don't think any set of written stories has been better translated to the small screen. In fact, stories I didn't particularly like are better in this series, such as The Solitary Cyclist, which I never did appreciate in print. The first 13 epsisodes are the best of the best Holmes tales, at least, they have most of my favorites.

This boxed set of 5 DVDs contains the first outstanding 13 episodes (which aired 1984-85) of the acclaimed Grenada TV series (1984-94) starring Jeremy Brett (3 Nov. 1933-12 Sep. 1995) as Holmes and David Burke (born 25 May 1934) as Watson (Edward Hardwicke, born 7 Aug. 1932, played Watson on the remaining episodes). This series totaled 41 episodes: 36 episodes (ca. 50-55 minutes each) in 6 series plus 5 double-length episodes (The sign of four, The hound of the Baskervilles, and three very deviant episodes: The master blackmailer, The last vampyre, and The eligible bachelor). The boxed set is of the first 2 TV series entitled "Adventures" and does not correspond to the "Adventures" of the published short stories.
The "Adventures" DVD box is a four-part plastic affair and not simply 5 DVD cases that slip into a large cardboard box. The six-page booklet simply lists "chapter selections" and bonus materials. Disappointingly, the booklet lacks the brief plot summaries and episode pictures on the back covers of the individually sold volumes. Volume 1 is a two-sided disk with 4 episodes and corrects the defect of the original volume 1 where Side A was B and Side B was A. The warbling sound on "The dancing men" is inherent with the source material. Volumes 2-5 are one-sided disks (with 3 episodes on volume 5) that bear a curious design in the 3:00 position that looks like a surface defect but isn't. Picture quality is very good, especially considering that the series was filmed in 16mm.
It took MPI one and a half years to release these first 13 episodes. This is only about 28.2% of the total series (not counting two short episodes). One hopes that the remaining 23 single-length and 5 double-length episodes are issued more expeditiously (the complete series has been available in Japan for well over a year). ...

Grenada's Sherlock Holmes series are, for my money, the finest adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories ever filmed, or likely to be. The casting, locations, scripting, direction and atmosphere are beyond reproach. Grenada's aim was to create the definitive Sherlock Holmes, and so they did. Sadly, Jeremy Brett passed away with some twenty of the stories remaining to film, and in the last several shows his illness made him almost painful to watch.... but in this first series of Adventures, he's at the top of his game, as is David Burke, who is the perfect Watson to go with Brett's perfect Holmes.

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about MPI's treatment of the series on disc. The extras are all fine, but Disc One has some distressingly bad sound quality, and the video transfer quality on all the discs is uniformly poor. It makes one wish very strongly that A&E had gotten the DVD rights, as their treatment of such classics as MONTY PYTHON and THE AVENGERS is top-notch. It is the quality control problems on these discs that keep me from awarding the full five stars.

That having been said: for the Sherlock Holmes fan, this series is worth having on disc whatever the shortcomings.

In his foreword to Bantam's "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories," Loren Estleman called the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson literature's warmest, most symbiotic and most timeless: rightfully so. Not surprisingly, film history is littered with adaptations of Conan Doyle's tales and Holmes pastiches (using the protagonists but otherwise independent storylines). Yet - and with particular apologies to the fans of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce canon - none of these prior incarnations can hold a candle to the ITV/Granada TV series produced between 1984 and 1994, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and first David Burke, then in near-seamless transition Edward Hardwicke as a refreshingly sturdy, pragmatic, unbumbling Dr. Watson.

Jeremy Brett was the only actor who ever managed to perfectly portray Holmes's imperiousness, bitingly ironic sense of humor and apparently indestructible self-control without at the same time neglecting his genuine friendship towards Dr. Watson and the weaknesses hidden below a surface dominated by his overarching intellectual powers. The series takes the titles of its four cycles of shorter episodes - "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" - from four of the five short story collections featuring London's self-appointed only "consulting detective" (published 1892, 1905, 1894 and 1927, respectively). While not all episodes correspond exactly with the original story collections, and the series's premise - Holmes's and Watson's shared tenancy of rooms at 221B Baker Street - was no longer true even at the beginning of the "Adventures," particularly the first two cycles ("Adventures" and "Return") are must-haves for any mystery fan.

Episodes:

"A Scandal in Bohemia" ... or, Holmes and "The Woman," a/k/a Irene Adler. Can she be moved not to reveal her scandalous secret relationship with a European potentate?

"The Dancing Men" (actually from "Return"): Primitive stick figure drawings on sheets of paper pasted to the door of her new English home greatly worry a young, newly-wed American. Then a murder occurs, and she finds herself the chief suspect ...

"The Naval Treaty" (from "Memoirs"): Holmes comes to the aid of a distinguished civil servant in trouble over a vanished international treaty.

" The Solitary Cyclist" (from "Return"): On her way through a wood near her home, a young woman repeatedly finds herself pursued by a mysterious man riding a bycicle. Who is he, and what are his intentions?

"The Crooked Man" (from "Memoirs"): A classic "locked room" mystery, whose solution is linked to the secrets a crook-backed stranger knows about the victim's and his wife's past.

"The Speckled Band": Also a "locked room" mystery, in which Holmes is called to solve the murder of a young woman who inexplicably died the night before her wedding ... and save her now soon-to-be-married sister from a similar fate!

"The Blue Carbuncle": A gem with a darkly colorful history involving murder and blackmail goes missing, and Holmes and Watson find themselves pondering ethical and legal questions galore as they set out to hunt for the jewel in wintry London.

"The Copper Beeches": Holmes to the rescue of a young woman yet again - this time, helping her determine whether or not to accept a lucrative position as a governess that comes with a series of strange demands on the part of her prospective employer.

"The Greek Interpreter" (from "Memoirs"): The first one of the select number of cases where Holmes's investigation is initiated by his equally intelligent, mysterious brother Mycroft (Charles Gray), now in the British government's service in a position of his own creation. The brothers' challenge is to find an abducted young Greek who tried to communicate his distress to the interpreter secretly brought in to interrogate him.

"The Norwood Builder" (from "Return"): Attorney gets to draw up rich self-made-man's will, and inherits the lot when the client dies. Obvious whodunnit, right? Well, so, of course, thinks Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) - but Holmes disagrees.

"The Resident Patient" (from "Memoirs"): Another rich benefactor meets his untimely end, this time after having enabled a young doctor to establish his practice and live in his very own house. Again, Holmes rushes to the beleagured chief suspect's aid.

"The Red-Headed League": Speaking of leagues, this is a strange one indeed, consisting only of red-headed men. But what is their purpose - and why would they hire a man only to sit in their office and copy pages from a dictionary?

"The Final Problem" (from "Memoirs"): Holmes's seemingly deadly dive into Reichenbach Falls in what Conan Doyle originally conceived as his final clash with evil mastermind Professor Moriarty ... except that it wasn't so deadly after all!

Stories from "Adventures" used in other cycles:

In "Return":
"The Man With the Twisted Lip"

In "Casebook":
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"

Adapted as a stand-alone movie-length feature entitled "The Eligible Bachelor":
"The Noble Bachelor."

Also recommended:
The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series (12 DVD)
Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Dozen
Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street
Bending the Willow: Jeremy Brett As Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle - The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
Murder Rooms - The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle, Detective: The True Crimes Investigated by the Creator of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur and George

As we have come to expect, BBC productions are top notch. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is no exception. Jeremy Brett is marvelous as the quirky detective genius. This series will remain a classic for all time.

I am a big fan of the Agatha Christie's Poirot series, and I decided to give the Sherlock Holmes series atry, so I got this set. All I can say is wow! Jeremy Brett protrays Sherlock Holmes in an unbelievable manner. Exactly how I pictured Holmes from reading the books. This is definetly the best set in the series, so buy it first (Also first in chronological order).

Granada Television series is the best production of Sherlock Holmes adventures. The faithfulness, the authentic locations, ambience,dialogues, researched background scenery are marvelously captured in this collection. Some of the scenes are very clearly inspired by the original sketches by Sidney Paget. Jeremy Brett has taken over the mental image of Holmes in my mind. He was born to play Holmes. The first installment of 13 episodes on this DVD set is a MUST HAVE for any fan of the Master. Bare minimum extras on DVD or slightly impaired sound quality as criticized by other reviewers should not discourage anyone. The sheer pleasure of listening to the hypnotic violin theme as the titles of the Granada episode appear is worth the money. EMI, hurry up ! and give us the rest of the DVD sets.

Sherlockians everywhere: Jeremy Brett is the Master. If you haven't seen these episodes, or any of the others featuring the late Mr. Brett, you're missing a treat. I was a great fan of Basil Rathbone until I stumbled upon the Brett/Burke duo some dozen years ago. Now I can't imagine anyone else bringing Sherlock Holmes to life.

This collection features thirteen great episodes actually based on what Conan Doyle wrote. This is Holmes in all his moody eccenticity, from the mouse coloured dressing gown to the seven percent solution. This is also a Watson I was relieved to see, not the bumbling idiot that Nigel Bruce made him, but a solid reliable citizen with his own sort of intelligence: the perfect foil for a Holmes who pointedly ignores social convention. (Edward Hardwicke took up the role of Watson after this season, but I really prefer David Burke's portrayal.) The translation from page to screen is not exact -- e.g., bits of conversation from "The Sign of Four" appear in "Scandal in Bohemia" -- but there's nothing that came out of the blue.

AS far as a DVD collection goes, this is an odd one. The special features are nothing to write home about and the 13 episodes are formatted weirdly onto five discs where 3 or 4 certainly would have done. In some of the early episodes the sound is quite distorted, as if the DVDs were copied from well worn video tapes without the copy being cleaned up in any way. But all of that made no difference to me, because I'm so pleased to have these episodes and be able to watch them any time I want.

NOw if only they'd release the rest of the series in DVD sets!

For my money Jeremy Brett will always be the definitive screen Holmes. In addition, these Granada TV adaptations employed fine writing that hewed faithful to the original stories and nifty production values in sets, costumes, etc. It's a shame that the "extras" (cast bios and stills) are so skimpy, but the episodes themselves should be considered essential for Holmes fans and collectors. This box set of 13 episodes on 5 discs comes at a better price than the individual volumes purchased seperately, an unhappy situation for those who have been buying the volumes as they were released, but a boon for those who've held off until now. There's no excuse now : get these DVDs.