The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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). ...

These are the first 13 episodes in the justly-famous Jeremy Brett series. To my mind, they're the best of the lot. "The Red-Headed League" and "The Blue Carbuncle" are Doyle at his very best. Jeremy Brett seems about the right age, a fit 40ish (though the actor was probably more like 50ish at the time). Brett's Holmes feels exactly right, complete with memorable mannerisms and Victorian grand gestures. It's hard to imagine a future actor ever trying his hands at it. David Burke is a better Watson than Cedric Hardwicke, who replaced him in the later episodes.

Watson is a tough guy to figure out. What kind of man would devote all his free time to following and assisting Sherlock Holmes? It doesn't help that Watson is under-developed in Doyle's stories, a sort of literary device that allows Holmes to verbalize his thoughts in ways comprehensible to us mere mortals, of which Watson is one. There's frequently a condescending tone in Holmes' remarks to Watson, though Holmes is clearly fond of Watson and actually relies on his help. Nigel Bruce made much too much of this condescension in the Rathbone films, in which he played Watson as a buffoon for comic relief. In the 1970s, someone named Rosenberg wrote a book, "Naked is the Best Disguise", in which he looked for signs of latent homosexuality in the Holmes-Watson relationship. I don't think we want to go there, do we? I think that the best way to flesh Watson out in a dramatization is to play him as, among other things, an adventure junkie. He loves the excitement, mental stimulation, and danger. Cedric Hardwicke's pudgy, middle-aged do-gooder doesn't work for me. David Burke's Watson is also a man of decency, a do-gooder (as is Doyle's Watson) who wants to see justice done, but he also seems rugged, physically fit, believeable as a man who saw combat in India and who now thrives on the adventure that his association with Holmes allows him to experience back home in London.

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."