Granada Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett

[Kirkman1987]

I brought this show up in the sci-fi forum causally while discussing tv shows, and figured to write more I should properly bring this up here in a new topic.

Anyway, I watched maybe three episodes on youtube last year, convincing me to pay the hefty sum for the dvd set. Have not looked back since, and have immesly enjoyed the series.

I know we have a few fans here at least. What was everyone's opinion on the show? do we have any naysayers?

The performances (especially by Jeremy Brett in the title role) were always great. Brett is usually regarded as the best screen holmes, and I think deservably so. His mannerisms are so interesting, and often amusing. Brett's Holmes has a certain grace in the way he moves. He has a great voice and all, but it's those mannerisms I always recall most.

I thought both Burke and Hardwicke were fine as Dr. Watson. They played the role very much alike and I can't say I have a favorite between the two.

It certainly is sad that Brett aged so rapidly and died. I would have liked to see brett as he was at the begginning of the series tackle the rest of the stories. Many people criticise the later episodes for changing the stories more, but I didn't mind much of the time. I think the feature length "Last Vampyre" was lots of fun, As was "The Master Blackmailer." It did annoy me however when they had Holmes kick the cocaine habit halfway through the series. It was an interesting part of his character. At least the episdode, "The Devil's Foot" was a pretty solid one.

The best episodes are without a doubt the earlier ones from "The Adventures..." and "The Return....". That was when they were doing near perfect adaptations and Brett was in top form.

I also have to give quick credit to the production values. Just looking around Holmes room, there is so much detail in the props, sets, and the streets of 19th century London looked fantastic.

Thoughts?

 

[auntiehill]

I agree completely. Jeremy Brett is far and away the best Sherlock Holmes on screen. His Holmes is subtle, layered--a steady simmering spirit that rarely lets the mask slip. He is almost birdlike and awkward, in the way that the world he knows so well is still so alien to him in many ways. The series completely immerses the viewer in that world and everything, even the title music hits exactly the right note (no pun intended).

This series made me go back and read the stories again, and even seek out other Holmes stories.

No other adaptation on screen will ever come close.

 

[Canadave]

It's almost impossible to match Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. He nailed basically every quirk and mannerism of the character almost effortlessly, and between his performance and the production of the series, you're totally immersed in Holmes' world.

Incidentally, my feelings towards David Suchet as Hercule Poirot are quite similar.

 

[Christopher]

Brett was terrific. His characterization departed somewhat from Doyle's description of Holmes; in the stories, he was a much more reserved, saturnine, emotionless figure, while Brett made him mercurial, energetic, capable of almost childlike mischief and glee. Doyle's Holmes was a Vulcan; Brett's Holmes was more like an incarnation of the Doctor (Who, that is). But I don't disapprove of that, since it made the character more interesting to watch.

I'm not sure which Watson I liked better. Hardwicke was, I believe, the one I saw first, so for a long time I preferred him. But recently, I caught a couple of episodes with Burke for the first time in quite a while. And what struck me about Burke was how much he reminded me of Patrick Stewart. Similar facial structure, similar accent, remarkably similar speech cadences and mannerisms and facial expressions. I'm very attuned to speech rhythms, and sometimes it amazes me how similar the cadence and delivery of certain English actors are to one another. I wonder if that's an aspect of their training, if they all trained under a specific person and learned to mimic his delivery or something. But the resemblance seems particularly strong between Burke and Stewart.

As for the later stories growing more divergent from the source, many of them had to be. Presumably they started with the ones that could be more easily adapted, so eventually it got to the point that the remaining ones were too short, too non-visual, too problematical in structure to adapt directly.

Many of their changes were improvements. I particularly liked the way they set up Moriarty in a couple of episodes before "The Final Problem." The problem with Moriarty in the original stories is that he's an "arch-nemesis" who never existed before the story in which he and Holmes have their final battle, and who was later alluded to in passing in a novel set before Holmes's "death" at Reichenbach Falls. It improved the continuity to make Moriarty the mastermind behind a couple of earlier cases.

It is a shame that they didn't manage to adapt all 60 stories. How many did they do?

 

[diankra]

It's an immense pity that they weren't able to do a little bit more: the producers has concluded that they'd used up pretty much all the stories which would be effective as adaptations, but Gary Hopkins - who'd adapted The Devil's Foot earlier - was in the early stages of an adaptation of His Last Bow which would have closed off the series, either on its own or in a final batch of episodes or films, when Jeremy Brett died. His vague thoughts included possible filming in America, for the undercover work Holmes did in the US while posing as Altamont, an Irish ally of a German spy, that's only alluded to in the story.

Edit; In answer to Christopher's question, they did 41 episodes or films, addapting 42 of the 60 stories (The Mazarin Stone includes parts of The Three Garridebs as well. Though ISTR that one of the short stories, The Red Circle, is a two-parter, so that may bring it up to 43 of the 60).

 

[Cicero]

I really didn't care for this series, though I don't think that was the fault of any of the actors. The few episodes I've seen have had some very odd stylistic elements which have completely ruined them for me. I appreciate a dapper Holmes and muscular, smartly dressed Watson, though. Both of these characters seldom appear right.

 

[God Magnus]

I loved this series and have rewatched it many times on DVD without ever getting tired of it. When you watch the show the acting, sets and atmosphere grab you the way most modern shows and movies can only aspire to. Brett is burned in my brain as "the" onscreen Holmes, and as much as I love Robert Downey Jr., somewhere in the back of my mind his Holmes will be compared to Brett's when I see that film. Perhaps the only other Holmes I enjoy close to this level is Basil Rathbone, but his take on Holmes was very different.

 

[Captain Shaw]

I can watched Bretts version of Holmes again and again for me this he was/is Holmes no any other actor has come close to pulling him off as well as Brett.
As for Watson i never took to Burke but i thought Edward Hardwicke was brilliant in the role.
Have just found this interview if anyone wants to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ElqcgNrukc&feature=related

 

[S. Gomez]

Jeremy Brett was the greatest Sherlock Holmes. After the original, of course.

My favourite episodes (dare I pick?) were usually to be found in The Return... "The Second Stain", "The Priory School", "The Bruce-Partington Plans", it definitely got quite the pick of the litter. But the certainly isn't meant to take away from the other series as well.

 

[Rabittooth]

I can only agree with all the praise lumped on these productions above. JB was the perfect Holmes and I loved every episode.
Really wish there could be more.

-Rabittooth

 

[ITL]

I loved the Brett era. Excellent show.

 

[Holdfast]

Brett was terrific. His characterization departed somewhat from Doyle's description of Holmes; in the stories, he was a much more reserved, saturnine, emotionless figure, while Brett made him mercurial, energetic, capable of almost childlike mischief and glee. Doyle's Holmes was a Vulcan; Brett's Holmes was more like an incarnation of the Doctor (Who, that is). But I don't disapprove of that, since it made the character more interesting to watch.

I can see where you're coming from, but don't think the literary Holmes is as emotionally controlled as you're saying. There are numerous random verbal outbursts and dramatic behaviour. Brett took these traits and really ran with them, it's true, but I think both versions of Holmes are essentially those of a histrionic, narcissistic aesthete. A difference in emphasis but not of substance in the character, for me at least.

In case you can't tell, I really enjoy both the books & this adaptation. Someone already mentioned both the costumes and the props and I'd echo that appreciation - really well done, esp considering the budget and the era they were done in.

 

[Orintho]

Brett was the definitive Holmes. I also liked the series because They did not make the mistake of turning Watson into the bumbling elderly comic relief. Watson was not originally an old man.

 

[Rabittooth]

...really well done, esp considering the budget and the era they were done in.

Were there strict budget constraints? it doesn't show. Production values were excellent.

-Rabittooth

 

[Holdfast]

...really well done, esp considering the budget and the era they were done in.

Were there strict budget constraints? it doesn't show. Production values were excellent.

-Rabittooth

It was a major series on the ITV channel between the mid 80s and 90s, but UK TV production budgets are generally considerably lower than US budgets. It doesn't show on screen though, I agree.

 

[Wrongway Janeway]

I used to watch it all the time back in the 80s. Adored Brett's Holmes. Can't recall if the first episode I watched was The Dancing Men or The Musgrave Ritual.
I'm hoping to get the series on DVD soon.

 

[Orintho]

...really well done, esp considering the budget and the era they were done in.

Were there strict budget constraints? it doesn't show. Production values were excellent.

-Rabittooth

Very true. The series seemed to have had that Merchant/Ivory touch to its production quality. Merchant/Ivory made convincing period films like 'Howard's End' or 'A Room wit a View' with very little budget.

 

[AJBryant]

I loved Brett's Holmes. It was amazing. I've seen 'em all several times.

It is a great pity that he died.


Tony

 

[RookieBatman]

I really loved the show as well, though I've only seen a handful of episodes. I agree wholeheartedly about the brilliance of Brett's performance.
You know, somewhat ironically, it certainly was a tragedy that the show ended up essentially documenting Brett's too-rapid aging and decline (one of the reasons I've hesitated to watch the series all the way through), but in some ways, it kinda mirrors the path of Doyle's original stories. In the later years he was writing, as I understand it, he was very tired of the character and so wrote the stories in a more haphazard manner. Apparently, by the end of it, he was just sick of Holmes and was just doing it for the paycheck (because all the readers loved Holmes and wanted nothing else from him). So, if you read the stories or watch the show all the way through, it seems (so I've heard) that they both feature fairly drastic declines in the later adventures.
Very sad, but interesting note.

 

[Christopher]

It was somewhat clever of Granada to cope with Brett's illness/death by rewriting a couple of episodes in the final season with Mycroft taking the place of Sherlock. Except that it required altering Mycroft's character, in that he was actually willing to leave the Diogenes Club. And the actor just didn't have Brett's charisma.

It says something about Brett, I suppose, that they were able to recast Watson but just ended the series rather than attempting to recast Holmes.