The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

These comments apply to all the Sherlock Holmes series and episodes produced by Granada and starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and either Burke or Hardwicke as Watson.

Brett certainly gave the most definitive portrayal of Holmes. One must remember that Holmes, although a decent and upright gentleman had his dark side -- his conceit, impatience with people of lesser intelligence and, as a product of imperial Victorian England, he displayed traces of jingoism, racism, sexism and hypocrisy. Note that episode where he remarks on the French surname of a suspect (The Red Headed League) or in the cavalier manner he uses pejoratives to refer to peoples of Asiatic origin. In another episode he tells Watson that his nemesis the Countess of Pernambuco is "but a woman." Expecting high moral standards of others, he was nevertheless a drug addict (cocaine in the original stories by Doyle and also absinthe in the Granada series). He also smoked opium occasionally when in disguise to track down suspects or missing persons. In one episode he was caught red-handed by Watson (the one portrayed by Hardwicke) with a syringe although it is not certain what drug it was supposed to contain, probably morphine as I doubt if heroin had already been extracted from opium at that time. His proclivity to use such drugs make his attachment to pipe tobacco seem trivial.

These flaws viewed in the context of the era and of the peculiar circumstances of Holmes, instead of casting him as an ogre, make him all the more human and believable. On the whole, however, Brett's Holmes is exceedingly kind, self sacrificing and high minded. He could also be quite droll and able to take jokes at his expense as when a phrenologist remarked that he would very much like to take a cast of the cranium of the very intelligent Holmes "until the original should become available" for the latter's collection. Holmes feigned anger and laughingly shooed the scientist away. Note that he rarely collects fees and places life and limb on the line for his clients. No wonder the sophisticatedly discerning French have a Jeremy Brett society.

Between Burke and Hardwicke as Watson, one is likely to vote for Burke as he is funnier, younger and good looking. But Hardwicke better displays the character of a retired officer of the Indian (Imperial British) Army by his physical courage and readiness to use his firearm. His portrayal also highlights the difficult side of Holmes as in the episodes showing Holmes' disregard for his own health and his drug addiction. It was to Hardwicke's Watson that Holmes unusually expresses (in a letter in The Hound of the Baskervilles) deep concern and affection with such words as "there is nothing that I desire more than to have you safely back in our Baker st. lodgings." Finally, if you have seen all the episodes, watch them again and keep your eyes peeled for those delicious antiques -- porcelain washbowls, iron stoves, 19th century lamps, brass door knockers, handsome hansoms and carriages, even a pristine horse drawn red and brass fire engine with immaculate white hoses. And were those mansions, manor houses and country cottages merely sets or genuine locations? I suspect the latter. I would suggest to the English that they revise their Sherlock Holmes tours to include visits to places where Granada shot the series.

Following on from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes and the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes continues to solve crimes in his own inimitable fashion. He is ably assisted by his friend Dr Watson and/or his brother Mycroft.

The fourth and final Sherlock Holmes series to star Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. The first series, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was brilliant. Quite easily the definitive adaption of the novels as it replicated the Victorian England setting and atmosphere so perfectly. The plots were solid and character engagement was good. The engagement levels were aided by the fantastic performances of Jeremy Brett.

The second series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, was also great but not quite as good as the first series. Most of the ingredients were still there but it didn't quite have the darkness, grittiness, tension and engagement levels of The Adventures Of so brilliant. It just felt less polished.

The third series, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, started very well and seemed a worthy follow-up to those two excellent series. However, from a point the episodes got weaker and weaker, as if all the best stories had been taken and the producers were happy to adapt any Sherlock Holmes story into an episode. Some very odd plots, culminating in the final episode which was pure style over substance.

This, the fourth series, sees a return to the form close to that of The Return of Sherlock Holmes with some great mysteries. Not consistently great but the better episodes make you wonder why the writers appeared to be scraping the barrel in the third series when there were still some good Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels available.

All through this series Jeremy Brett was in ill-health - he died 18 months after this series was release. His infirmity is sometimes apparent in his appearance. He courageously continued filming the show despite his condition and, though he clearly isn't 100%, his performances are still very good and one of the things that make the show so great.

Ultimately, not as good as The Adventures Of or Return Of but still very good and an improvement on The Case-Book Of.

Here we say a fond fare-well to the finest Holmes on film. And not a minute too soon. Though the series was cut short by the tragic and untimely death of Jeremy Brett, the series should've died before this. The earlier "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (with David Burke and Edward Hardwicke, respectively, as Watson) were superb visual retellings of the Doyle stories. They even had moments of humor (cf. "The Red Headed League", when Holmes and Watson hear about the artificial kneecaps; or "The Solitary Cyclist", when Holmes is interrupted in his experiments -- no spoilers, though!) Holmes might be oddly whimsical (as in "The Naval Treaty"). But at some point melancholy fell over the stories. Certainly the lengthening of stories into artificial movies in "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" didn't better the series. Instead of telling the stories in a straightforward way, stories begin to be blended into one another. Bizarre elements found their way into the tales. In one disastrous episode in the "Case Book" days, "The Sussex Vampire", the makers diverged from Doyle altogether for a totally whacked-out story that ought never have been told. "Memoirs" suffers from story blending -- part of that is Doyle's fault, since some of his Holmes stories are paper thin and could barely sustain an hour. But melancholy had claimed the series for her own. There were too many close-ups, the make up is weird in cases, and at some points hindsight makes you worry about Jeremy Brett's health. Naturally in the eerily title "The Dying Detective" he looks bad. But he looks pretty bad in the rest of them, too. Though I'm sorry they couldn't have finished all the stories in the canon, they came close; and the way they were mucking about with stories and camera work and make up and overarching sadness in "Memoirs" makes one wish they hadn't gone this far. The loss of Jeremy Brett to the acting world casts a further pall over the proceedings. This is not the place to start for Brett's finely limned Holmes, and truly is for someone who obsessively has to own every episode.

Jeremy Brett played the role for many glorious years, and for my money he's still far and away the best in the role, he's seemed to meet all the criteria, and add an enormous amount of charisma.

The production values remain exquisite, it's a fabulous looking series, with a degree of detail.

This last run for Brett is arguably very good overall, generally I favour them to those of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. I cannot help but feel a degree of sadness as I watch Brett, his health has visibly declined, but he still has a huge command in the role.

There is a varying degree of quality in this series, The Cardboard Box, Dying Detective and Red Circle are all definite classics, I personally find The Mazarin Stone to be the weakest episode overall. However all are an enjoyable watch.

Brett would make a few more appearances on television after this, but sadly this is where the ultimate Sherlock Holmes signed off. 8/10

Thank goodness for the wonderful folks at Granada Television. In the mid 1980s, they created the absolute best Sherlock Holmes ever to make it to the big or small screen. Unlike all the previous versions, which LIBERALLY deviated from the Conan Doyle stories, the Granada films tried to be perfect in every detail.

Unlike the caricature of Holmes that you see in previous films where he wears a deerstalker hat, smokes a curved pipe and spouts "elementary, my dear Watson", this Holmes is true to the original character. Additionally, Dr. Watson is not the bumbling idiot as portrayed by Nigel Bruce (Bruce should burn in Hell for how he ruined this character).

All four Granada Television series were exceptional and up to the same great standards. However, unfortunately, this would be the last as Jeremy Brett died from a heart attack after only about 2/3 of the original stories could be filmed. What a shame.

Intelligently written and wonderful throughout. You can't do much better than these shows.