History Series / SherlockHolmes

The series as a whole is generally regarded as one of the most accurate attempts at depicting the original stories ever put to screen (barring certain changes in order to facilitate adaptation from print to television), and Brett's portrayal is often praised as one of the best Holmes out there. It is telling that the next major [[Film/SherlockHolmes feature film adaptation]] starring RobertDowneyJr decided to take a jarringly different interpretation of the character to get out of Brett's shadow.

The series as a whole is generally regarded as one of the most accurate attempts at depicting the original stories ever put to screen (barring certain changes in order to facilitate adaptation from print to television), and Brett's portrayal is often praised as one of the best Holmes out there.

* TheOtherDarrin: Between the first and second series, Edward Hardwicke replaces David Burke as Watson. The distinction is quite sharp - The Final Problem uses Burke, but Holmes returns to Hardwicke in The Empty House (they even reshot a few scenes with Hardwicke for flashback purposes). Overall, David Burke came across as much younger, more naive Watson, albeit one who resembled the original illustrations. Edward Hardwicke, however, was older, more distinguished, and more ex-military. Most fans agree Hardwicke was the more memorable Watson.

* {{Keet}}: Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes comes across as a very energetic, excitable, theatrical person trying desperately to maintain a facade as aloof and serious. Then again, Jeremy Brett was a real-life example. He's waaay more light-hearted and flamboyant in interviews.

* EvilIsStylish:
** The utterly creepy Wilson Kemp in "The Greek Interpreter".
** And, of course, Moriarty.

* EvilBrit: Quite a few of them, Moriarty most notably. Robert Hardy as Charles Augustus Milverton definitely gives chills in this fashion as well.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Of course, it's a {{YMMV}} thing, but both Irene Norton nee Adler and Violet Hunter are redheads (if you count "chestnut" as red), and Holmes ''does'' seem to have some sort of attraction to them both.

[[quoteleft:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes_DVD_4883.jpg]]

[[quoteleft:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Master_Blackmailer_DVD_6205.jpg]]

[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Last_Vampyre_DVD_6310.jpg]]

[[quoteleft:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Eligible_Bachelor_DVD_2995.jpg]]

[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes_DVD_4883.jpg]]

[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Master_Blackmailer_DVD_6205.jpg]]

[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Eligible_Bachelor_DVD_2995.jpg]]

[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes_DVD_158.jpg]]

For ''The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'', after a three year break necessitated by {{Jeremy Brett}}'s health, professional difficulties and various projects, the series returned in 1991 under the oversight of the original producer, Michael Cox. Unfortunately, the number of truly strong stories left in the canon of original Holmes material had started drying up and some of the remaining strong ones needed a bust in the budget (travels to France for instance), leaving the production team an unenviable choice: stay faithful (the original mandate of the series) and pump out low quality episodes, or make quality television but deviate dramatically from the source material. They wavered between the two options during this series, resulting in an uneven six episodes. It was followed by a set of three tv movies featuring [[AdaptationExpansion expanded adaptations]] of short stories. ''TheMasterBlackmailer'' (adapting the Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton) ''TheLastVampyre'' (adapting The Adventure of The Sussex Vampire), and ''TheEligibleBachelor'' (mostly adapting the adventure of "The Noble Bachelor").

* EvilBrit: Quite a few of them, Moriarty most notably.

** In fact, Granada seems almost to stress Holmes's goodness in opposition to Moriarty's wickedness, quite different from [[{{series/Sherlock}}other]] [[film/SherlockHolmes adaptations]].

In ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'', the producers pulled a daring but successful trick in changing Watsons, since the original Watson, David Burke, left for a variety of reasons. Edward Hardwicke replaced him, and though the two interpretations are different, both are extremely successful in challenging TheWatson impression left by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s films.

For ''The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'', after a three year break necessitated by {{Jeremy Brett}}'s health and professional difficulties and projects, the series returned in 1991 under the helm of the original producer, Michael Cox. Unfortunately, the number of truly strong stories left in the canon of original Holmes material had started drying up and some of the remaining strong ones needed a bust in the budget (travels to France for instance), leaving the production team an unenviable choice: stay faithful (the original mandate of the series) and pump out low quality episodes, or make quality television but deviate dramatically from the source material. They wavered between the two options during this series, resulting in an uneven six episodes. It was followed by a set of three tv movies featuring [[AdaptationExpansion expanded adaptations]] of short stories. ''TheMasterBlackmailer'' (adapting the Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton) ''TheLastVampyre'' (adapting The adventure of The Sussex Vampire), and ''TheEligibleBachelor'' (Mostly adapting the adventure of "The Noble Bachelor").

''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'' was the final series of Granada televisions long-running adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's SherlockHolmes stories starring JeremyBrett, airing in 1994. At this point in time, Brett's health was massively unstable due to childhood heart problems, medication prescribed to deal with his bipolar disorder, and complications from chain-smoking his entire life. Adding to the performance difficulties (Brett could often only sustain seconds-long takes before collapsing) were scheduling crunches (the producer, June Wyndham Davies had originally wanted a year to do the series, but after ExecutiveMeddling was given scant months to scramble together scripts and productions schedules), leading to actor replacements (Edward Hardwicke, who played Watson, was unavailable for one episode, and Brett himself had to bow out for an episode, leading to the inclusion of Charles Grey as Holmes' brother Mycroft to replace both characters in two episodes).

There have been numerous television adaptations of SherlockHolmes. See the main page for a list. This page covers the franchise of television series prodocuded by British television company Granada Television between 1984 and 1994, staring JeremyBrett as the titular GreatDetective. on screen and being followed by subsequent sub-series bearing the titles of the other short story collections by Arthur Conan Doyle. Of the 60 Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 42 were adapted in the series spanning 36 one-hour episodes and five feature-length specials.

The first two seasons bearing the title ''The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes''. These series co-starred David Burke as Doctor Watson, reversing the commonly held view of Watson as TheWatson epitomized by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s and 50s, portraying Holmes' biographer as a strong, intelligent, humorous but never bumbling man of action, often learning from Holmes in the art of deduction. Rosalie Williams proved a real gem as the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson, and the supporting cast was magnificent, including an early appearance by Natasha Richardson. It was followed by .

** The deerstalker cap is only semi-canonical, as Sidney Paget was taking a bit of artistic liberty with Doyle's description of a country-bound Holmes. For the first time in the history of Sherlockian film and television, Sherlock Holmes did ''not'' wear a deerstalker in London - rather, he ''always'' wore a top hat in town. Brett's Holmes wore the deerstalker in the country ONLY, but, even then, the solid grey cap looks more stylish than practical (considering the original use for the design).

For ''The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'', Granada television produced these six episodes as the an additional of adapations of Arthur Conan Doyle's SherlockHolmes short stories. After a three year break necessitated by {{Jeremy Brett}}'s health and professional difficulties and projects, the series returned in 1991 under the helm of the original producer, Michael Cox. Unfortunately, the number of truly strong stories left in the canon of original Holmes material had started drying up and some of the remaining strong ones needed a bust in the budget (travels to France for instance), leaving the production team an unenviable choice: stay faithful (the original mandate of the series) and pump out low quality episodes, or make quality television but deviate dramatically from the source material. They wavered between the two options during this series, resulting in an uneven six episodes (though YourMileageMayVary, naturally). It was followed by a set of three tv movies featuring [[AdaptationExpansion expanded adaptations]] of short stories. ''TheMasterBlackmailer'' (adapting the Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton) ''TheLastVampyre'' (adapting The adventure of The Sussex Vampire), and ''TheEligibleBachelor'' (Mostly adapting the adventure of The Noble Bachelor).

Coming on top of this was the fact that the three veteran scriptwriters (Jeremy Paul, T. R. Bowen, and Gary Hopkins) had decided firmly that the remaining of Doyle's original stories were far too thin to fill up an hour-long episode (YourMileageMayVary on whether this is true), and began departing dramatically from the originals in the quest to produce quality episodes. As a result, this series often gets bemoaned by [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks fans of the earlier efforts]], and is indeed [[TheyDontMakeThemLikeTheyUsedTo extremely uneven in quality]] (though production values were exceedingly high in terms of performance, directing, production design, etc) and the DownerEnding of ''The Cardboard Box'' grated with some. However, despite its mediocre reputation, there are some gems here.

There have been numerous television adaptations of SherlockHolmes. See the main page for a list. This page covers the franchise of television series prodocuded by British television company Granada Television between 1984 and 1994, staring JeremyBrett as the titular GreatDetective. The first two seasons bearing the title ''The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes'' on screen and being followed by subsequent sub-series bearing the titles of the other short story collections by Arthur Conan Doyle. Of the 60 Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 42 were adapted in the series spanning 36 one-hour episodes and five feature-length specials.

These first two series co-starred David Burke as Doctor Watson, reversing the commonly held view of Watson as TheWatson epitomized by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s and 50s, portraying Holmes' biographer as a strong, intelligent, humorous but never bumbling man of action, often learning from Holmes in the art of deduction. Rosalie Williams proved a real gem as the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson, and the supporting cast was magnificent, including an early appearance by Natasha Richardson. It was followed by .

----

In ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'', the producers pulled a daring but successful trick in changing Watsons, since the original Watson, David Burke, left for a variety of reasons. Edward Hardwicke replaced him, and though the two interpretations are different, both are extremely successful in challenging TheWatson impression left by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s films. It was followed by TheCasebookOfSherlockHolmes.

There have been numerous television adaptations of SherlockHolmes. See the main page for a list. This page covers the franchise of television series prodocuded by Granada television and staring JeremyBrett as the titular GreatDetective.

British television series produced in 1984 by Granada television. The first series (actually occurred as two separate series which are usually lumped together today) in the long running project of adapting Arthur Conan Doyle's SherlockHolmes stories for television, starring [[JeremyBrett Jeremy Brett]]. These first two series co-starred David Burke as Doctor Watson, reversing the commonly held view of Watson as TheWatson epitomized by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s and 50s, portraying Holmes' biographer as a strong, intelligent, humorous but never bumbling man of action, often learning from Holmes in the art of deduction. Rosalie Williams proved a real gem as the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson, and the supporting cast was magnificent, including an early appearance by Natasha Richardson. It was followed by TheReturnOfSherlockHolmes.

Contains the episodes:

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Holmes's retort to Watson's mild remonstrance at the end of "The Blue Carbuncle." After a startling outburst, Holmes explains that he "may be commuting a felony, but I am saving a soul."