Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series)

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Sherlock Holmes

Original opening title card. In subsequent series this wording would change.

Format

Mystery

Created by

Michael Cox

Jeremy Brett David Burke Starring Edward Hardwicke Colin Jeavons Eric Porter Rosalie Williams

9 (including The Return of Sherlock No. of series Holmes, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes)

No. of episodes

41

Production

Producer(s)

Granada Television

Running time

50 to 120 minutes

Broadcast

Original channel

ITV

Original run

24 April 1984 11 April 1994

Sherlock Holmes is the name given to the TV series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations produced by British television company Granada Television between 1984 and 1994, with 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. The series was broadcast on the ITV network in the UK, and starred Jeremy Brett as the famous detective. His portrayal remains very popular, and is often accepted as the definitive on-screen version of Sherlock Holmes.[1][2][3] In addition, Holmes's faithful friend and companion Dr. Watson is scrupulously portrayed as the kind of thoroughly competent sidekick Holmes would want. Watson was portrayed by David Burke in the two Adventures series before he elected to leave so as to spend more time with his wife and young son. He was replaced by Edward Hardwicke, who played Watson for the remainder of the run. 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.

Contents

1 Background 2 Episodes 3 DVD releases o 3.1 Region 1 o 3.2 Region 2 4 Other productions 5 References 6 Literature 7 External links

Background
The series was initially produced by Michael Cox, with later episodes produced by June Wyndham Davies. It was developed for television by screenwriter John Hawkesworth, who also wrote many of the episodes. Other writers to contribute included Alexander Baron, Jeremy Paul, T. R. Bowen and Alan Plater. A full-scale outdoor replica of Baker Street was constructed at Granada's studios in Quay Street, Manchester, which later formed a central part of the Granada Studios Tour tourist attraction, before that venue's closure in 1999. In addition to Brett, Burke and Hardwicke, other regular cast members included Rosalie Williams as housekeeper Mrs. Hudson and Colin Jeavons as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Also appearing in several episodes was Charles Gray as Holmes' brother Mycroft Holmes (who played the same character in the 1976 film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), and Eric Porter portrayed Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty in the second series of Adventures. The role of the servant Joe Barnes who impersonates Lady Beatrice in the 1991 episode The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place was played by Jude Law, who later played Dr. Watson in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The series came to an end owing to the death of Brett at the age of 61 from heart failure in 1995. It has, however, been reported that by that stage he had already decided not to play the role of Holmes again he had been gravely ill during the making of the final run of the series, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and even collapsed on set during the making of one episode. The series possibly presents the most faithful screen adaptations of many of the Holmes stories, although liberties were taken with some plotlines and characters, particularly later in the run during the 1990s episodes. A big change was Holmes quitting his cocaine habit in the episode "The Devil's Foot," which was done at the approval of Conan Doyle's daughter when it was discovered that the series had a considerable child audience. Nonetheless, the series has been highly praised for its star, its adherence to Doyle's original concept in the characterisation of Watson, its high production values and close attention to period detail. As well as being broadcast by ITV in the UK, the series was popular overseas, particularly in the United States, where the episodes initially ran on PBS stations there in the Mystery! strand. Later series gained co-production funding from Boston PBS broadcaster WGBH. The shows have also been transmitted on cable television stations Disney Channel and A&E Network in the US, and on CBC in Canada. In the UK, the series has often been repeated on Granada Plus, ITV3 and BBC Two, who ran the complete series on Saturday afternoons from 2003 to 2005. This makes the series one of the very few major in-house ITV series ever to have been subsequently shown on the BBC. In March 2006, the series returned to its original channel for the first time in over a decade, as part of the daytime television line-up on weekday afternoons. The complete series has also been released on VHS and on DVD, twice on the latter medium, with the most recent 2005 release taking advantage of the digitally remastered film prints originally prepared for the BBC Two repeat run.

Episodes
Although all of the series bear the titles of Conan Doyle short story collections, the adaptations shown in the series do not always correspond to the stories featured in those print anthologies. The dates shown are the original UK airdates on the ITV network. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1984 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1985 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. "The Copper Beeches" 25 August 1985. "The Greek Interpreter" 1 September 1985. "The Norwood Builder" 8 September 1985. "The Resident Patient" 15 September 1985. "The Red-Headed League" 22 September 1985. "The Final Problem" 29 September 1985. "A Scandal in Bohemia" 24 April 1984. "The Dancing Men" 1 May 1984. "The Naval Treaty" 8 May 1984. "The Solitary Cyclist" 15 May 1984. "The Crooked Man" 22 May 1984. "The Speckled Band" 29 May 1984. "The Blue Carbuncle" 5 June 1984.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes 1986 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1987 1. The Sign of Four 29 December 1987. (Feature-length episode). 1988 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. "The Devil's Foot" 6 April 1988. "Silver Blaze" 13 April 1988. "Wisteria Lodge" 20 April 1988. "The Bruce-Partington Plans" 27 April 1988. The Hound of the Baskervilles 31 August 1988. (Feature-length episode). "The Empty House" 9 July 1986. "The Abbey Grange" 16 July 1986. "The Musgrave Ritual" 23 July 1986. "The Second Stain" 30 July 1986. "The Man with the Twisted Lip" 6 August 1986. "The Priory School" 13 August 1986. "The Six Napoleons" 20 August 1986.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes 1991 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1992 1. The Master Blackmailer 2 January 1992. (Feature-length episode; based on the short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"). 1993 1. The Last Vampyre 27 January 1993. (Feature-length episode; based on the short story "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"). 2. The Eligible Bachelor 3 February 1993. (Feature-length episode; based on the short story "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor"). The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 1994 1. "The Three Gables" 7 March 1994. 2. "The Dying Detective" 14 March 1994. 3. "The Golden Pince-Nez" 21 March 1994. Does not feature Edward Hardwicke as Watson, as he was busy completing work on the film Shadowlands. Instead, Charles Gray appears as Mycroft Holmes, filling Watson's role in the story. 4. "The Red Circle" 28 March 1994. 5. "The Mazarin Stone" 4 April 1994. Also includes storyline material from The Adventure of the Three Garridebs. Jeremy Brett only appears in a cameo role as Holmes due to ill-health. In his place, Charles Gray again appears as Mycroft Holmes. 6. "The Cardboard Box" 11 April 1994. "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" 21 February 1991. "The Problem of Thor Bridge" 28 February 1991. "Shoscombe Old Place" 7 March 1991. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" 14 March 1991. "The Illustrious Client" 21 March 1991. "The Creeping Man" 28 March 1991.

DVD releases
Region 1
MPI Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1, in various incarnations. MPI released The Adventures & The Return in single disc volumes as well as complete collections. The Casebook & The Memoirs were released as a single collection box sets. In addition, on 25 September 2007, a complete series set was released featuring all 41 episodes in one complete collection for the very first time.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes: Boxed Set Collection 13 30 April 2002 The Return of Sherlock Holmes DVD Collection 13 26 August 2003 The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes DVD Collection 9 28 September 2004 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes DVD Collection 6 26 October 2004 Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series 41 25 September 2007

Region 2
ITV DVD has released the entire series in various collections as well as a complete series box set. DVD Name Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures / The Return Sherlock Holmes: The Case Book / The Memoirs Sherlock Holmes - The Complete Collection Ep # Release Date

26 21 February 2005 15 21 February 2005 41 21 February 2005 and 24 August 2009[4]

Other productions
During 198889, Brett and Hardwicke appeared in West End play The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, a two-hander written especially for them by the television series screenwriter Jeremy Paul. In 1992, the pair appeared in a short mini-episode (about ten minutes in length) as part of The Four Oaks Mystery, shown as part of the ITV network's Telethon 92 charity telethon. This episode formed one of a four-part sequence of stories featuring the stars of four ITV detective shows of the time all separately working to solve the same mystery, broadcast at two episodes per night across one weekend. The other shows which produced mini-episodes for the special were Taggart, Van der Valk and Inspector Wexford.

References
1. 2. 3. 4. ^ The wide world of Sherlock Holmes: Jeremy Brett (1933-1995) ^ Jeremy Brett: The Definitive Sherlock Holmes review ^ Sherlock Holmes on Screen ^ "Sherlock Holmes - Complete Collection [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jeremy Brett, David Burke, Edward Hardwicke, Eric Porter, Charles Gray, Rosalie Williams, David Carson, Alan Grint, John Bruce, Paul Annett: DVD". Amazon.co.uk. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002EAKWEI. Retrieved 25 June 2010.

Literature

Peter Haining, The Television Sherlock Holmes, W.H. Allen, London, 1986. ISBN 0-491-03055-X.

External links

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the BFI's Screenonline The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at TV.com See Tfd The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the Internet Movie Database Interview with producer June Wyndham Davies (1996) Filming locations at J.C. Nash

v t e

Screen adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories

Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom (1905) Arsne Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes (1910) A Study in Scarlet (1914) Der Hund von Baskerville (1914) The Valley of Fear (1916) Sherlock Holmes (1916) Sherlock Holmes (1922)

Silent films

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921) The Sign of Four (1923)

Norwood series

The Sleeping Cardinal (1931) The Missing Rembrandt (1932) The Sign of Four (1932) The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) Silver Blaze (1937)

Wontner series

Rathbone-Bruce

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

series

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) Voice of Terror (1942) Secret Weapon (1943) Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) The Spider Woman (1944) The Scarlet Claw (1944) The Pearl of Death (1944) House of Fear (1945) The Woman in Green (1945) Pursuit to Algiers (1945) Terror by Night (1946) Dressed to Kill (1946)

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1979) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1980) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981) The Treasures of Agra (1983) The Twentieth Century Approaches (1986)

Maslennikov series

Clive Brook

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929) Sherlock Holmes (1932)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) The Masks of Death (1984)

Peter Cushing By actor

Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)

Christopher Lee

Incident at Victoria Falls (1991) Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady

(1992)

Christopher Plummer

Silver Blaze (1977) Murder by Decree (1979)

Ian Richardson

The Sign of Four (1983) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000) The Sign of Four (2001) The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)

Matt Frewer

The Royal Scandal (2003)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)

Ian Hart (as Watson)

Robert Downey, Jr.

Sherlock Holmes (2009) A Game of Shadows (2011)

The Speckled Band (1931) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932) A Study in Scarlet (1933) A Study in Terror (1965) The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972) Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Other films

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987) Hands of a Murderer (1990) The Crucifer of Blood (1991) 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993) The Hound of London (1993) Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002) Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (2007) Sherlock Holmes (2010)

The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1937) They Might Be Giants (1971) The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)

Comedies and parodies

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) Without a Clue (1988) A Samba for Sherlock (2001) Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010)

Sherlock Holmes (1951) Sherlock Holmes (1954) Sherlock Holmes (19651968) Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House (1982) The Baker Street Boys (1983) Sherlock Hound (19841985) Sherlock Holmes (19841994) Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (19992001) Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (2000)

Television series

Sherlock (2010)

Sherlock Holmes (2012) Elementary (2012)

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