Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series)

In the late Victorian era, Sherlock Holmes is the world's only consulting detective. His practice is largely with private clients, but he is also known to assist the police, often in the shape of Inspector Lestrade, when their cases overlap. His clients range from private citizens of modest means to members of royalty. His ability to spot clues easily overlooked by others, bring certain specialist knowledge — for example chemistry, botany, anatomy – and deductive reasoning to bear on problems enable him to solve the most complex cases. He is assisted in his work by military veteran Dr. John Watson, with whom he shares rooms at 221B Baker Street. He craves mental stimulation, and is known to relapse into depression when there are insufficiently complex cases to engage him.

The programme ran for four series and 41 episodes: 36 ran for 50 minutes, and 5 were feature-length specials.

The Baker Street set at Granada Studios

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 (all based on individual Doyle stories). Other writers to adapt Doyle's short stories in the series included Alexander Baron, Jeremy Paul, T. R. Bowen, and Alan Plater.

Brett had been approached in February 1982 by Granada to play Holmes. The idea was to make a totally authentic and faithful adaptation of the character's best cases. Eventually Brett accepted the role and was very attentive to discrepancies between the scripts he had been given and Doyle's original stories.

To shoot the series, 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.

The series came to an end owing to the death of Brett at the age of 61 from heart failure in 1995.[9] He had suffered from ill health during filming of the later series due to adverse reactions to the medicine prescribed for depression. It was an affliction he was prone to, episodically, throughout his life. In his later life, it worsened.

Adlington Hall, Cheshire was used for at least five episodes

Tatton Hall, Cheshire was used for several episodes[10]

At least five episodes were filmed at Croxteth Hall, Liverpool[10]

As well as being broadcast by ITV in the UK, the series was also seen overseas, particularly in the United States, where the episodes initially ran on PBS stations in the Mystery! strand. Later series gained co-production funding from Boston PBS broadcaster WGBH. The shows have also been transmitted on two US cable television stations, Disney Channel and A&E Network, the Seven Network in Australia and on CBC in Canada.

In the UK, the series has often been repeated: on Granada Plus; on ITV3; ITV4; and on BBC Two, which ran the complete series on Saturday afternoons from 2003 to 2005. This makes it one of the very few programmes originally produced by an ITV company for broadcast on their own channel to have subsequently been 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 series is considered to present the most faithful screen adaptations of many of the Holmes stories,[12] although liberties were taken with some plotlines and characters, particularly later in the run during the 1990s episodes (for instance, "The Mazarin Stone", filmed in 1994, combined the plot elements of two separate Doyle stories).[13]

A big change was Holmes quitting his cocaine habit in the episode "The Devil's Foot," which was done with the approval of Jean Conan Doyle, Doyle's daughter, when it was discovered that the series had a considerable child audience.[14] Nonetheless, the series has been highly praised for the performance of Brett, its adherence to Doyle's original concept in the characterisation of Watson, its high production values, and its close attention to period detail.[15][16]

The series has been released on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4,[17][18][19] and has been repeated on ITV4 and BBC Two.

The complete series has also been released on VHS in 1991 and 1994 by MPI Home Video and on DVD, with the most recent 2005 release taking advantage of the digitally remastered film prints originally prepared for the BBC Two repeat run. In December 2012, the series was released on Blu-ray in Japan, in Spain in May 2013, in France in October 2013, and in the US in September 2014.[20]

• Peter Haining, The Television Sherlock Holmes, W.H. Allen, London, 1986. ISBN 0-491-03055-X.
• Keith Frankel, "Granada's Greatest Detective, a Guide to the classic Sherlock Holmes television series", Fantom Publishing, Coventry England 2016. ISBN 978-1-78196-267-1.

• The Saga of the Sherlock Holmes Granada TV Series at arthur-conan-doyle.com
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the BFI's Screenonline
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
• The Sign of Four at IMDb
• The Hound of the Baskervilles at IMDb
• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
• Interview with producer June Wyndham Davies (1996)
• Jeremy Brett: Interview (1988), retrieved 7 January 2018