| Product: |
Sherlock Holmes - The Adventures / The Return (DVD) |
| Date: |
15.03.08 (81 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: A great lead performance
Disadvantages: A bit slow at times
The 80s were a great time for heritage detective series on TV, what with all those Agatha Christies. Costume drama was big in general, and Granada had won huge acclaim for Brideshead Revisited. Their Sherlock Holmes adaptations, which started in 1984 and ran until 1994, when the star sadly died, are probably the best version of the stories ever made for TV. This DVD boxset contains the first four seasons.
I expect everyone knows who Sherlock Holmes was. Created by Arthur Conan Doyle, the short stories were hugely popular with their late-Victorian readers, and popularised the detective in literature. Holmes, an eccentric genius, and his slightly dimmer pal Dr Watson, investigate the baffling events that befall their clients. The stories are often seen as an example of Victorian rationalism, although the solutions to the cases usually turn out to be so ludicrous you're left wondering if Conan Doyle wasn't taking the piss. How the solution is reached is more important than the solution itself, though, and the best of them are rightly regarded as classics.
One notable thing about the stories is that many of them don't involve murder. We're so used to detectives only investigating killings that it's possible to feel a bit short-changed by some of Holmes' adventures. Some of the stories are absolute crap, especially the later ones, and Doyle was notoriously slipshod about important details, such as Watson's first name. But the good ones are still cracking entertainment, offering decent characters, inventive plots and the occasional uncanny frisson. So it proves with these adaptations.
I'm not going to list the episodes or give plot descriptions; I'd be here all night. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes has 13 episodes in total. The Return of Sherlock Holmes has a further 11 (anyone with a passing knowledge of the stories will know what he's returning from). They're usually very faithful adaptations, although some have happier endings than the originals, and Watson isn't married. Episodes begin with a client visiting Holmes. Holmes deduces things about them ('I perceive, madam, that you trained as a scullery maid, spent some time in India, and have recently had a liaison with a chimney sweep...' etc). They then tell their story (cue flashback of up to ten minutes), and the last half hour is devoted to the investigation and dénouement. My favourites are The Solitary Cyclist (dark doings involving forced marriage and a hilarious South African); The Speckled Band (dark doings involving gypsies and bell ropes); and The Final Problem (dark doings involving an evil maths teacher and a waterfall).
The attention to detail is very good, as it needs to be in stories which are *about* details. The costumes and hairstyles etc are all authentic looking, and the various locations entirely appropriate (although occasionally superimposing a picture of St Paul's in the background won't fool anyone). The show has a memorable opening theme, heavy on the violins, and the incidental music is good. The picture quality has a certain mid-80s graininess to it but that can't be helped. The pacing is perhaps a little slow. Some of the stories feel padded at 50 minutes (although part of the appeal of these kinds of programmes is the period detail, so a slightly-too-long shot of a man in Victorian dress walking up a cobbled road is probably part of its remit). It's usually obvious who the villain is right from the start, although as I say, it's the solving, not the solution, that's important.
But these things aren't why I like this series. I love these shows purely because of Jeremy Brett. No other actor has ever come close in portraying Holmes (and many actors have tried, including some of my favourites). One problem is that Holmes isn't a real character; he's a superbrain with a bunch of eccentric character traits, many of which Conan Doyle mentioned once and then forgot about. Brett somehow fuses all the disparate elements into a cohesive whole and succeeds in embodying a totally unrealistic character. You feel if you actually met the man, this is what he'd be like.
It's also a magnificently deranged performance. His little tics and twitches, his half pursed lips and jerky head motions, his expansive gesturing, his sharp laugh - he manages to convey what it must be like to be a man whose brain works a thousand times faster than anyone else's. He's one of the most extraordinary things in any popular drama, camp and convincing, intense and whimsical all at once. You know what it's like when you're trying to order a pizza while someone's pushing an ice cube up your bottom? That's how Brett plays pretty much every scene.
The rest of the cast don't stand a chance. Most of them are in standard costume drama mode (costume drama is as much a style of acting as a genre defined by its visual style. The Queen is costume drama; Deadwood is not). Watson is played by James Burke in Adventures and Edward Hardwicke in Return. Burke is a nice antidote to the traditional, oafish Watson, playing him as an intelligent man trying to learn from Holmes, and constantly astonished by him. Hardwicke is a bit more conventional, a little cosier and less aspirational. Both actors convey their fondness for Holmes, even if he's often very rude to them (to the extent of faking his own death and buggering off for three years. I hope to do that to my friends one day).
The rest of the cast are generally only in it for one episode, and many are well-known faces. There are a few who manage to stand out - the likes of Joss Ackland, Alan Howard and Richard Wilson do well - but most of the guest performers feel like they're in a different programme to the star. This is probably as it should be. Charles Grey is great as Holmes' brother Mycroft, and luckily Eric Porter as Moriarty is more than up to the challenge.
Sadly the series fell in quality drastically after this set (the rot is setting in even in the last few episodes here). A TV-movie length adaptation of The Sign of Four was very good, but thereafter the series declined. Part of the problem was that they ran out of good stories; a more serious problem was Jeremy Brett's failing health. He suffered from crippling depression, which shows in his increasingly melancholic Holmes. By the last series he looked incredibly unwell and had none of his earlier energy. Which is why it's nice that this collection ends at almost the right point (I wish it included The Sign of Four as well).
No extras, but the whole thing is currently available for less than £30 on amazon. Well worth it if you're a fan of Holmes.
Summary: The best ever TV Sherlock Holmes on DVD
|
|
