Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection [DVD]

...with this splendid re-release of the classic ITV/Granada television series. I can only agree with the other reviewers that these are the definitive interpretations on TV or film of the Conan A Doyle canon of Sherlock Holmes. Nothing else really touches this, with absolutely faultless acting in all roles, whether large or small. Frankly, to compare these films with the Basil Rathbone movies is ludicrous, they are not even on the same planet (and they are anyway mostly not from Doyle's writings). Of course, the grand acting price goes to Jeremy Brett. He acts, he breaths, yes he IS Sherlock Holmes, and I pity all poor actors who will in the future try to better his performance. However, the rest of the actors also deserve high praise. Both David Burke, as a younger and more vigorous Watson, and Edward Hardwicke who portrays a more mature and solid Watson make stellar performances. They are also helped by intelligent scripts that casts Watson as a valid partner to Holmes (in fact, in some instances it may even be a bit overdone, after all Watson almost never in the short stories or novels take any part in the actual solution of the problems). You will also delight in many other superb performances and have fun recognizing many actors from the British acting elite in larger or smaller roles. As for the technical quality, this is as good as you can possibly expect from transfers of TV-shows that are up to a quarter of a century old. The new transfers have an excellent both picture and sound quality. I have been watching these DVD's on a fairly state of the art 46 inch flat screen TV set and I have no complaints whatsoever of the sharpness of the images. The sound, albeit in mono (although a few of the last episodes are actually in Dolby stereo sound) is also very good. For us non-English viewers it is also very good to have the subtitles. To bad only that you can't get them without that hard-of-hearing feature. But the fun doesn't stop there. You can also keep a lookout for all those small references to other films and work of arts. A few samples: In the episode "The Resident Patient" the beginning is copied from the opening scene of Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece "Wild Strawberries" were Isaac Borg in a nightmare dream sees himself in a coffin. In the "The Hound of the Baskervilles" there is a scene with Holmes disappearing in a cloud of smoke and fog in a railway station which is very similar to the final scene in the Leslie Howard film "Pimpernel Smith". In the episode " "The Musgrave Ritual" the ending scene is modeled from the famous pre-Raphaelite painting "Ophelia" by John Everett Millais. In the episode "The Golden Pince-Nez" there is a shot of the female protagonist, the wife of Prof. Coram, showing her in a melee with Tsarist troops with her glasses cracked. This is an obvious quotation from the famous Odessa stairs scene in Sergei Eisenstein's classic movie "The Battleship Potemkin". So, a very highly recommended viewing then. Do try to obtain a copy of this release, even if it seems to be out of print at the moment. Hopefully it will come back again.

The complete set of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett as the Great Detective. Brett gives a mesmerizing, tightly controlled and at the same time delightfully quirky and eccentric performance as Holmes. The razorsharp features, the cat-like quickness and elegance, the autoritarian voice, the piercing eyes; this man was born to play Holmes. A truly rare coming together of actor and part (dame Jean Conan Doyle herself wrote to Mr. Brett "you are the Holmes of my childhood", which he rightly regarded as the ultimate accolade). Also, Holmes on the page, as observed by Watson, is a very clever but otherwise rather hollow character. You don't get to know much about his emotional life. On screen this would come across as robotic and 1-dimensional. Brett was the only actor who understood from the start that he needed to give Holmes an inner life to make the transition from page to screen work. His Holmes is introvert and cold like the original, but subtle flashes in Brett's eyes and face reveal a barely contained passion and emotion beneath the icy mask. Brett made Holmes a fully rounded character and, in doing so, gave a once in a lifetime performance. David Burke makes a dashing and delightfully clever Watson, with an upbeat demeanour and appetite to match Holmes' introvert asceticism. This "Boswell" deeply cares for Holmes; their friendship is clearly apparent in numerous subtle quips and gestures. Burke's youthful, energetic Watson is seamlessly followed by Edward Hardwicke's slightly older and graver but still very likable Watson from series 3 onwards. The transition is perfectly timed -following the three year gap after the Reichenbach Falls- and therefore feels completely natural. The rest of the acting is also top-notch, with Colin Jeavons and Charles Gray making a convincingly smug Lestrade and wonderfully Holmsian Mycroft. Sadly, during the final series Brett's rapidly declining health (by then he suffered from full-blown manic depression as well as a rapidly worsening heart condition) clearly began to affect his performance. In addition, drastic cuts in production costs meant that the final episodes, from The Last Vampyre onwards (Master Blackmailer still is a fairly decent episode in my opinion) are but faint echoes of the earlier series. I believe Granada should have pulled the plug at this point to preserve a very high-standard body of work. Unfortunately, someone with little insight or integrity decided to squeeze the format -as well as the by now clearly struggling Mr. Brett- completely dry. I strongly recommend leaving those final few episodes for what they are, as they are in no way representative of the brilliance that came before. Over two decades later this wonderful series still firmly holds its own, thanks to great acting and minute attention to detail in the period sets and costumes. Don't forget to pay attention to the background, where numerous well-dressed extra's, beautiful antiques and lush country estates, combined with fully operational Victorian machinery, draw you into that fascinating age on the threshold of the modern 20th century. How this series never won any BAFTA awards is beyond me. This dvd transfer also has the most clear picture and sound quality I have yet seen for this series. A definite must have for fans of detective series, costume drama or simply bloody good televison! Go on, treat yourself and buy one!

Jeremy Brett is the definitive Sherlock Holmes, for me, so the television show is always worth watching, and owning. Don't get me wrong, I like the Cumberbatch/Freeman version as well, with it's modern twist (at least seasons 1, 2 ... the writers lost the plot a bit in season 3, 4) ... but the Jeremy Brett version is the Victorian classic version, and about as close to the Arthur Conan Doyle books as it is possible to get. So, in terms of the story, if you are a Sherlock Holmes fan and you haven't seen Jeremy Brett versions, they are absolutely worth it! I wanted a good quality version, as I had previously had the old green cover Granada DVDs from a long time ago which had some quality issues. This set is great and the blurays are a definite improvement! Do keep in mind that it is a version code that is not compatible with USA/Canada DVD players unless you have a region-free player. The seller reached out to me before he charged/shipped the item to make sure that I was aware of that and to check whether I still wanted the item which was MUCH appreciated! I did want it, and was aware, but I can see how many people might not notice that detail in the description, and so checking before shipping was a really helpful and genuine thing for this seller to do! The item showed up in excellent condition as well. The inserts are beautiful. It is the complete series (The Adventures, The Return, The Casebook, The Memoires, and the Feature Film collection which is combined with a few of these seasons on the disks), it is all there. I was specifically looking for this remastered UK version with PAL coding but you do need to make sure that your bluray player will be able to play this. If it does, this is great picture quality and definitely worth having!

This is a must-have set for anyone who is a fan of Sherlock Holmes

Enfin je peux regarder la meilleure série sur Sherlock Holmes. Et joué par le meilleur représentant Jérémy Brett. Belle qualité des images.

Ich möchte hiermit auch meinen Senf zu der Sherlock Holmes Bluray-Box geben. Die Serie wurde zwischen den Jahren 1984 und 1994 produziert und enthält diverse Erzählungen als auch Romane aus Doyles Kanon. Herausragend ist, dass sich die Produktion nicht allzu viele Freiheiten nimmt, und sich (meistens) sehr nahe an die Vorlage hält. Das viktorianische England ist sehr schön nachgezeichnet und die Rollen hervorragend besetzt - vor allem Jeremy Brett als Sherlock Holmes. Es ist eine Freude zu sehen, wie dieser Mann mit seiner Rolle verschmolzen ist. Dr. John Watson wurde gleich von 2 Schauspielern verkörpert - David Burke und Edward Hardwicke. Dies fällt aber - besonders in der deutschen Fassung - kaum auf, da mit der Zweitbesetzung ein ebenbürtiger Ersatz gefunden wurde. Hardwicke wirkt zwar etwas älter und gesetzter als Burke, da aber zwischen dem Wechsel ein Zeitraum von 3 Jahren stattfindet - und er (vorerst) sogar die gleiche deutsche Synchronstimme hat, wurde hier der perfekte Doppelgänger gewählt. Zu Bild und Ton: Es wurde hier in einer Rezension bemängelt, dass die Bluray keine Aufwertung zur DVD-Fassung darstellt. Diesen Eindruck hatte ich zuerst auch - ich habe aber keine Vergleichsmöglichkeit, da ich die DVDs nicht besitze. Allerdings macht die Bildqualität ab Staffel 2 einen deutlichen Sprung, ab dann ist das Bild auf einem schönen HD-Niveau. Ich würde also definitiv die Bluray-Fassung bevorzugen. Das kann ich uneingeschränkt empfehlen, ich habe die Serie auf einem großen 75-Zoll TV geschaut. Zu bemängeln gibt es eigentlich nur die deutsche Vertonung. Leider wechsen die Synchronsprecher sehr oft, besonders bei Sherlock Holmes. Watson hat in der DDR-Synchro der regulären Folgen aber durchweg die gleiche Stimme, und selbst im 1. Langfilm. Ab Staffel 5 wurden die restlichen Folgen nachträglich synchronisiert, man erkennt es deutlich daran, dass viele bekannte deutsche Stimmen bis in kleine Nebenrollen besetzt wurden. Aber ärgerlicherweise wurde wohl Staffel 4 im Zuge dieser Vertonung vergessen, hier liegt keine deutsche Tonspur vor. Dies betrifft allerdings nur 4 Folgen. In den Filmen wechseln die Stimmen dann allerdings auch leider immer wieder. Ich kann dennoch der Serie aufgrund dieses Mankos keine schlechtere Bewertung geben. Es würde der detailverliebten Inszenierung und der Leistung von Jeremy Brett nicht gerecht werden. Daher 5 Sterne von mir, auch wenn der letzte Stern nicht ganz so hell funkelt.

Da grande appassionato dello scrittore Arthur Conan Doyle e del suo più celebre personaggio, Sherlock Holmes, non potevo lasciarmi sfuggire questa cofanetto completo di tutti gli episodi della serie interpretata magistralmente dall'attore britannico Jeremy Brett. Gli episodi sono numerati da 1 a 16 e sono suddivisi in due custodie, da 1 a 8 nella prima custodia e da 9 a 16 nella seconda custodia. Il cofanetto è stato ben realizzato ed è arrivato nuovo e intatto, senza alcun segno sulle custodie. L'ho acquistato venduto e spedito da Amazon in questa versione con audio disponibile solo in inglese e sottotitoli disponibili a loro volta soltanto in inglese. Esiste anche una versione in DVD con doppiaggio in italiano che si può trovare anche qui su Amazon, tuttavia costa quasi il quadruplo e di conseguenza ho deciso di acquistare questa versione originale. Nel complesso mi sento di consigliare questa versione, naturalmente può rappresentare anche un momento di allenamento o di apprendimento della pronuncia e dei vocaboli in lingua inglese. La qualità dell'audio di questa versione restaurata è ottima al pari della qualità delle immagini, nonostante si tratti di un DVD. L'unica versione in Blu-ray che ho trovato è destinata al mercato tedesco, quindi una volta deciso di acquistarlo la scelta del DVD in inglese era pressoché obbligatoria. Attualmente non è nemmeno in programma l'uscita di alcun Blu-ray in italiano. Su Amazon si può trovare anche un'altra versione in inglese di questo cofanetto, solitamente disponibile ad un prezzo inferiore e la differenza rispetto a questa è che in quella mancano i sottotitoli in inglese ed è disponibile solo l'audio originale. Spero di essere stato utile.