JEREMY BRETT’S EXQUISITE INTERPRETATION OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE’S MASTER DETECTIVE SHERLOCK HOLMES
Until only recently I had never seen a episode of the British television production, by Granada Television, of the 1984 to 1994 Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett as Conan Doyle’s master sleuth and David Burke and Edward Hardwicke taking turns at Dr. Watson. There were a few reasons for this that I will go into but in the end I think I may have been simply hard headed and biased towards anyone playing the role other than Basil Rathbone. But that is not the only reason and as time has gone on I can see some flaws in the Rathbone films, though not in his particularly perfect portrayal of Holmes. I picked up the boxed set with Brett a month or so ago and at the same time begin re-reading some of the stories in my two volume collection of the complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes that I keep on my bedside table, usually along side a couple books by Louis Lamour and Fyodor Dostoyevsky (my moods fluctuate obviously). I went into the series with some skepticism but not to the degree I will approach the new Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. interpretation.
My main concern was not with Jeremy Brett, who I knew nothing of but had read for some time that his performance is highly praised, but with the fact it was a British TV production. I typically do not like British TV shows, with exceptions of course, simply because of the way they look. The sets usually look like stage sets (even when they’re not) and the camera work looks jumpy and washed out, as if it were all shot on video rather than film. For all I know it may be. Sometimes the camera work is in and out of focus and the sound quality is flat at best. More like some drama you would see on PBS than on American prime time or cable. Which is not to say that what shows up on US TV is really better in substance but is usually better in form than most British TV which is in strange contrast to the usually above average look and feel of British cinema.
While the visual quality was better than lets say Fawlty Towers (which I think is a superb comedy) my aesthetic worries were soon confirmed and I had to force myself through to the end of the first couple episodes I watched but soon I was hooked by Brett’s riveting interpretation. Brett brought life to the Holmes character in a way I have transposed over into my reading. The character I imagine still looks like Basil Rathbone for the most part but has more animation and emotion than before thanks to Jeremy Brett. Brett appeared to have a hard time after a while with leaving Holmes on the set and certainly suffered from the intensity he put into the role. He had personal issues as well dealing with manic depression and eventually persistent despair following the death of his wife. Brett, who died in 1995 from heart failure, was considered a kind and warm hearted man with a charming sense of humor. He hid these personal qualities in order to create the near misanthropic character of the brilliant but egotistical Sherlock Holmes whose passion for his work process rather than his love for mankind drove him into his profession of solving crimes.
I now have completely arrived at a state where I am not worried about how the series was shot and for the most part have changed some of my old opinions about the look of British TV shows. It all seems to work out fine. The show also addresses and corrects two major problems I always had with the Basil Rathbone films. First the series puts Holmes back into Victorian England where he rightfully belongs. The Rathbone films took the extreme liberty of making Holmes contemporary to 1940’s England and even created stories where he dealt with Nazi’s. To be fair at times the scenes in the films often had a look and feel that slipped in and out of eras and certainly Rathbone’s Holmes was a man of the 19th century. But an even larger issue with the Rathbone films was the portrayal of his biographer, professional associate and only true friend Dr. Watson by Nigel Bruce. Now as a film partnership the dichotomy created by Rathbone’s shrewd and logical Holmes and Bruce’s simply bumbling and clueless Watson is great. I do not hate the way it comes off at all, but being a fan of the stories I have always felt that Bruce’s Watson came nowhere close to the man in the story who actually assisted Holmes in the solving of the cases. Bruce’s Watson is usually shown mumbling to himself and essentially being intellectually worthless to Holmes. Burke and Harwicke present a Watson that is more worthy of being Holmes’ closest human companion.
The series tries to stay as true as possible to the stories but with some liberties of course. I just watched The Dancing Men and The Speckled Band and found them to be extremely close to the written stories. The series also touches on Holmes dependence to various drugs such as cocaine and morphine during times when he has no work or a conundrum to solve with his exquisite mind. I certainly regret that my biases kept me from watching these shows until now but I am delighted that I finally got the series and have been watching a couple a night lately. I do not even know if I have the entire series or not since the information on the box and disc is in Chinese (I live in China for those who do not know) and I hope I have all the 41 episodes Brett did before his tragic death at 61 years old. Like Rathbone Brett’s performances as Holmes have become the roles that have defined his professional career, but what a grand thing to be remembered for. I can say with little reservation (but with fear of blasphemy) that Brett’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes is the definitive one, even eclipsing Basil Rathbone’s brilliant performances. For what is worth coming in third place would be Peter Cushing in the atmospheric Hammer production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sadly it would be his only performance as Sherlock Holmes. * See my post on Basil Rathbone here.
Two other great Sherlock Holmes actors:
The marvelous Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing
* Addendum: Thanks to commenter Doanld G. for the following valuable information that I will look into further. From his informative comment:
“For the record, with regards to Peter Cushing as Holmes. In addition to the Hammer version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, he also played Holmes in a 16 episode BBC series of adaptations in 1968 opposite Nigel Stock as Watson, and later played Holmes again in 1984’s THE MASKS OF DEATH opposite Sir John Mills as Watson.”
I have since researched the information slightly and am excited to find out that Cushing actually did more than the Hammer production of The Hound of the Baskervilles but distressed as well that this look pretty hard to find. May take Holmes himself to locate these treasures but I set myself upon the task and see what happen. Here is a link to a page on the Cushing BBC episodes.
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September 11th, 2009 at 3:09 am
The Granada series of SHERLOCK HOLMES starring Jeremy Brett were shot entirely on film. Given how nicely they’ve cleaned up and look on digital television, possibly even on 35mm. As I understand it, the British commercial networks would often shoot on film for programs they intended to export. The cheaper BBC, on the other hand, would shoot piebald – exteriors on film and interiors on video, leading to that stagey look you dislike. In the late eighties, the Beeb went for shooting entire productions on video (both on location and in the studio) except for prestige programs like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens’ adaptations which they’d shoot on film. In the late nineties and early two-thousands, the Beeb then played around with frame-removed video which made video look more like film. Granada was one of Great Britains commerical ITV regions, so it’s no surprise that their Holmes series was shot on film.
For the record, with regards to Peter Cushing as Holmes. In addition to the Hammer version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, he also played Holmes in a 16 episode BBC series of adaptations in 1968 opposite Nigel Stock as Watson, and later played Holmes again in 1984′s THE MASKS OF DEATH opposite Sir John Mills as Watson.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Donald
Thanks for all this information. I did not know about the Peter Cushing series as Holmes I will definitely try to find that if is it available in any format and promote that information at the bottom of the post after I look it up. Are you aware if these have been released in some form? I really would love to see those and review some of them. I may have sounded harsh on the image quality of the British TV shows and earlier today I watched The Illustrious Man adventure and did notice the attention to detail the series tried to create. I have sat aside my criticisms in this department and thoroughly enjoy the series now. I was saddened to discover I only have about half of the complete episodes in a boxed set called The Sherlock Holmes Casebook and hope I can get the rest. You know a lot about the film making process and I hope you will come back with more insight. I make no claims to be a final word on any of this and welcome corrections and education. Thanks.
Bill
September 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
If I recall correctly, the Brett series was shot in 16mm as a cost-saving move after they’d spent so much on the recreation of the Victorian era in general and the massive Baker Street set in particular. The set itself was an amazing creation, with all its shops filled with replicas of the merchandise that would have been in them back in the 1800s. The attention to detail in the series was pretty insane. Don’t quote me on the 16mm thing, though, but I recall reading it somewhere.
I completely agree with you about Brett, who casts the same sort of shadow over the part of Holmes now that Rathbone did when Brett started. It’s just too difficult for me to accept anyone else in the part anymore. Brett brought so much to the character that hadn’t really been done before, both stuff from the stories and stuff of his own creation, and I really can’t see anyone else being so willing to submerge themselves in the part (or any part, really) nowadays.
As for the Cushing series, there’s a BBC release available through Amazon UK, and A&E’s got a domestic version coming out soon. Unfortunately, all but six episodes of the series were wiped by the BBC. So all that remains is the two-part Hound, Study in Scarlet, Boscombe Valley Mystery, Sign of Four, and Blue Carbuncle. They’re pretty good, too, although very much in the flat video indoors, grainy film outdoors BBC style of the time. Cushing’s Holmes isn’t nearly as nasty as he was in the Hammer film, and Nigel Stock’s Watson strikes a pleasant compromise between comic and straight. They’re not perfect, but worth checking out.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:43 am
Actually, Bill, I really don’t know that much about film-making processes, only what I’ve been able to pick up over the years of reading about the making of my favorite television shows and movies, or listening to technical commentaries or reading posts on various forums from people involved in restoring archive film and television and paying attention to their answers to various basic questions. When the engineering types start getting into the technical mathematics about PAL to NTSC conversion and the BBC’s new color restoration process involving chroma-dots preserved on monochrome film-recordings of formerly existing color videotape material, I get lost.
As for the Cushing Sherlock Holmes DVDs: A set is due to be released in Region 1 in mid-December of this year. Apparently, the Region 2 versions were released back in 2004. I don’t remember what Region China is in, and I don’t know what can help you get hold of them in a format you can make use of.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Following up on my previous comment. While Peter Cushing made sixteen episodes of the 1968 series, only six episodes survive today. My guess is that the remaining ten were caught in the same wholesale archive junking which destroyed many William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton episodes of DOCTOR WHO once it was felt that their international sales potential had passed.
September 12th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Jason
Thanks for your great comment. I regret I did not research this post a little now but it was sort of off the cuff and done hastily, all of it from start to finish in less than an hour. But I am happy to get such informative comments such as the ones by you and Donald G. I will agree the sets are detailed and I often freeze a shot to get a good look at something. They use a lot of marvelous Victorian manors that receive credit at many episode’s conclusion. Lat night I began reading The Naval Treaty and noticed that my mental image had morphed a little into more of a Jeremy Brett image, but sometimes back into a Rathbone image, as if some sort sort of psychic tug of war were going on. My image of Watson changed easily though I never had a problem with Nigel Bruce in many ways. But his Watson was more suited to be a hanson driver than a military and medical man.
The show was probably shot on some sort of film now that I look closer but I wish it had been a little better and the series would have been (for me anyway) perfect. My wife watched The Speckled Band with me and noted that as the camera panned over some scenes it lost focus in the shadowed areas much the way a home video camera would. Again this is a problem with British TV in general that usually. It is not a problem of course in British films and certainly not from the late 50′s and the 60′s when some of the best movies of all time came out of England. Yes films have budgets, but one area you cannot cut corners on is the film stock itself if possible. But, as I have said, I now can over look that shortcoming and will be getting the remaining episodes soon. I did find some bittorrents for the surviving (as you point out) Cushing episodes but there seems to be no seeders. As I live in China it would be simply too expensive (in import taxes) and risky (as in post office theives) to order them from the US or Britain. lets wait and see…
September 12th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Donald
As I said to Jason I will most likely try to find these via bittorrents or my Rapidshare account. It is simply too much here to order from abroad. The tax on the item here can be more than what was spent on the original cost! Then there is the issue of post office theft here and items from abroad with tags like Amazon.com have a 50/50 chance at best of reaching you. I did seem to find a BT for the 6 episodes but my connection here is slow and the seeders are offline or the seeds are dead. Cinemageddon or Demonoid did not have the films though CG has the Masks of Death and I may get after my ratio builds back up 10 points or so. As far as shopping goes it is hit and miss and nothing is alphabetized.
Actually I do not know what region China is either but all the movies here and TV shows are pirated and put on a general disc that you burn to. People who have bought DVDs here have no problems playing back in the States but probably not on a PAL system.
Thanks again. I hope this post and these exchanges get people interested in the series.
Bill
September 14th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Looking at some of the later Bretts lately, I think maybe they were also done on video, although video of a higher grade than you get in a lot of 70s British TV. The Cardboard Box in particular looks very video-ish.
The Cushing series is pretty good. They’re very cheaply made and you can definitely see that they were rushed, but they’re quite faithful, and Cushing and Nigel Stock are terrific. Cushing’s not as nasty as he was in the Hammer film, and Stock strikes a nice medium between comic and serious, but is never really portrayed as a bumbler. The version of A Study in Scarlet is of particular interest, because it’s definitely the least-adapted of the longer stories, and the adaptation does a good job of condensing it to just under an hour, mostly by omitting the book’s anti-Mormon flashback.
I’d really like to see Masks of Death again. I saw it when it was new and really enjoyed it overall, although I remember that Ray Milland looked really unwell. Cushing was perfect as an elderly post-retirement Holmes.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I can only imagine Cushing as great as Holmes in the BBC series. I did find a BT but after nearly a week it is only at 3.5% so it will take some time and patience and even then it is an if. I have seen much worse British TV stuff. The Jeremy Brett series is watchable while some things I have seen were too washed out for me. Some shows drew me in maybe by accident such as the comedy series Butterflies with Wendy Craig. The acting and story there was so nicely done the look did not matter much and I am used to that look in the British comedies. And with the Holmes series the acting is so well done from episode to episode I over look the little production problems.
Thanks again
Bill
September 18th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Hey Bill. Great post. I really know very little about the process of making films. I don’t know anything about shooting on video or film. I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. I always liked the Jeremy Brett series. That’s the Holmes I always remember.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I do not know much either abut the actual processes but I can usually see the difference in the end result. Some of the new video technology is supposed to be pretty highin the quality area. I read that David Fincher shot Zodiac with some sort of new video process. Not sure if he shot all the film of parts. I also read that David Lynch only works with video now. We will have to see where his new technology leads. Thanks for the visit.
Bill
November 14th, 2009 at 6:54 am
I thought the Brett series looked beautiful and they really created Victorian London well. Though I do agree with you feelings on Brett he was wonderful. The Cushing BBC series was wonderful too but visually this one does indeed look stage bound. However Cushing was indeed excellent in the role but Brett is the best ever. I love Rathbone too
November 14th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I agree with all you said. I did just get a couple hard to find (really hard to find) episodes of the Cushing series but ahve not had a chance to watch them. The quality seems pretty good. The colors nice and rich. The Brett series has had me reading over my old stories before bedtime lately.
April 15th, 2010 at 3:49 am
We are all fond of Jeremy Brett’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes, isn’t it? Great new: a petition is running currently to ger J.B awarded a posthumous Bafta; he never got one when he lived! To sign the petition, you may go to: http://www.bafta4jb.com
Hope you will help this good cause…
June 18th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Has anyone heard about the new Granada Television 12-DVD set of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes Series? It bills itself as complete, but I’ve read a few posts on the Internet that, in order to squeeze everything onto 12 DVDs, Granada shortened each episode. I’m wondering just how far they went with removing material from each show. A few seconds? Several minutes? I guess they were originally about 50 minutes long or a little longer. Does anyone know?
June 18th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I realize now that I do not have the complete series here that I bought in a pirated boxed DVD set in China. I will be looking for this online soon. I am not too worried about a little trimming as long as it is not dialog or crucial action. I would, of course prefer there be no trimming but I want all the episodes as they are wonderful.
Bill