RoR: Forum

Post 0

Monday, April 25, 2005 - 4:50am

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Ah, that's nice. I didn't know there was a series made of the book. I must have missed it somehow, though I rather liked Mr. Holmes and his interesting and beautifully thought-out adventures.
I always liked the way Doyle wrote the adventures by eleminating the component of chance and inducing the component of rational thought. Most crime novels today and in the 20th century built on random chance (a bit of a Paul Auster connection there?!) and a good "stomach-intuitivity", rather than perceiving and thinking mind. They were mostly glorious with people skills like in "Der Richter und sein Henker" by Dürrenmatt.
I was quite surprised and excited when I read Sherlock Holmes in my youth (in the very original book that was passed on by my father). I think I will give this TV-adaption a chance.

Post 1

Monday, April 25, 2005 - 7:28am

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Yes - these were in the 80's, and the loss of Brett in being able to have done all of the adventures is a missing .... agree, this it the most definitive version as a whole of Holmes's tales..... [tho my personal preference of the "Hounds.." is of Rathbone, even as he had the wrong Watson]...

Perhaps one of my most depressing moments of childhood was being told to look under 'fiction' for that bio of Holmes I had sought...... and must say some of those pastiches over the years keep the legend in all its finery - even worthy embellishments, as in Laurie King's series of Mary Russell tales.....

Post 2

Monday, April 25, 2005 - 7:53am

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Thanks for adding this, MH! I'm delighted that the entire series has been released on DVD. For some reason, I never watched it when it aired from 1984 to 1994, but here in Korea I caught the complete series on the History Channel a couple of years back. I can now report that I'm a huge fan, and I agree - Jeremy Brett *is* the definitive Holmes. David Burke and Edward Hardwicke were both wonderful as Watson, but it's Brett who makes the whole series so compulsively watchable - even on those last sad episodes when he was desperately ill. He captures all the nuances that make Holmes such a memorable creation: the moodiness, the nervous bursts of energy, the unexpected moments of humour, the maddening eccentricities. Brett also has the perfect speaking voice for Holmes - a perfectly enunciated, slightly fruity, upper class Etonian accent. His death in 1995 robbed us of a great actor.