Rating: 
Summary: More brilliance
Review: "The Return of Sherlock Holmes Collection" continues the almost-perfect adaptation of Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes cannon. Jeremy Brett returns as Holmes incarnate, slightly less exuberant due to his illness, but lacking none of the spark and charisma of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Edward Hardwicke takes over as Watson so completely that David Burke is hardly missed.All of the high-production values, including excellent location shootings and costumes and such, are carried over along with the cast. Granada Television really put care into this series, and it shows. There are some great episodes here, such as "Silver Blaze" with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing race horse, "The Devil's Foot" with Holmes battle against his own addiction as well as crime, the wonderful "The Six Napoleons" and the eerie "The Musgrave Ritual." Actually, they are all top-quality. This series is the finest Sherlock Holmes adaptation, bar none, and the high quality contines in this set.
Rating:
Summary: More brilliance
Review: "The Return of Sherlock Holmes Collection" continues the almost-perfect adaptation of Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes cannon. Jeremy Brett returns as Holmes incarnate, slightly less exuberant due to his illness, but lacking none of the spark and charisma of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Edward Hardwicke takes over as Watson so completely that David Burke is hardly missed. All of the high-production values, including excellent location shootings and costumes and such, are carried over along with the cast. Granada Television really put care into this series, and it shows. There are some great episodes here, such as "Silver Blaze" with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing race horse, "The Devil's Foot" with Holmes battle against his own addiction as well as crime, the wonderful "The Six Napoleons" and the eerie "The Musgrave Ritual." Actually, they are all top-quality. This series is the finest Sherlock Holmes adaptation, bar none, and the high quality contines in this set.
Rating: 
Summary: The Definitive Holmes Series Continues
Review: Granada's Sherlock Holmes series concludes its move into DVD format with this well priced 5 disc set. Like its predecessor, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Holmes is portrayed by Jeremy Brett: he is, as others have noted, the "definitive Sherlock Holmes". I cannot imagine anyone ever excelling Brett in this role. Watson is played by Edward Hardwicke, the son of noted actor, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and he, too is definitive in the role. Everything is near perfect in this set, including the adaptions from the Doyle stories, and the very real sense of being in 19th century England. I have only one reservation: the tape to disc transfer is far from perfect. I do not know whether this is a reflection of poor storeage of the master tapes or sloppy transfer procedures. The result is a fair amount of "ghosting", especially in the night scenes. Having noted this, the performances are, without an exception, excellent. No fan of "the world's first consulting detective" should be without this set.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Holmes Series Continues
Review: Granada's Sherlock Holmes series concludes its move into DVD format with this well priced 5 disc set. Like its predecessor, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Holmes is portrayed by Jeremy Brett: he is, as others have noted, the "definitive Sherlock Holmes". I cannot imagine anyone ever excelling Brett in this role. Watson is played by Edward Hardwicke, the son of noted actor, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and he, too is definitive in the role. Everything is near perfect in this set, including the adaptions from the Doyle stories, and the very real sense of being in 19th century England. I have only one reservation: the tape to disc transfer is far from perfect. I do not know whether this is a reflection of poor storeage of the master tapes or sloppy transfer procedures. The result is a fair amount of "ghosting", especially in the night scenes. Having noted this, the performances are, without an exception, excellent. No fan of "the world's first consulting detective" should be without this set.
Rating:
Summary: best adaptations to date
Review: I've seen a lot of adaptations of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and the series with Jeremy Brett is by far the best and most faithful adaptations to date. Brett is superb as Holmes. I can't imagine anyone ever playing the role better. Not even Basil Rathbone was as good as Brett at playing Holmes. Edward Hardwicke is just as good as Watson. The character is accurately portrayed and isn't made out to be an idiot like in some Holmes films. The episodes are also very faithful to the stories on which they are based, but not so faithful that they become boring. So if you're a fan of Doyle's original Holmes stories, then this set is a must have. The overall quality of the discs is pretty good as well. There are a few minor glitches but nothing major. The set is definitely worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: The Return of London's Only "Consulting Detective."
Review: In his foreword to Bantam's "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories," Loren Estleman called the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson literature's warmest, most symbiotic and most timeless: rightfully so. Not surprisingly, film history is littered with adaptations of Conan Doyle's tales and Holmes pastiches (using the protagonists but otherwise independent storylines). Yet - and with particular apologies to the fans of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce canon - none of these prior incarnations can hold a candle to the ITV/Granada TV series produced between 1984 and 1994, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and first David Burke, then, beginning with this cycle and in near-seamless transition, Edward Hardwicke as a refreshingly sturdy, pragmatic, unbumbling Dr. Watson.
Jeremy Brett was the only actor who ever managed to perfectly portray Holmes's imperiousness, bitingly ironic sense of humor and apparently indestructible self-control without at the same time neglecting his genuine friendship towards Dr. Watson and the weaknesses hidden below a surface dominated by his overarching intellectual powers. The series takes the titles of its four cycles of shorter episodes - "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" - from four of the five short story collections featuring London's self-appointed only "consulting detective" (published 1892, 1905, 1894 and 1927, respectively). While not all episodes correspond exactly with the original story collections, and the series's premise - Holmes's and Watson's shared tenancy of rooms at 221B Baker Street - was no longer true even at the beginning of the "Adventures," particularly the first two cycles ("Adventures" and "Return") are must-haves for any mystery fan.
"The Empty House:" Three years after Holmes's seemingly deadly dive into Reichenbach Falls in what Conan Doyle originally conceived as his final clash with evil mastermind Professor Moriarty ("The Final Problem"), his absence is painfully felt in a murder Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) and Dr. Watson are unable to solve. But this cycle is called "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" for a reason ... and with the detective, his evil opponent and his minions are back as well.
"The Abbey Grange:" Holmes and Watson solve the mystery surrounding the death of rich Sir Eustace Brackenstall - and Holmes surprises Watson with his unorthodox ethical stance once the culprit is uncovered.
"The Second Stain:" In one of several mysteries seeing Holmes involved in international intrigue, he is on the hunt for a letter stolen from a Cabinet Secretary's house, and feared to bring about a war if falling into the wrong hands.
"The Six Napoleons:" A London dealer sells small busts of Napoleon to six unconnected purchasers. Shortly thereafter, several of the busts are found smashed to pieces. Holmes and Watson connect the scattered dots and link the case to a murder that Inspector Lestrade had considered unrelated.
"Wisteria Lodge:" Taken from the 1917 collection "His Last Bow" - the only one not nominally represented here - this tale of murder and an unhappy governess begins when Holmes's client-to-be awakens to find the house where he has been staying as a guest unexpectedly empty, with no trace of his host or any of the other inhabitants in sight.
"The Priory School:" Called upon by an exclusive private school's anguished principal, Holmes and Watson take a trip to the moors to uncover the trace of a powerful nobleman's vanished son - and his likewise vanished German teacher.
"The Devil's Foot" (likewise from "Last Bow"): Holmes and Watson visit rural Cornwall and find themselves facing the gruesome case of a young woman who has died without apparent cause, and her brothers, inexplicably gone mad over night. While different from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (published 16 years earlier) in storyline and solution, in mood and references to local superstition this is reminiscent of Holmes's probably best-known case.
"Silver Blaze" (from "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"): Holmes's and Watson's foray into the world of race horse training is the source of one of the detective's most famous quotes, relating to "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" (which most recently inspired Mark Haddon's like-named book), where Holmes explains that a watch dog's *failure* to do anything - particularly bark - was the "curious incident" that caught his attention, and conclusively allowed him to narrow down the circle of suspects.
"The Bruce-Partington Plans" (from "Last Bow"): One of the rare cases where Holmes is joined - nay, where his investigation is even initiated - by his equally intelligent, mysterious brother Mycroft (Charles Gray), now in the British government's service in a position of his own creation. The mystery concerns the disappearance of the plans for a brand new submarine, and the murder of a young government employee who had been among the few persons with access thereto.
"The Musgrave Ritual" (from "Memoirs"): While Holmes and Watson are staying with one of Holmes's rare boyhood acquaintances, the gentleman's exceptionally well-informed butler disappears, followed shortly by a maid he had once courted. Using an old family ritual the butler had been discovered to be secretly studying before his disappearance, and relying on his knowledge of trigonometry, Holmes follows their trace - and on the way, solves a riddle that has been in the family's possession since the days of King Charles I.
"The Man With the Twisted Lip" (from "Adventures"): The "consulting detective" is called to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy man last seen in one of London's infamous opium dens. Suspicion soon falls on a beggar, the present occupant of the room where the vanished man was last seen. But is the beggar truly guilty - or is there something else to uncover?
Stories from the "Return of Sherlock Holmes" collection used in this series's other cycles:
In "Adventures:"
"The Norwood Builder"
"The Dancing Men"
"The Solitary Cyclist"
In "Memoirs:"
"The Golden Pince-Nez"
Adapted as a stand-alone movie-length feature entitled "The Master Blackmailer" co-starring Robert Hardy:
"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Set of Stories - Captioning is poor
Review: Jeremy Brett "IS" Sherlock Holmes. If you like the storeis, you'll love tis adapatation of the Doyle canon.
Warning: The subtitles are wrong about 15% of the time.
Rating:
Summary: The very best of the best.
Review: Jeremy Brett was at his zenith in this batch of Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes episodes. His Holmes, though still eccentric and brilliant as ever, now seems to be having a bit more fun with his cases, as evidenced by his quirky humor and eagerness to take up the chase. Edward Hardwicke seamlessly replaced David Burke as Dr. Watson and the relationship between Holmes and Watson grew to new heights of understanding, caring and a lot more humor. Hardwicke, rather than trying to compete with Holmes as Burke's Watson did, brings a mature understanding to the role as well as a sharp sense of justice and decency.
As usual, the episodes are filmed in sumptuous locations and the guest cast is always outstanding. My favorites: The Prioriy School, one of the few cases we see Holmes actively interested in his paycheck, as well as finding the kidnapped boy. Wisteria Lodge, a odd little mood piece featuring a competition between Holmes and the local police inspector (Freddie Jones), who is just as stubborn and even stranger than Holmes can be. The Six Napoleons: a darned good mystery involving busts of Napoleon being smashed all over London. This episode is also one of the most humorous, as Colin Jeavon's Lestrade joins forces with the duo. The Devil's Foot: an ill Holmes is forced on holiday by Watson to Cornwall, and he becomes involved in a creepy murder investigation. Adding to his problems is his dependence on cocaine, which he finally dispenses of in this marvelous episode. Silver Blaze: another atmospheric piece regarding murder and a missing racehorse. It also presents a neat look at the kinder, gentler post cocaine Holmes. The Bruce Partington Plans where brother Mycroft makes a welcome return in a nifty story about missing submarine plans and murder.
There is not a bad episode in this collection. I highly recommend purchasing this set; you'll not find better Holmes stories anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Great shows - minor insufficiencies
Review: My wife and I have been enjoying these episodes since we got the DVD collection. Each of the episodes is well done and clear. We truly enjoy each of these shows. The only dissapointment is that there are no subtitles. Subtitles are one of the things that I look forward to having on my DVD's as I have friends and relatives who benefit from them.
Rating:
Summary: A recommended addition to community libraries
Review: The Return Of Sherlock Homes is a five volume DVD series showcasing the return of the world's most famous detective as portrayed by Jeremy Brett. Assisted by Dr. Watson (the most famous sidekick in the world and brilliantly played by Edward Hardwicke) Volume 1 the series (DVD-1780, $14.98) begins with "The Empty House" with the return of Holmes who is being hunted by one of the late Professor Moriarty's chief henchman who has the great detective marked for assassination! The companion episode is "The Abby Grange" -- a very typical Holmsian adventure of startling discoveries laying out a mystery of love, violence, and deceit. Volume 2 (DVD1782, $14.98) features "The Second Stain" and "The Six Napoleons". Volume 3 (DVD1785, $14.98) offers "The Priory School & Wisteria Lodge". Volume 4 (DVD1789, $14.98) showcases three stories: "The Devil's Foot", "Silver Blaze", and "The Bruce Partington Plans". Volume 5 (DVD1781, $14.98) completes the series with "The Musgrave Ritual" and "The Man with the Twisted Lip". Each of the five individual DVD disks has a running time of 110 minutes. The entire series is hallmarked with beautiful location shooting, meticulously attention to details of set design, costuming, and an assembled supporting cast that is consistently excellent. The Return Of Sherlock Holmes is an inexpensive, enthusiastically recommended addition to community library Video/DVD collections.
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