This two-disc set brings us three of the four movie-length Sherlock Holmes specials presented as part of the milestone Granada Television series, which ran from 1984 to 1994.
Here is the classic Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles from 1988, alongside The Master Blackmailer (1992) and The Last Vampyre (1993).
The strong point of these adaptations is the remarkable acting of the Holmes, Jeremy Brett. In the 1930s and 1940s, Basil Rathbone defined this role. It seemed impossible that anyone should be able to create a Holmes to compete with his.
Brett created a character a world away from the Rathbone prototype. His Holmes is nervous, neurotic, infuriatingly superior, ascetic and apparently asexual. Almost homosexual, but not quite sexual enough for that. Monosexual?
It is a delicious characterisation. As the Granada series progressed, the characterisation ripened, as if Brett was drawing deeper into himself to find intrinsic Holmesian attitudes and attributes. The neuroticism increased - which was not surprising, since, tragically, Brett himself was becoming increasingly manic-depressive, a bipolar disorder which had become heightened by his great grief after the death of his second wife. That is essential background - Brett's own life experiences helped shape his brilliant portrayal.
Brett was aided by having two Watsons of sterling calibre. The first was David Burke, who played a rational, intelligent comrade a mile apart from Nigel Bruce, who created the amiable buffoon who played alongside Basil Rathbone. When Burke left the series, in came Edward Hardwicke, another great Watson. Both fitted the part to perfection, and it is the second Watson, Edward Hardwicke, who features in these TV movies.
Both 'Baskervilles' and 'Master Blackmailer' are strong adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's works. The 'vampyre' tale takes a huge step towards sensational melodrama, but is still intensely viewable.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is most probably the most famous - and the most filmed - of the Holmes stories. It tells of the ancestral curse of the Baskervilles, of the giant hound that comes out of the night to take revenge on the family. This is the 'straightest' of the film adaptations of this tale. It eschews the purely horrific presentation which have marred many of the earlier versions. But the drama suffers not at all from that.
The Master Blackmailer is perhaps the strongest of these adaptations. It tells of one of the most malovelent of all of Holmes's opponents, a man who thrives on human weakness; a man of infinite cruelty. And in the title role of Charles August Milverton, art-dealer and blackmailer, we have an outstanding performance by British actor Robert Hardy, whom you may remember as the senior vet in All Creatures Great and Small. He truly creates a worthy adversary for our Master Detective.
The Last Vampyre tells of the return to his ancestral village of Lamberly of John St Claire Stockton (Roy Marsden) where, some 200 years earlier, an ancestor had been murdered by villagers convinced he was a vampire. Will history repeat itself? It tips overboard towards full-on melodrama, but is still a great yarn. Watch for a strong cameo performance by one of my favourite character actors, Freddie Jones.
Well, forget the indifferent image quality and concentrate on the quality of the production, the acting values, and above all, on Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. This is one of the great television characterisations, by an actor who drew deep within himself to give us a convincing, wholly-rounded and deliciously individual portrayal.
If we didn't have Holmes, most of us would only remember Brett as an infrequently-filmed actor, best known for his role as Freddy Eynsford-Hill in the movie version of My Fair Lady. But now we have his Holmes forever, and it is hard to see this interpretation ever being surpassed.
My main gripe is that the set presents only three of the five movie-length episodes of the Granada series. The Sign of the Four and The Eligible Bachelorshould have been squeezed in, even at the expense of dual-layering a couple of the discs.
