Sherlock Holmes - The Adventures / The Return (Box Set 1) (DVD)

This, the first collection of the Granada Sherlock Holmes TV production. is in my opinion, the best. It includes the Adventures and Return of Sherlock Holmes, when the brilliant Jeremy Brett was at his best, still unaffected by illness or sadness.
In the Adventures, Brett is testing and learning how to play Holmes- but with this inventive nature, he produces the most entertaining performances of the entire series. Jeremy Brett is, in my opinion, the best actor to have ever portrayed Holmes on screen, as he takes on all the idiosyncrasies, gesticulations and characteristics the actual Holmes had, as detailed in the literature. His pronunciation, thanks to his self-taught elocution when younger, allows him to take on the role with ease and his depiction of Holmes is brilliant- acting not as former men such as Basil Rathbone in creating a happy, friendly detective, but one with all the characteristics of a serious, eccentric and logical creature, as was originally intended.
In the Return of Sherlock Holmes, Brett presents a more established performance whilst retaining the entertaining characteristics evident in the prior section of the series. Now, Edward Hardwicke takes on the role of Dr. Watson in place of David Burke, and in my opinion gives a more convincing depiction of the character.
The Granada series was, amazingly, but only thanks to Jeremy Brett's insistence, the first production to televise the stories exactly as were written by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle. Due to this fact the series is unique, inventive and genius, giving an interesting and sometimes surreal tale.
Each DVD holds up to 3 of these tales and each episode lasts around 50 minutes, with the longer episode, "The Sign of Four", being around 1.5 hours long.
The stories are not always action-packed or thrilling, so they may not be to everyone's taste. However, to those who want to view the stories accurate to the original literature and for those willing to get into the tales, they are certainly recommended by myself.