The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, collectively known as Sherlock Holmes, are a series of adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories which were produced by Granada Television and originally broadcast by ITV in the United Kingdom. The series starred Jeremy Brett as Holmes and David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. The programme adapted 41 of the original stories in 41 episodes, with 36 running for 50 minutes, and five being feature-length specials. Adventures ran for two series totalling 13 episodes, from April to June 1984 and August to September 1985. Return ran for two series from July to August 1986 and April to August 1988, as well as the specials "The Sign of Four" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles", which aired on 29 December 1987 and 31 August 1988 respectively. Case-Book ran for one series from February to March 1991 and three specials which aired on 2 January 1992 and 27 January and 3 February 1993. Memoirs ran for one series from March to April 1994. A short episode was also produced as part of "The Four Oaks Mystery" which aired during the ITV Telethon in 1992. Sherlock Holmes appeared in the first part, with the casts of Van der Valk, Taggart and Inspector Wexford appearing in the second, third and fourth parts respectively. The series has been released on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4, and has been repeated on ITV4 and BBC Two.
Series overview
Episode list
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' (1984–1985)
''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'' (1986–1988)
''The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes'' (1991–1993)
''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'' (1994)
''The Four Oaks Mystery''
In 1992 Brett and Hardwicke appeared in a mini-episode as part of The Four Oaks Mystery, shown as part of the ITV network's Telethon 92 charity telethon. This episode formed one of a four-part sequence of stories featuring the stars of four ITV detective shows of the time all separately working to solve the same mystery, broadcast at two episodes a night across one weekend. The other shows that produced mini-episodes for the special were Taggart, Van der Valk and Inspector Wexford.
Unadapted stories
Though it is, to date, probably the single most comprehensive screen adaptation of the Holmes canon, the Granada series nevertheless left nineteen stories unadapted after Sherlock Holmes actor Jeremy Brett'ssudden death in 1995. These stories comprise two of the novellas and seventeen of the short stories. These are:
