Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett (Granada Series) - Appreciation Thread

With one caveat: the English subtitles are the worst I've ever seen in a DVD of any genre. Throughout the 12 discs, the subs are riddled with misspellings, incorrect homonyms, and sometimes glaring mistakes.

 

Interesting...I had never tried using the sub-titles, so I didn't know how bad they were. I should check to see how they are for the Spanish Blu-Rays (assuming they even include English sub-titles).

I will say that one complaint I have with the Granada TV series (and several other UK shows from that era), is that dialogue can often be very quiet in comparison to incidental music or other sounds. So I find myself riding the volume control quite a bit...especially if I'm viewing it late at night.

 

I should have added that although the bizarro subtitles are distracting at times, the set is still great.

 

Let us know if the Spanish Blu-ray set has English sub-titles. I use sub-titles all the time.

 

I want this so bad but the Spanish writing on the packaging is a deal breaker. Why don't they release this in the UK?

 

Sorry for the delay in responding...the discs I tried had no subtitles. The only options were the original English soundtrack and the overdubbed Spanish soundtrack.

I wouldn't let it deter you, if you enjoy watching the series. The price is too good to pass up...especially if you buy from the Amazon Spain site. Also, the backs of each Blu-Ray case have the episode titles in both Spanish and English, if that helps any.

 

Thanks

 

Thank you, Trashman, for your well-considered thoughts on this set.

I find the release history of this Sherlock Holmes production on DVD and Blu-ray rather confusing and the pricing discrepancies rather baffling. As of todays' date, the Sherlock Holmes set on Blu-ray is about 47 Euros at Amazon Spain, 95 Euros at Amazon France and 108 Euros at Amazon Italy. The Japan pricing is off the scale. I don't know whether these are all region-free.

As for picture quality, two reviewers at Amazon Spain gave the set a five-star rating, mentioning that the Blu-ray is a definite step up from the DVDs. Over at Amazon France, two reviewers there are stating that the Blu-ray hardly improves at all on the older DVDs. It's hard to know who and what to believe. And what are the chances of this Blu-ray set ever being released in North America?

Any further thoughts on this from you (and others) would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Is the video in the original aspect ratio or is it cropped to widescreen?

 

I think all of the Blu Ray sets are the Spanish-made sets (assuming all of the ones you are seeing have the Spanish covers). Therefore, it's likely they are all region-free. Regardless, I highly recommend any movie or TV fans consider investing in a region-free Blu Ray player at some point, just to open up your options. Region free Blu-Ray players start around $150 that are also capable of playing all regions of DVDs.

Picture quality upgrades are probably pretty subjective, just like with sound upgrades for audiophiles. A small upgrade for one will be a "huge" upgrade for another. Also, it may depend on which version of the DVD set one is starting from. If one owns the DVDs issued before the remastering took place, the upgrade will indeed be huge. If one already has the remastered DVDs, then upgrading may only depend on how much you love the series. Also, I should point out that the remastered UK sets spreads the episodes over 16 DVDs, while the USA set squeezes the episodes onto 12 DVDs (compare that to the Blu Ray set using 10 discs!). Since I'm starting my comparison using the USA set, there may be a bigger quality jump just because my DVDs are more compressed than the UK DVDs.

I doubt this set will get a USA Blu-Ray release, to be honest...especially if it hasn't even had a UK Blu-Ray release. And if it does get a USA release, I suspect the price will be significantly higher than the Spanish release. At 47 Euros from Amazon Spain (which turns out to be less, once tax is removed), I think this is a good deal. I certainly don't regret making the upgrade.

The ones I've watch so far are all in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. The outside packaging also lists 4:3 as the aspect ratio for the set, so I think it's safe to assume they used the original aspect ratio throughout.

 

That episode is the ultimate Holmes, IMHO. The story has no fat whatsoever, gets right to it and doesn't let up!

 

One more question before I pull the trigger. Are all the episodes uncut and original or have you noticed any edits?

 

I haven't noticed any cuts, but I haven't directly compared the running times with the DVDs I have. I'll look into further and let you know if there is a difference.

 

Thanks and BTW I know you mentioned that it's region free but is there any PAL content to worry about? I'm just asking cause it says PAL on the back of the box on Amazon.

 

I got the DVD set for Mrs DC as a gift and she was thrilled - we watched the first episode (again) tonight. Great addition to our DVD collection.

 

I just got around to checking the running times on a few episodes for comparison and I was quite surprised to learn that the running times are different. For the first four episodes I checked, the running times were:

A Scandal in Bohemia
USA DVD: 52:03
Spanish Blu-Ray: 54:15

The Dancing Men
USA DVD: 52:01
Spanish Blu-Ray: 54:08

The Naval Treaty
USA DVD: 52:03
Spanish Blu-Ray: 54:13

The Solitary Cyclist
USA DVD: 52:25
Spanish Blu-Ray: 54:08

With the running times apparently 1-3 minutes longer on the Spanish Blu-Ray episodes, one might conclude that the USA DVDs are somewhat edited, while the Blu-Rays are either not edited (or edited to a lesser degree). For me, that's only one more confirmation that the Blu-Ray set is the way to go, if you're choosing one set to buy.

I don't have the UK DVD set for comparison, so I don't know if those episodes are edited, but here are the advertised running times for each set:

USA DVD: 2580 minutes
UK DVD: 2356 minutes
Spanish Blu Ray: 2592 minutes

Based on those numbers, the Spanish set has the longest running time. However, the American set has a few extras that aren't apparently on either the UK or Spanish sets (at least, I haven't seen any extras on the Blu-Ray set so far), which could account for the American set having a longer running time than the UK set. Those extra are:

Daytime Live (TV appearance with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke)
Elementary My Dear Watson: An Interview with Edward Hardwicke
An Interview with Adrian Conan Doyle
Sherlock Museum Short

The extras are decent-enough additions, but they aren't essential and they wouldn't be enough to entice me into buying the USA DVDs over the Spanish Blu-Rays, if I had to do it all over again. Since the American set is double the price and appears to have edited episodes (not to mention that the episodes are squeezed onto 12 DVDs), most of the cards are stacked in favor of the Spanish Blu-Ray.

Since these are Blu-Ray discs, there shouldn't be anything formatted to either NTSC or PAL. It's formatted for 1080p/24fps HD output, which any Blu-Ray player should be able to handle. I don't see any special features which might be in 576i (PAL) format. The discs have all played fine on my Region A Sony Blu-Ray player...and that player is the one I own that is most finicky with overseas-made region-free Blu-Ray discs.

 

Thanks a lot Trashman. I appreciate the time you took with your post.

 

Good morning all. First post, apologies if I'm being thick.

The show was produced at 25p for British PAL TV, so couldn't the above ~4% differences be due to the Blu-rays running at 24p; the opposite of PAL speedup of films?

Of course I would expect your USA NTSC DVDs to also have the episodes slowed down to 24p and given 3:2 pulldown like any other 24p material on 60i NTSC. I suppose however it is possible the 25p masters were treated as 50i and just put through a PAL-NTSC standards converter. That would give identical episode lengths on PAL and NTSC DVDs, extras aside.

Does anyone have the lengths of those episodes on the PAL DVDs for comparison?

(My housemate who had the PAL DVDs has moved out, which is why I'm looking to buy the Blu-rays.)

 

Whenever I watch Jeremy Brett as Holmes he nearly brings tears to my eyes. He was that damn good. The best.
Terrific little films made with loving care and I can watch them again and again.

 

Brett is probably the definitive portrayal of Holmes. Maybe a bit over the top at times but he also brings emotion and depth to the character. Hardwicke is very good as Watson but I prefer Burke. I think the genius of Doyle's Watson is that the reader/viewer can imagine themself as Watson and so he is our window into Holmes' world. Burke just seems more easy going, laid back and always happy to be astounded. To me, Hardwicke played Watson at times with a bit of subtle cynicism or maybe annoyance? Of course the production is perfect in setting the mood. The costumes, sets, locations and supporting cast are all perfect for transporting the viewer back 100 years. Great show!

 

Thanks for bringing this up. This is something that also occurred me recently, after watching some of the Blu Ray discs further. All of the timing differences appear to about 4% (give or take a little). And after watching some of the episodes on Blu Ray, I haven't yet gotten the feeling that I'm seeing any "new" material that I haven't already seen on the DVD version. So indeed, both the DVD and Blu Ray sets may be showing us the complete episodes, just at slightly different running speeds.

Given that, I still stand by the recommendation that the Blu Ray set is the one to buy, when factoring together price and picture quality.

 

I have the boxset. They are great, I do find Brett a bit too theatrical at times.
I have the Rathbone boxset as well. He made a great Holmes. He had the whole look. Nigel Bruce as a bumbling Watson kind of spoils the films though.

 

I can see why some may view Brett as a bit theatrical in his portrayal. One might also argue that the personality of Holmes was also a bit theatrical in nature. So was Brett just being a little over-the-top or did he feel that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Holmes that way? Good arguments might be made in either direction, I suppose.

The bumbling Watson from earlier portrayals is a big spoiler for me too. I feel the Granada series got the character of Watson just right.

 

Brett was not a well man. He had a number of medical issues, one being manic depression. You can see it in his performance.

 

I think it's in the nature of the authors' storytelling, where it comes from. It's cut not from a hide but a dramatic cloth artfully woven of certain theatrical and social threads. A painting, not a photograph.

Factor in that Holmes is a brilliant eccentric with the dramatic and social sensibilities it is inteded to be presented as such within and I do feel that a certain theatrical flamboyance and eccentricity is a valid approach to enacting the character. Much of the time, too, his approach has an air of a fanciful reality that strikes an accord with the settings as they strive for a meticulous authenticity that can border on caricature.

Works for me, anyway.