Comment by buredoranna
20 hours ago
I grew up with Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, by far, in my opinion, the most accurate representation of the stories.
Only in my adult life did I read the stories, finding large chunks of the dialog in the TV show being word for word taken from the stories. And when not word for word, the tone and feel of the scenes so well portrayed on screen.
It was incredibly well-done TV (my fave) and we have Brett's dedication to the character and ITV's Granada (not BBC) (and PBS here in the US) to thank for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_Granada
> I grew up with Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, by far, in my opinion, the most accurate representation of the stories.
Yeah, I grew up watching that on PBS Mystery! and love it. I rewatched some of it as an adult and it holds up very well.
I also really liked David Suchet's Poirot. I still have yet to watch the last few seasons though.
Suchet's Poirot is definitely good, but I should point out that it is produced by ITV not BBC (their long term rival). My mother used to watch it, so I'm very familiar with it thanks to her.
However, I've never been much enamoured with the Miss Marple adaptations. Joan Hickson's is maybe the best (even though I prefer Geraldine McEwan as an actress) but I never took to it like Poirot.
You might like the nineties Jeeves and Wooster which stars Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh Laurie (of House fame) as Bertie Wooster. It is formulaic but fun. I think it's the best thing Stephen Fry ever did.
Oh my family watched Jeeves and Wooster up until my dad learned of Stephen Fry's legal issues and it became banned in the house lol (evangelical extremist family).
Brett's Sherlock Holmes is definitely the definitive one in my book.
There is a Soviet version of Sherlock Holmes which is surprisingly good starring Vasily Livanov. The locations sometimes don't quite look like England etc, but I really enjoyed it.
Wow, a Soviet Sherlock Holmes. That's endearingly bizarre.
I have put up a thread about Soviet Sherlock Holmes with a link to the subtitles episodes.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47377242
Not completely. The Soviet Union did adapt a lot of classic literature alongside the more obvious Communist propaganda you'd expect. I think they used the old town of Riga in Latvia to film the London scenes. I have heard that the Russians still show these films every Christmas.
There are subtitled versions available online. Here is a short clip (with Sarabande over it)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3Flnlb5ITNQ
I am a great fan of Brett's version, which I think is the best ever made. But I think the Soviet version is fantastic, considering it was made behind the Iron Curtain. There have, of course, been some awful Sherlock Holmes films but that's another matter.