page_title: Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series) / Production / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside Croxteth Hall, Liverpool, England. This room doubled as a hotelroom in Sherlock Holmes episodes "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1988) and "The Eligible Bachelor" (1993). It also doubled as the Mayhew's hotelroom in the 2016 miniseries "The Witness for the Prosecution".
context_page_description: Sherlock Holmes is the overall title given to the series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations produced by the British television company Granada Television between 1984 and 1994. The first two series were shown under the title The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and were followed by subsequent series with the titles of other short story collections by Arthur Conan Doyle. The series was broadcast on the ITV network in the UK and starred Jeremy Brett as the famous detective. His portrayal remains very popular and is accepted by many as the definitive on-screen version of Sherlock Holmes.
  In addition, Holmes's faithful friend and companion Dr. Watson is portrayed as the kind of thoroughly competent sidekick that Holmes would want. Initially, Watson was portrayed by David Burke. Burke appeared in the first year of the Adventures series before leaving to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was replaced by Edward Hardwicke, who played Watson for the remainder of the run.
  Of the 60 Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 42 were adapted in the series spanning 36 one-hour episodes and five feature-length specials.
context_section_description: The series was initially produced by Michael Cox, with later episodes produced by June Wyndham Davies. It was developed for television by screenwriter John Hawkesworth, who also wrote many of the episodes (all based on individual Conan Doyle stories). Other writers to adapt Doyle's stories in the series included Alexander Baron, Jeremy Paul, T.R. Bowen, and Alan Plater. A full-scale outdoor replica of Baker Street was constructed at Granada's studios in Quay Street, Manchester, which later formed a central part of the Granada Studios Tour tourist attraction, before that venue's closure in 1999.
  In addition to Brett, Burke and Hardwicke, other regular cast members included Rosalie Williams as housekeeper Mrs. Hudson, and Colin Jeavons as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Also appearing in several episodes was Charles Gray as Holmes' brother Mycroft Holmes (who played the same character in the 1976 film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), and Eric Porter who portrayed Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty in the second series of Adventures. The role of the servant Joe Barnes who impersonates Lady Beatrice in the 1991 episode The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place was played by Jude Law, who later played Dr. Watson in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Helen Ryan made two guest appearances in the show as different characters, appearing in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder as Mrs McFarlane, and in The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone as the Princess of Wales (a role she previously played in Edward the Seventh). Inspector Bradstreet appeared in "The Blue Carbuncle", played by Brian Miller and then in "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" and "The Mazarin Stone", played by Denis Lill.
  The series came to an end owing to the death of Brett at the age of 61 from heart failure in 1995.
  The series is considered to present the most faithful screen adaptations of many of the Holmes stories, although liberties were taken with some plotlines and characters, particularly later in the run during the 1990s episodes (for instance The Mazarin Stone, filmed in 1994, combined the plot elements of two separate Conan Doyle stories). A big change was Holmes quitting his cocaine habit in the episode "The Devil's Foot," which was done with the approval of Conan Doyle's daughter, when it was discovered that the series had a considerable child audience. Nonetheless, the series has been highly praised for the performance of Jeremy Brett, its adherence to Doyle's original concept in the characterisation of Watson, its high production values, and its close attention to period detail.
  As well as being broadcast by ITV in the UK, the series was also seen overseas, particularly in the United States, where the episodes initially ran on PBS stations in the Mystery! strand. Later series gained co-production funding from Boston PBS broadcaster WGBH. The shows have also been transmitted on two US cable television stations, Disney Channel and A&E Network, and on CBC in Canada. In the UK, the series has often been repeated: on Granada Plus; on ITV3; and on BBC Two, which ran the complete series on Saturday afternoons from 2003 to 2005. This makes it one of the very few programmes originally produced by an ITV company for broadcast on their own channel to have subsequently been shown on the BBC. In March 2006, the series returned to its original channel for the first time in over a decade, as part of the daytime television line-up on weekday afternoons.
  The complete series has also been released on VHS and on DVD, twice on the latter medium, with the most recent 2005 release taking advantage of the digitally remastered film prints originally prepared for the BBC Two repeat run. In December 2012 the series was released on Blu-ray in Japan, in Spain in May 2013 in France in October 2013 and in the US in September 2014.
caption: At least five episodes were filmed at Croxteth Hall, Liverpool[9]
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