Granada's Greatest Detective

By Keith Frankel

Subjects: Television, ITV, Jeremy Brett, Granada Television, Sherlock Holmes

Description: The thirty years since its inception, Granada Television’s grandly envisaged adaptations of the master detective’s legendary annals have become as classical a piece of Holmesian lore as the canon itself. Staunchly set to both the spirit and society of Conan Doyle’s texts and commanded by Jeremy Brett’s indelibly immortal Sherlock Holmes, these milestone works have never been subject to rigorous, sequential analysis, until now. Granada’s Greatest Detective endeavours, for the first time, to present: • a detailed background of the genesis of the project. • an examination of the cultural and political influences that impacted upon the series. • an inventory of the title, broadcast date, writer, director, plot summary and cast of each segment. • classic and contemporary interviews with both cast and crew from every single instalment including Michael Cox (producer), Jeremy Brett, David Burke, Edward Hardwicke, Eric Porter, Rosalie Williams, Jenny Seagrove, Robert Hardy and many others. • an extensive critique of all forty-one features. • a brief review of lost footage, rarely seen offshoots and curios from the programme’s ten-year lifespan. This is the full-length study of one of the most credible and celebrated interpretations in all of Sherlockian theatrical history.