Arthur Conan Doyle had first killed off and later resurrected his master detective by popular demand, something ITV and Granada Television closely followed when they had first broadcast their new Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett in 1984. The first thirteen episodes were so successful that more of them were inevitable, and like Conan Doyle they resurrected the detective in The Return of Sherlock Holmes after he was supposedly killed at the hands of his nemesis Moriarty. Despite some production setbacks due to the fragile health of Jeremy Brett and a change of cast for Doctor Watson with Edward Hardwicke taking over the role, the eleven episodes and two feature-length movies of Granada’s second series of Sherlock Holmes stories were even more amazing than their predecessors. This article is again an improved translation from an earlier German review of the splendid second Koch Media DVD boxset – while it does not contain the two movies, they are mentioned in the article and will be reviewed seperately later.

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