Complete 6DVD The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson (LANGUAGE:RUSSIAN. SUBTITLES ENGLISH) RUSSIAN TV SERIES

I first became aware of this series via the Mr Bongo edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles ( Sherlock Holmes: Hound of the Baskervilles [DVD] [1981 ]) -- Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson ("Vatson!") were terrific and the filmmakers added several enjoyable touches to the story such as Mrs Barrymore's chatterbox characterisation and Watson and Baskerville's drunken wanderings. I had a look for any more and found this set of all six "series" and fired it up to have a go.There's an awful lot to like here -- again Livanov and Solomin are great to watch, creating an enjoyable pairing while not doing a disservice to Watson. The settings are both appropriate (big old victorian houses) but also inappropriate (a house in Brixton Road stands in the middle of a patch of woodland) and the architecture is decidedly continental but peppered with signage in English along with the odd pillar box. Anachronisms turn up left right and centre (Holmes' disguise pictures are of Lon Chaney for instance) but don't feel out of place for some reason -- the atmosphere and Russian dialogue somehow carry it through.There's also a nice touch in Mrs Hudson's unflappable landlady, showing that she could manage a bit of Holmes' tricks too -- watch her in the first story as she introduces the messenger for an example. Pacing is stately but never slow and the settings mostly "feel" good too, with a heavy Victorian atmosphere filled with detail.There are some small issues with the actual product (which is why the set gets 4 instead of 5) -- the discs are out of order and of course only labelled in Russian so watching them in the right order proved awkward, all the more so as the box was broken on arrival. The picture's rather soft overall and has that over-compressed thing where parts of the picture "float", but the Mr Bongo DVD had this issue too so it's probably happened at the Russian authoring stage. Finally the subtitles are rather weird if you know Holmes (or English!) since they're often phonetic (Mr Hudson is also Mrs Hodson and Mrs Hudsen as a random for instance, Surrey becomes Sorriy and so on). It doesn't get in the way but it's odd and adds to the other-worldliness of it all.Despite all that this series is one of my favourite versions of Holmes, rather better than many UK or US versions (for just Hound for instance it's easily better than the BBC one with Richard Roxburgh  The Hound of the Baskervilles [2002] [DVD ] or the rather curious one with Matt Frewer  The Hound Of The Baskervilles [2000] [DVD ] to pick two examples I've watched this year).I'm happy to have Vasily Livanov in my top 3 Holmes any day. I think you should too.

Not watched all the discs yet, we are keeping them for a special occasion. The production is superb, as is the Russian actors portrayal of Holmes and Watson. Among Sherlockians, this series has a well earned high rating. Thanks, quite literally, to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere for the discovery.

After watching just a few moments of the "Russian Sherlock Holmes", as it is known online, it becomes obvious why this particular adaptation is so popular worldwide. It is just awesome in every way!First of all, the box itself is really, really pretty and definitely something you would want on your self, full of lovely pictures and in great quality.Secondly, the actors are amazing - there is no other way to describe them. The chemistry is perfect, they are very sweet and funny and do Doyle's characters credit. Espeically Vitaly Solomin's Watson is very, very close to the Watson in the original stories, and as a result of this, extremly pleasant to watch.The subtitles are not perfect - clearly not done by someone who knows the stories of Holmes and Watson, but they do work alright - especially if YOU know the stories, and if your English is good; then it is absolutely no problem finding out what they're actually saying.All in all, well worth the (large sum of) money!

One of the best series of Sherlock Holmes movies, created with strong sense of humor. Language: Russian with English subtitles.

Extremely quick and efficient service ... Brilliant DVDs, which have the added advantage for me of combining Russian audio with English subtitles ... Thank you

Good quality and quickly sent, I'm happy!

This is one of the most loved Russian films - a many-parts adaptation of stories about Sherlock Holmes.Arguably - one of the best adaptations of these stories ever.Brilliant cast and screenplay - create an atmosphere of old kind Victorian England. Story is told with lovely respect and humour.Vasily Livanov received commendation from the Queen for his part as Sherlock Holmes.A must for everyone who is fond of Sherlock Holmes stories or is interested in Russian cinema.