for the special were Van der Valk, Taggart, and Inspector Wexford. Broadcast 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, the Seven Network in Australia and on CBC in Canada. In the UK, the series has often been repeated: on Granada Plus; on ITV3; ITV4; 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. Reception 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 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 Jean Conan Doyle, 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 Brett, its adherence to Doyle's original concept in the characterisation of Watson, its high production values, and its close attention to period detail. Home media The series has been released on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4, and has been repeated on ITV4 and BBC Two. The complete series has also been released on VHS and on DVD, twice on the latter, 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. Region 1 MPI Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region