The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Collection
The six episodes ofThe Casebook of Sherlock Holmescontinue Granda Television's excellent series starring Jeremy Brett as as the ideal incarnation of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional hero, while Edward Hardwicke brings stellar support as the courageous, good-hearted Dr. Watson. The suspense is strong and the acting superb inThe Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.  Watson is taking a holiday in the English countryside, where he meets the charming Lady Frances and then worries after she vanishes from sight. As inThe Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes puts Watson on the case and instructs him from afar. InThe Problem of Thor Bridge, Holmes is approached by an American senator (Daniel Massey, Brett's one-time, real-life brother-in-law) to clear the name of a governess in his employ, the lady having been accused of murdering the senator's wife on his estate and leaving her body on Thor Bridge. The solution is among the most complex and satisfying of the Great Detective's career.Watson's proclivities toward gambling on horses open the door to the sprawling mysteryThe  Shoscombe Old Place, which finds a famous playboy and equestrian, Sir Robert Norberton (Robin Ellis), in multiple jeopardy. InBoscombe Valley Mystery, Holmes and Watson are brought into an investigation of the murder of a farmer, whose body is found in the woods adjoining land owned by a wealthy property magnate. Holmes's investigation pulls the search in a wide direction, but the revelations are no less ghastly.In the next story, based on one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's personal favorites from his Holmes canon, Sir James Damery approaches Holmes with a special request from an "illustrious client" (read: King Edward) to intercede in the marriage of an Austrian nobleman who almost certainly murdered his first wife. When Holmes is himself the object of a murderous attack; an outraged Dr. Watson (Edward Hardwicke) has to channel his thoughts of revenge into a bit of undercover work on behalf of the detective.Finally, Holmes and Watson tackle one of their strangest cases inThe Creeping Man, which borders on science fiction. The Great Detective meets an eminent, aging physiologist who has been behaving oddly of late, but the greater mystery concerns who or what may be behind the nocturnal appearances of an ape-like figure that moves rapidly through trees, terrifying the locals. Holmes's pursuit of the solution leads to a stunning revelation in this taut and imaginative thriller that Edgar Allen Poe himself might have appreciated.--Tom Keogh