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To Sheldon Reynolds' 1954 series starring Ronald Howard
. . . To Menu
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1 A Motive for Murder
Script by Sheldon Reynolds. Director: Sheldon Reynolds.
Dr Watson describes his first encounter with Sherlock Holmes in the winter of 1881. At 221B Baker Street, Mrs Hudson tips him off about the man, "bit strange... one of the most extraordinary men of the times." Certainly this great detective deduces a lot about DrW before they even start talking.
"There's been a murder," that's a message SH receives from Anthony Denham (Norman Bird), solicitor to George Markham, the dead man. At the scene of the crime, they encounter a satisfied Inspector Lestrade who apparently has solved the case, at least to his own satisfaction, "I know who did it."
The dead man, wealthy George Markham had made his fortune in the US gold rush. His niece Andrea will inherit his fortune, so she's the one about to be arrested.
But SH has worked out that someone will return to the place, and after a patient wait he's proved right. SH and DrW watch as Andrea's half brother Peter (Julian Fellowes) opens the safe, places a gun in an urn and burns the will.
"I'm going to arrest him," declares the impetuous Inspector L. But SH shows him otherwise. And though Andrea is now clearly innocent, SH persuades her to confess, SH carefully observing as she does so.
That draws the real killer into the open with a desperate attempt to kill her in her bedroom. However SH is on hand and L can finally arrest the correct killer.
A Lestrade gaffe. He remarks to DrW, "you must be put off by the sight of a corpse."
"Dr W (stiffly), "I'm a doctor"
Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson Menu
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The Case of the Speckled Band
A well made condensed version of the Conan Doyle story, only the music a little obtrusive, tension well maintained though you wish the budget might have stretched to getting Christopher Lee to play the evil Count. No Inspector Lestrade in this tale.
A snake slinks into the bedroom of a young sleeping beauty. She screams. Downstairs, alone in the dark, an elderly man listens impassively.
Mrs Langley (Melissa Stribling) is worried about a letter she has received from her niece Helen, whose twin sister Julia had recently died, "frightened to death."
SH and DrW are engaged and they take the boat train and reach an imposing country house, the property of Helen (Victoria Tennant), who is cared for by her stepfather, The Count. He is a wealthy art collector, though both visitors think he has more fakes than Rembrandts, DrW being sure one Meissen piece is not genuine.
Helen is suffering from lack of sleep, diagnoses the doctor. She relates how Julia couldn't sleep, being kept awake by a whistling sound, her dying words had been incoherent, "something about a speckled band."
Lucifer is the Count's savage dog, you wouldn't want to meet it on a dark night.This night he is on the prowl, Helen "sleeping like a baby" in her room which is locked. SH wisely awakes her and gets her to move to another bed, so when the snake slithers in, it finds nothing. A whistling sound, and SH informs the baffled DrW the case is solved. All the clues are there SH says, though the doctor can't piece them together.
The pair now occupy Helen's room, and await the Count's next move. SH orders his partner, "watch the bell rope." Enter one snake. Exit same snake injured, bruised by SH's attack on it.
"It's more dangerous now," and a scream confirms this. The Count is no more.
Back at 221B, Mrs Hudson brings in a large box, a gift from Helen. Inside is the Meissen figure
Sherlock Holmes Menu
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The Case of The Perfect Crime
The plot is identical to the 1954 Holmes story, The Case of The Neurotic Detective. It's a fun story, not surprising it was used again.
Directed by Roy Stevens.
1886. State secrets are being stolen by London's greatest ever criminal, and inevitably Inspector Lestrade ("not that I really need any help") is
completely baffled. Even worse, SH refuses to offer his usual insights, claiming he is too busy. The latest robbery is of the royal ceremonial jewels from the National Museum.
DrW is puzzled and indeed worried, for has he spotted the missing jewels in his friend's tobacco tin? He decides he had better follow the "erratic" detective, but inevitably SH spots him and he has to call it off. But still determined, he diguises himself as a cabby, but SH sees through him again, "there's a corner of your beard that's motheaten!"
But the cabby does pick up a passenger who is also following SH, destination 816 Bleak Street. Overheard is a conversation between SH, a man and two women, with Holmes uttering the baffling, "we are the most successful thieves England has ever seen."
Fearing for his friend's sanity, DrW consults Professor Alfred Fishblade (Robert Goody), but he seems more than a little odd himself. In a role reversal, SH starts to analyse the professor.
That scheme having failed, DrW confides his fears in L. "I can't believe," cries the inspector. The pair try to employ SH's deductive methods to work out what SH is up to.
At a minister's home there's a magnificent ball, an unusally spacious scene for this series, which the great detective attends. SH and L conceal themselves in the room waiting for SH to crack the safe, and sure enough the once great detective creeps in. However he doesn't open the safe, for he has spotted DrW's feet catelessly concealed behind the long curtains. Then the Commissioner of Scotland Yard enters to congratulate SH, much to L and DrW's amazement. SH had been on an official assignment to test and expose the weaknesses in national security.
"Why didn't you tell me?" complains poor DrW. Crestfallen L can only gulp.
Over a slightly frosty meal next day, SH is wondering whether DrW had ever thought he were King of England
Sherlock Holmes Menu
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The Case of Harry Rigby
A policeman is smoking on duty when he espies a man lying on the pavement, knifed in the back, in his hand a letter for Sherlock.
"The Case That Got Away" is how the newspapers describe it. "A case Sherlock Holmes could solve but not prevent." A jovial Lestrade is worried once more.
He knows who the killer is. His men had been watching where Harry Rigby, an escaped bank robber, had been hiding. He had three accomplices in this robbery, and the dead man is Rogers, one of his gang. But Rigby has the perfect alibi for this crime, for police know he never left the house where he was.
A note from another of Rigby's accomplices to SH is followed by his appearance at 221B, dead on arrival.
Mrs Sarah Bailey (Cheryl Kennedy) is the wife of the only surviving member of the trio of accomplices. She works at The Crown in Allen Street but refuses SH's offer of help. Her husband Charlie is in hiding, and she won't say where.
Yet another note, this one from Charlie himself, asking to meet SH at midnight. At the appointed hour the rendezvous is kept, only Charlie has a knife in his back. Mrs Bailey is not amused, she thought "the famous Sherlock Holmes" could have protected him. L also is on the sharp end of her tongue, "I'm going to kill Rigby," she cries.
Yet Rigby has this watertight alibi again. SH puzzles it out. He asks L for a ruler. Mystified, L obliges. Then SH announces the "obvious" solution, that Rigby never left his rooms. The ruler is used to prove Rigby is not the murderer, for the angle of incision of the knife wounds indicates a shorter person.
Returning to the pub, SH informs Sarah Bailey that the mystery is solved. Rigby has been set free. But when she leaves her pub, she is confronted by Rigby. "I did it for us," she cries, they can share the bank loot. But the man to whom she utters these words ain't Harry Rigby, but DrW in disguise. She is condemned out of her own mouth.
In the final scene we see the inspector who is glowing with pride having been praised by his superior for solving the case. However he has to ask DrW what on earth is meant by the angle of the knife wound
To the Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson Menu
. . . . .
The Case of The Baker Street Nursemaids
The plot is identical to the 1954 Holmes series, the script lightly rewritten, but the names of most of the main characters, and even the jokes are the same.
A basket is delivered to 221B Baker Street, and after much speculation SH opens it to reveal a screaming baby. SH knows many things, but he has to seek medical advice here, asking DrW if it's a boy. Enter L, "what's that?" he asked in surprised tones, and after the rather obvious suggestion, "you look," to see if it's a boy, the trio take turns in holding the child. "Make it a cup of tea," suggests the great detective, but after this comedy, he uncovers a note from the child's mother that seems to explain all.
Tony is the son of Dr Henri Monteron who has recently disappeared. He had just invented a ship that sails underwater.
However with DrW holding the baby, SH and L have left him to his fate, to be knocked unconscious and the baby snatched. "They've got the child."
SH receives another message warning him to keep off. It is actually signed, by a Count Tennow. He is planning to leave the country as soon as he has obtained the plans of the new ship.
"They are not here," the Count informs SH and DrW when they call on him. However a crying baby rather gives away the fact that he is lying. But the count holds all the aces and sends SH away. But as they depart, DrW smartly knocks out the butler and returns to the count, knocking him out also. Now he and SH are free to search the mansion, and little of SH's deductive skills are needed to locate the prisoners, only a spot of fisticuffs. Cries from Tony lead to the right room and the captors are overcome and the doctor, his wife and child are freed. SH blows the old whistle and that brings L and his police to arrest the kidnappers. "Everyone safe."
Yet one shock remains, for it turns out baby Toni is a girl. "Good thing we didn't look!"
Returning to Baker Street, SH is worried for a moment to find another basket. But it only contains fruit, a thank offering
Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson Menu
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The Case of the Purloined Letter
Director: Val Guest.
SH plays cat and mouse in this story that featured Richard Greene as Lord Brompton.
In his lordship's home, a safe is cracked and an important document is removed. In making his getaway, the thief has to shoot a servant. Missing is a letter of obvious use to a blackmailer, for it has revelations about Brompton's days as a "wild youth."
SH is present in the house and though the burglar had not been recognised, he is able to deduce that it is David Ballard (Tony Caunter).
With Inspector L and DrW watching Ballard's home, SH climbs the steps to his room. The thief refuses to return the property, so SH starts his cat and mouse game. "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes during the day," he warns Ballard, since the document is so important. Ballard scoffs, but when he goes out, he is immediately threatened by the most nasty looking villains you ever saw, though all are L's men in disguise. Hastily, the scared thief retreats to his room.
SH is calmly waiting there and after initially being met with a refusal, is handed the letter. Now it's SH who is in danger, the man for whom Ballard was working will want that bit of paper!
SH also persuades Ballard to sign a confession as to who was paying him for the job, and his name is Dr Sergius (Arnold Diamond). "I believe you were expecting me," he tells SH as he enters 221B. Hand it over, over DrW will be shot dead- there's a gun pointed right at him.
So Sergius has to be given the letter, as well as Ballard's confession,which Sergius is happy to burn in SH's presence. The criminal departs, happy. Not that SH looks too unhappy.
At an important conference Lord Brompton makes his address. Sergius is there, and slyly places the document on the table, a warning to Brompton not to make his speech. When his lordship does continue, Sergius dramatically waves the piece of paper. But lo and behold, it is only Ballard's confession, one moreover that implicates Sergius.
"Couldn't have done it better myself," declares L modestly. Later, SH explains to him and DrW how he had done it
To Sherlock Holmes Menu
. . . . .
The Case of the Travelling Killer
Director: Val Guest
A revolver is loaded. The killer enters a pawnbroker's shop, "you shouldn't have gone to the police." A gunshot and the victim is dead.
An agitated SH interrupts his breakfast when he reads in The Times of this murder. SH has detected a link between this killing and ones in Paris, Amsterdam and New York. In all four crimes, the murdered person had not been robbed, even though valuables could haver easily been stolen.
DrW is baffled why SH leaves his food untouched, so as to go to the pawnbroker's. Here "nothing is missing." While DrW is assigned to question the surgeon who conducted the post mortem, SH follows a young lady who had been peering through the shop window. Through streets thick with autumn leaves she walks, to a large ramshackle greenhouse.
She says she doesn't know who murdered the man, yet she happens to have been in each of the four cities where the crimes were committed. She departs, begging SH not to follow.
SH uses his deductive powers to prove that the pawnbroker had confessed to the police that he was part of a gang of international thieves, stealing uncut diamonds (why Inspector L couldn't have told him, I can't say). The killings had been a warning to other members of the gang, not apparently very successful warnings. SH has further worked out the identity of the killer, Jacob Jenkins, a clown and owner of an international circus.
At the circus SH learns that the girl who had talked to him, Theresa, is dead, an accident on the trapeze. SH is next on the madman's list. SH proves to him that Theresa must have been murdered, and Jacob readies his gun. Enter L, for one of those familiar chases round the theatre, this one slightly different in that SH and DrW stand inexplicably motionless on the stage watching the police pursuit. They spring to action however when gunshots are fired. Tripping down some steps, the clown dies.
However SH hasn't caught the gang leaders. The case, he says, has only just started (I'm not sure when it finished)
Sherlock Holmes Menu
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The Sitting Target
Director: Aurelio Grugnola (the art director on this series).
Philip Rayburn and Michael Lambert were key witnesses six years ago in the trial that convicted Peter Channing (Tony Caunter). Now Rayburn has been gunned down outside his own home.
"I killed him," the evil Channing boasts to SH. "I'm going to kill Lambert too."
Then it will be SH's turn, for the detective had been the one, of course, who had caused his arrest. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you." SH's response is to offer Channing a cup of tea.
"The man is a psychopath," observes DrW, though SH has his own devious scheme to avoid assassination. Inspector Lestrade is his unwitting dupe. SH plants Channing's notebook on a murder victim, Muldoon of 46 Begley Road. Confidently L arrests Channing, but since he can provide an alibi, L has to release him. Now a corpse appears in Channing's digs, and the man is rearrested. Released and fed up, he shoots SH as he paces his Baker Street rooms. Or rather he shoots at an outline of SH's figure, "you'll have to do better than that," SH teases him.
So the wily Channing devises his own cunning plan. A girl posing as Lambert's niece (Glynis Barber) is to lead the great detective into a trap. Priscilla spills a cock and bull story about her uncle. Naturally SH can see through her, and L agrees to follow Channing while SH plays the girl along. She leads him to an empty room, nothing there. Nobody there. Along a dark foggy street Channing has stalked them, and in a window he sees SH sitting, waiting. He shoots. That brings out L and his boys in blue to effect the arrest of Channing. His task had failed anyway, for SH yet lives and explains that in fact the criminal had been shooting at a mirror image of him, "extraordinary"
Notes: the shooting at a mirror element of this story is reminiscent of the shooting in the 1954 story, #23 The Christmas Pudding.
Tony Caunter, who plays the villain with a fine sense of evil, had appeared earlier in the series, as a different criminal.
Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson Menu
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The Case of The Final Curtain
The plot is identical to the 1954 Holmes story, The Case of The Impromptu Performance.
Directed by Val Guest.
A condemned man's last request before he is executed is to see SH. Thus the great detective meets Edward Brighton in his prison cell. Briefly, for he is to die in five hours, he relates how he had been convicted of killing his wife Phyllis. They had only been married six months, but on the fatal night they had had their first mild argument over her make-up, though others claimed this was much more violent.
He had gone for a long walk, during which he had suffered a mild heart attack. "When I came to, Phyllis was dead." He was accused of strangling her. One puzzling thing he does recall, is seeing some unidentified object before he had become ill.
SH pores over the police notes, while L stands smugly by, convinced the evidence is conclusive. Then SH is off, off to talk to Edward's tobacconist, Carstairs (veteran actor Clifford Mollison), of 25A Hanover Place, who used to sell Old Tawny to the condemned man.
It is now but two hours to the execution, and from the shop, SH goes to one of Carstairs' other customers, Langley Priam. However he is not at his lodgings, though the landlady (Patsy Smart) thinks he was expecting to come into money. SH finds some make-up, which takes him to a theatre where Priam is starring in a Shakespearean play. However Pettyfoot, the theatre manager, despite SH's protestations, insists that the show must go on, so the great man has to bide his time by searching Priam's dressing room. Here is discovered the vital clue.
11.30pm, the curtain falls, the execution is at midnight! Backstage, SH accuses Priam of conspiring with Phyllis to poison Edward. Though she had agreed to this originally, she had fallen in love with her husband, and Priam had killed her in revenge. Seeing the game is up, Priam draws a dagger, SH is stabbed, but as the dagger is a theatrical prop, there's no damage done. L makes his arrest and in an unnecessarily long coda, SH demonstrates how the dagger works, "it's harmless"
Sherlock Holmes Menu
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The Body in the Case
Script: Tudor Gates. Director: Roy Ward Baker.
John Courtney calls for a trunk at Victoria Station that has been discovered to contain human remains. "You are under arrest, sir," pronounces Inspector Lestrade. The corpse is that of a kept woman, Josephine Potts.
The "young and very attractive" fiancee of John, Lady Helen Fairfax engages SH.
It seems that Hugo Verner (George Mikell), John's employer, had sent him to collect the trunk. It's a straightforward case. Hugo had been in love with Helen.
Jenkins, a porter at Verner's art gallery, who had accompanied John to collect the trunk, has mysteriously been given a few days' leave. He's not at home, gone fishing at Henley. More correctly Jenkins is being fished out of the Thames there, dead.
Feeling guilty that he had inadvertently caused Jenkins' death, SH decides to trap Verner, letting him know that he is suspected. "You can prove nothing," Verner confidently asserts.
SH's charade begins with L questioning Verner. Did he know Josephine? No. Nevertheless he invites Verner to Josephine's funeral. L states his theory is that her angry husband has done her in. At the burial, SH whispers to Verner, "the murderer might be here," he might be bent on revenge for having been crossed. "I told him it was you," SH calmly informs Verner, who hastily runs away.
After a chase round the graveyard, "Murderer!" cries a bearded man, maybe Mr Potts. That prompts Verner seeking shelter in L's arms, and a hasty confession.
This is a very basic story, no deductive powers needed by SH, and which ends with the delivery of a sculpture that SH had ordered from Verner
Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson Menu
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The Case of the Deadly Tower
Tarleton Manor, home of railway millionaire Lord Tarleton and his wife. His obsession to contact the other world ends in disaster, but he would seem to have had some foreknowledge, for he had written a letter to SH which is handed to the great detective by his lawyer Morton Hadlock (Geoffrey Bayldon). The letter is a request to investigate the circumstances of his death, "no matter how I die."
But his death certificate, signed by Dr Rinaldo, states he died of a heart attack. Lady Sylvia his wife (Catherine Schell) inherits half his estate, others receiving a 10% share are Arthur Smythe his close business associate, Dr Victor Rinaldo, Elizabeth, Tarleton's ward, his lawyer and the British Institute of Parapsychology.
At the reading of the will, SH surprises them all by anouncing that Lord Tartleton had been murdered by someone in the room.
Not that he has proof as yet. But in the Tower Room, where his lordship had died in his quest to contact the other world, SH awaits developments. Footsteps. DrW breaks down the door of the room to drag SH's body out, only to collapse himself. When they come to, they reason that there is something dangerous in the tower, not much deductive skill needed for that! Candles, exclaims SH, they had been treated with some substance.
The following evening, the recovered SH organises a seance in the tower room. He will reveal the murder's name and Inspector L is invited to come in order to make an arrest.
SH lights "the mystic candles" then begins his charade contacting Lord Tarelton. Three knocks. "Indicate your murderer," SH announces dramatically. Of course the killer knows they will die from the fumes so has to speak up. "I'll take that," L pronounces officiously.
Back in Baker Street SH lights some more candles, but are they the poisoned ones? L almost comes a cropper
Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson Menu
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The Case of the Other Ghost
Script: Tudor Gates, based on a story by Julian Fellowes. Director: Val Guest.
The butler at Kindersley Hall requests that SH investigate the demise of Mary, a maid, who had been frightened to death by a ghost, tumbling downstairs. "There's a presence in the house," the butler concludes in sinister tones.
After a teasing interview with Inspector L, SH persuades the Scotland Yard man to get Sir Charles Kindersley, owner of the hall, to invite him and DrW to stay. They are shown the fateful staircase, "she screamed first and then she fell." SH deems that a key point, one not covered at her inquest.
That night, there's another scream. This time, the poor old butler is done in. He is stabbed to death in the hallway, though his corpse is not found here, but in the street.
Soon, SH has developed his theory, that the maid was killed in error. The intended victim for Mary's death was Sarah, Sir Charles' rich wife.
There was a third murder, SH explains mysteriously, that was 100 years earlier, "the key to everything." And even a fourth! Sir Charles' cousin Lady Helen, died ten years ago. Though she apparently hanged herself, "that makes four murders."
We are treated to some unusual narration from Inspector L, before we see that SH's theories are, naturally, correct. Sir Charles is placing wire across the staircase, so that his wife trips and falls. The chandelier in the hall is then secretly released to kill her, before returning to its wonted place, "just another unfortunate accident."
He's mad of course. He'd been in love with his cousin, but it's all to do with money. His trap fails, thanks to the invisible SH, and in a neat turn of fate, it's Charles who is killed in his own trap.
In the final scene back at Baker Street, L is wondering if he has seen a ghost himself, no less than that of SH
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. . . . . . . . . . .
Ronald Howard
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