"The Second Stain" being one of my favorite Sherlock Homes stories, I'm gratified "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" retold it with such fidelity to the source material (unlike the shoddy accretions that turned the jolly "The Six Napoleons" into what it became). And while the point of the story is that nothing happens after the theft of the letter, they manage to keep it tense and taut. It's what a good Sherlock Holmes story should be: a puzzle in print and a thrill on TV.
Jeremy Brett is masterful, as he nearly always is in the first two series as Holmes. I've heard every possible radio adaptation of this story and Brett's "prepare for war" has a definitive ring to it. Brett's series attracted good actors and he's joined here by Harry Andrews and Stuart Wilson.
It's always good to see Colin Jeavons as Lestrade "buzzing around like a bluebottle." People forget that Jeavons' Lestrade was as much a revelation as Brett's Holmes or the Watsons of Burke and Hardwicke.
Victorian notions of beauty are different from ours, but I feel Patricia Hodge doen't live up to Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Lady Trelawny Hope. But who can? Obviously they had to go for talent and name recognition.
And we're given a moment of uncanonical (but welcome) levity concerning a carelessly-discarded match. Pay attention or you'll miss it.
Otherwise, with certain episodes of "The Adventures" and certainly "The Bruce Partington Plans" (another of my favorite ACD stories) in "The Return" this episode lives up to the hopes we Holmes fiends had for the Brett series when it started. And longed for with wistful sorrow when the Brett shows ran their course not with a bang, but a whimper.
Jeremy Brett is masterful, as he nearly always is in the first two series as Holmes. I've heard every possible radio adaptation of this story and Brett's "prepare for war" has a definitive ring to it. Brett's series attracted good actors and he's joined here by Harry Andrews and Stuart Wilson.
It's always good to see Colin Jeavons as Lestrade "buzzing around like a bluebottle." People forget that Jeavons' Lestrade was as much a revelation as Brett's Holmes or the Watsons of Burke and Hardwicke.
Victorian notions of beauty are different from ours, but I feel Patricia Hodge doen't live up to Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Lady Trelawny Hope. But who can? Obviously they had to go for talent and name recognition.
And we're given a moment of uncanonical (but welcome) levity concerning a carelessly-discarded match. Pay attention or you'll miss it.
Otherwise, with certain episodes of "The Adventures" and certainly "The Bruce Partington Plans" (another of my favorite ACD stories) in "The Return" this episode lives up to the hopes we Holmes fiends had for the Brett series when it started. And longed for with wistful sorrow when the Brett shows ran their course not with a bang, but a whimper.