Good Night, Mr. Holmes

A large diamond. A rogue sportsman. And Mycroft (in the form of Charles Gray) pairing up with Watson. The director Peter Hammond goes way overboard with facets as a metaphor, but the way this show combines the original story with the Three Garridebs was actually pretty effective.

Omertá. A landlady comes to see Holmes and Watson because she's got a lodger who will not come out unless it's to grab a tray and go back inside the room. Mrs. Hudson urges her on, and Holmes agrees to take the case. The Mafia is involved. But who is in the landlady's room?

Russians! Nihilists! 140 different kinds of tobacco ash, and suffragettes! Coptic Christians! And a massive, really awful marital betrayal. 

Rachel and Laura go long on this episode because it deserves it. It's one of the rare good ones in the latter days of this series.

Culverton Smith is manipulating his cousin and ensuring his death and societal destruction. Baby Hugh Bonneville and Susannah Harker turn this episode into a suspenseful saga of addiction and deception.

Thankfully, the Granada crew rescued Steve Dixie from the stupid racism that Conan Doyle saddled him with. Nonetheless...Mrs. Maberley is trying to get to the bottom of why and how her son really died. As weird as this episode was, it's better than what's gone before.

We were very mixed up about who the biddies were and who the twins were and also none of this should have ever happened. Happily, Hattie comes out on top, owning the manor house that she loved so much from a distance. And I guess that's what counts.

It starts in flames. Turns out, those flames destroyed the set - and the manor house - entirely. This is Granada's attempt to put Holmes against a vampire - could have been great, turns out it was...well, a mess. We discuss. Part two of two.

It starts in flames. Turns out, those flames destroyed the set - and the manor house - entirely. This is Granada's attempt to put Holmes against a vampire - could have been great, turns out it was...well, a mess. We discuss. Part one of two.

The slimy, oleaginous Charles Augustus Milverton meets his well-deserved end. Second of two parts.

We're dividing this episode in two because it was a TV movie. A seminal encounter between Holmes and Charles Augustus Milverton - played to perfection by Robert Hardy. 

Monkey glands! A more-than-midlife crisis! And the horrors of animal trafficking, which still continues today. The greatest primate actor of all time (Peter Elliott), and the immortal words: "If inconvenient, come all the same." Holmes and Watson aim to rescue more than one young woman from the fragility of the male ego.

A wife-murder in the Alps - apparently, it's called uxoricide. No wonder it hasn't caught on. Followed by a porcelain collection, and a collection of...women.

Come for Sherlock Holmes, stay for Laura's encounter with Gene Simmons from KISS, who also has a collection of women.

Australians - and baby James Purefoy! We love this show because it introduces us to the nascence of our favorite actors.

A man is lying dead by a lakeside. A gamekeeper talks too much. Star-crossed would-be lovers - and a forgotten past. It's too good, too delightfully grotesque.

Another horse racing mystery! But there's a baby Jude Law, some beautiful egg cozies, and yes - a man taking advantage of his sister's fortune. And a disguise! It's Gothic mystery at its best here.

A Brazilian wife, a blameless governess, and a whole lot of rhododenrons - Rachel and Laura unpack Winchester Prison, the Huguenots, and Cheshire vs Hampshire. 

The second part of the Richard Roxburgh Hound of the Baskervilles. So good. Definitely better than the Granada version.

We're comparing the Richard Roxburgh version of Hound of the Baskervilles to the Jeremy Brett version. Roxburgh is a very different actor, and the story is told in a different way as well - leaving out the Lankford family entirely, and focusing more on wide panoramic shots of the moor. Sir Henry is not the son but the nephew of Sir Charles. And a host of other differences that true Sherlockians will enjoy.

Holmes reveals himself to Watson and Mortimer, and introduces his only attempt at cooking - a cold stew that even Watson refuses to eat. Is Beryl Stapleton who she says she is? What happens to her brother as he runs through the moor at night? Why is the dog green?