"It is quite a three pipe problem..."
Yes, I know; it's been a while, and I stopped abruptly, but now I'm back to blogging the Jeremy Brett series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. I stopped because of an unfortunate cock-up with Sky Plus, but now I have Britbox. I can now continue the last two episodes of Adventures, folowed by the first series of Return. There may be another pause there untl I'm able to see The Sign of Four, but that's a solid nine episodes for now.
The Red Headed League is one of the more well-known of the Conan Doyle short stories, and certainly one of the ones with which I'm most familiar. It's therefore a rather good episode to reintroduce myself to this wonderful series, drowning in redolent Victoriana, as I again experience the wonders of Jeremy Brett's performance and the nicely adapted story, complete with dialogue reflecting the actual speech patterns of Conan Doyle's characters. There's a superb case here, with Richard Wilson and Tim McInnerny standing out, while John Woodnutt is splendid as his usual vaguely arrogant authority figure. Roger Hammond also tands out in a bravely comical portrayal of Jabez Wilson.
It's an interesting choice, though, in this penultimate episode of the series, to have the whole thing be masyerminded by Moriarty, to give Brett a nice little speevh introducing him as formidable foe, and to give the superb Eric Porter a sublime cameo at the end.
Roll on The Final Problem. This programme is superb. I've missed it.
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