646f9e108c When Professor Moriarty escapes the gallows - literally in a puff of smoke - Sherlock Holmes finds himself once again in pursuit of his old nemesis. Soon after the escape, Holmes' brother Mycroft asks him to work at identifying a leak in British Intelligence. Uncharacteristically, he refuses to help until he realizes that Moriarty is behind the missing State secrets. He learns that a very seductive woman, Sophy DeVere, has been hypnotizing one of Mycroft's young assistants to steal the information. When Moriarty is unable to decode the secret message he has stolen, he kidnaps Mycroft in order to get the information. Professor Moriarty is loose in London with spies everywhere, and only Sherlock Holmes can figure out what he's up to and stop it. Very derivative, with odd bits of various Holmes stories stapled together. I would agree that Edward Woodward is an excellent actor, but not Holmes. Anthony Andrews is, however, an excellent Moriarty. Once again Mycroft is rather too thin for the role, and I would agree that being snuck up on by a large Thug who has to lever open a casket to do so is pretty improbable. The main problem for me is that the time lines simply do not hold together- having missed the announcement of the date at the start I was looking for clues. So…. last public execution in England, 1863 (and not a multiple hanging at that). Victoria in widow's weeds, after 1861, before 1902. All looking good, except the bit where Oberstein pulls a gun not manufactured until 1893… oh well! I am a lifelong fan of The Great Detective; I yield place to no onea fan of Edward Woodward. I even believe I understand why Mr Woodward would wish to play Sherlock Holmes; I too would like to play Sherlock Holmes. I recuse myself from the role (even though no one has asked me to performthe Wizard of Baker Street) since I bear no resemblance whatsoever to Sir Arthur's descriptions of Holmes. Nor does Edward Woodward, and it is simply too great a stretch to see a burly Holmes. Woodward would make a fine radio Holmes. Hillerman issolid a Watsonany, which is in itself amazingHillerman is from Texas. Perhaps this presentation suffers most when compared with the British series starring Jeremy Brett. In short, despite its good points, not for Sherlockians.
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