The Bruce Partington Plans

A young copyist is found dead beside the railway lines on the Underground with a massive head wound but little bleeding. He has no ticket but he does have plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine in his pocket. Is he a traitor? How did he board the train without a ticket? Who killed him and why, or was it an accident?

It's well that "The Bruce Partington Plans" is the finale of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," which has such fine episodes as "The Man With The Twisted Lip," "The Abbe Grange" and "The Second Stain." And Freddie Jones' delightful performance in the otherwise lackluster "Wisteria Lodge." It's a worthy climax.

Brett by this time has developed that delivery problem that makes him sound like he suffers from a perpetual head cold, but it's not eggregious here.

The episode opens with the reintroduction of Charles Gray as Mycroft. I was never sold on Gray's Mycroft; Gray's been too common in movies and TV to be definitive in the way Brett, Burke, Hardwicke and Jeavons are. But he and Brett seem to enjoy acting together, which gives them that glow of brothers who aren't terribly close but who are always glad to see each other.

The story is one if Holmes' triumphs of detection. It's a bit of a shame Lestrade couldn't join us; no doubt Jeavons' schedule precluded it. Amanda Waring is affecting and she does her best with lines like, "if you could only save his honor," which rings so hollow in a more cynical age where honor is treated as a joke.

They do a good job to keep anyone who hasn't read the story guessing at the culprit, making even the ticket-seller at the station a suspicious character.

This is one of those Brett/Holmes stories so delicious one doesn't need to go back to ACD to enjoy it as it should be enjoyed. It's good (enough) as an adaptation and it stands up alone on its own merits.

BTW, the story contains one of ACD's greatest howlers, where Mycroft says the submarine is one of Britain's most closely guarded secrets but then is astounded his brother hasn't heard of it. But his brother is Sherlock Holmes the omniscient. My brother wasn't even Lestrade.

Apart from that, this is a beautiful story beautifully told, unlike some of the travesties like "The Six Napoleons," which should have been left untampered with (though, to be fair, tampering with "The Priory School" improved it).

Sherlock Holmes is urgently contacted by his brother Mycroft. Top secret submarine plans have been stolen and the man believed responsible, Cadogan West, found dead on a train track with some of the plans on his person. The most important parts of the plans of the plans are still missing. Mycroft needs Sherlock to find the missing plans before they land in the hands of a foreign power.

An interesting, intriguing mystery. A tale of espionage, murder and honour.

As always, Jeremy Brett is excellent as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Harwicke is great as Dr Watson. Good to see Charles Gray back as Mycroft. It's a pity he only appears in two Holmes episodes: he and Sherlock make a great combination and it's wonderful to think that there's someone Sherlock regards as more intelligent than himself.

As people may well know by now, I am a big fan of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series. As far as the episodes in The Return of Sherlock Holmes go, I still think The Devil's Foot is the standout of this particular series, but The Bruce-Partington Plans is one of those episodes that shows why I love the series as much as I do.

The pace is mostly solid, if dragging a tad once or twice. That said, the story is an interesting and well-told one, and is further helped by the thoughtful dialogue, the meticulous production values(one of the series' best assets), the wonderful music and the top notch acting of Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke and Charles Gray.

All in all, a great episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Bruce Partington plans is another great episode from a top notch series, the story itself isn't particularly deep or complex, it is simply a case of find the missing papers, but it is hugely absorbing, beautifully acted, and superbly produced.

The appearance of Mycroft always elevates an episode, Charles Gray a fantastic performer, who seemed to inspire Brett. There's a great scene where Mycroft dismisses Holmes vocation as something minor, almost pointless, but of course Sherlock has the last laugh.

The episode is fast paced, energetic, edgy and has an energy to it that wasn't evident in the last few episodes. Not the standard of The Devil's Foot (What is though?) but certainly better then Silver Blaze and Wysteria Lodge.

Excellent. 9/10

This is yet another "missing important document" mystery just like "The Naval Treaty" and "The Second Stain" but it is still very well done. This time it features Holmes's older, wiser brother Mycroft as he presents Sherlock with a case involving missing naval documents called "The Bruce Partington Plans" that were taken from a man who died coming off of a moving train. Everything in the story comes together nicely and the explanation as to how the man was killed from the train is as Watson states "a masterpiece." The pacing is very good and the production values are superb. As usual Brett and Hardwicke delight as Holmes and Watson and Charles Gray is wonderful as the man that Holmes's often refers to as "Brother Mine." Fun Fact: BBC's "Sherlock" did a modern twist on this story in the episode called "The Great Game."