The Second Stain

Sherlock Holmes meets the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Europe around a matter of extreme national importance. The Secretary of State was in possession of a letter from a foreign power, the contents of which if revealed could lead Britain to war. The letter has been stolen and the government want Holmes to retrieve it as a matter of urgency.

A fairly intriguing episode of Sherlock Holmes. Not the most engaging or interesting: there no murder to solve (well, there is eventually, but it is a secondary matter) and the "crime" seems a bit overblown. The plot also isn't exactly watertight.

Still, a decent mystery and Holmes gets to demonstrate his diplomacy skills.

"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.

In The Second Stain Sherlock Holmes gets a client no less important than the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom himself. With full beard Harry Andrews as the Prime Minister does look remarkably like the real Prime Minister in those times, Lord Salisbury though that is not Andrews's name in the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Involved in the affair is a junior minister played here by Stuart Wilson in whose hands a confidential letter from a foreign ruler to Queen Victoria was entrusted. Apparently this ruler wrote some really horrid stuff about Great Britain and should the contents get out, it might lead to war. Of course it's open to speculation as to who Conan Doyle might have had in mind, but I'm thinking it could have been the Kaiser in Germany. Wilhelm II was a most impulsive fellow and this sounds like just the kind of impulsive note one might write to a grandmother.

Two things happen to Holmes that lead to a rather subdued solution to what could be a high affair of state. The first is that a well known trader in international secrets gets murdered. The other is a visit by Wilson's wife, Patricia Hodge inquiring of Holmes why her husband and the Prime Minister should be seeking his services.

In American history two such purloined letters of indiscretion figured prominently in two American wars. The first was the DeLome letter written by the Spanish Ambassador to the USA, criticizing America in general and making some not very flattering references to our president of the time, William McKinley right before The Spanish American War. The second was the Zimmerman Note in which the Germans make an offer to the Mexicans to come into World War I on the Central Powers side and they can get back what we took in the Mexican Cession back in the day. In both cases these letters wound up in our yellow press and Andrews as Prime Minister is concerned with good reason that it doesn't wind up in their scandal sheets.

I have to say the ending is a bit of let down. And talk about cover-up. But you'll have to see the mystery to know what I'm talking about.

Lord Trelawney Hope (Stuart Wilson), a cabinet minister and the Prime Minister himself visit Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street.

It is a matter of grave importance. Lord Trelawney Hope has lost an important diplomatic letter from his dispatch box. If made public it could lead to war. Holmes must find it before the contents of the letter becomes public.

Soon after they depart, Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope (Patricia Hodge) visits Holmes wanting to find out why her husband seems distressed.

The murder of Eduardo Lucas, could be an important lead. Holmes regarded Lucas as one of the possible suspects who could had gone possession of the letter.

There is a lengthy scene where Inspector Lestrade goes through the crime scene excitedly, especially about the blood stains.

The casting of Stuart Wilson who usually played bad lads in 1970s crime dramas was clever as it leads to the viewer being suspicious of him. Hodge is regal but I did not think that the mystery had the urgency needed. The denouement was a bit flat and Holmes certainly is a master of the sleight of hand.

Some document has disappeared and if it falls in the wrong hands, it could easily spell war. However, exactly what is written on it is something Holmes is never told and he walks into the situation a bit blind. However, soon after receiving a visit from the Prime Minister about this, a woman appears and asks Holmes to divulge everything the Prime Minister and her husband (who was with him) said. Naturally, Holmes refuses as it's a matter of national importance. Later, Holmes would realize that this woman knows more about the missing paper.

To me, this was a weak episode for two reasons. First, it was an awful lot like an earlier Holmes story, "The Naval Treaty". Second, the Holmes protected the woman involved with the theft and to me, he should have turned her in because she was a major liability to the Empire. An okay story....nothing more.