The Blue Carbuncle

How can I add to the previous reviews, as they have said a lot of what is so good about The Blue Carbuncle so excellently? This is a truly brilliant episode and among the best of the entire Granada Sherlock Holmes series, of which there are several standouts(The Crooked Man, The Devil's Foot, Sign of Four, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Master BlackMailer, The Speckled Band, The Cardboard Box, The Norwood Builder, The Final Problem and The Dying Detective). The story always was one of Conan Doyle's best, and it in adaptation-form is still as clever and compelling as ever. The script is sophisticated with delightful bouts of humour as well, while with the evocative atmosphere, almost cinematic photography and incredibly well-detailed costumes and sets the episode is so well made and the music is haunting and almost melancholic. Jeremy Brett never put a foot wrong, and he is as ever commanding here. David Burke gives his personal best performance of Adventures as a thoughtful and composed Watson, and their scenes here are some of the finest Holmes-Watson scenes of the entire series. All in all, one of my favourites and one of the best too, simply fantastic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

If The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes were broadcast in America first, this would have debuted at Christmas time rather than in June of 1984 when it did. Arthur Conan Doyle might very well have been influenced by that other immortal English writer Charles Dickens when he wrote the Blue Carbuncle.

The Blue Carbuncle is not some ugly growth on someone, but a rare and priceless blue diamond which some opportunistic thieves stole from the Duchess of Moncor. The only part of the crime that went well was that the blame got placed on some guy who had a criminal record, but was innocent of this caper.

When Holmes and Watson are called in the trail of the missing gem leads to some very interesting places and where the jewel wound up is pretty funny. And how it got there is a testimony to the quick, but faulty thinking of the real perpetrator. But as I said the perpetrator was not very bright.

The thing to remember is that it is Christmas time when this case occurs and that fact enters into Holmes's thinking when he finds the perpetrator. What to do with this fool, let's just say that Christmas enters his thinking.

You won't believe where the jewel was hidden.

Wonderful! The question remains. How do Holmes and Watson spring Horner from jail without giving up the carbuncle or giving up Ryder?

No Christmas season would be complete without watching this marvelous adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Blue Carbuncle.

This is such a wonderful episode that descriptions tend to fail me. Everything and everyone is at peak form here. Jeremy Brett's performance as Holmes is absolutely delightful (even by Brett standards), as is Burke's Watson, and their interplay in this episode is among the very best in the series.

There is a great deal of humor to be found here, including some genuine laugh-out-loud moments...and, of course, a nice little mystery at the heart of it. The production design, as always, is excellent, and the direction top-notch. There is a very authentic feeling of Christmas here, and it really shines through. And it's nice to see that even the dour Sherlock Holmes has a bit of the Christmas spirit in him...in his own way.

A wonderful episode, from start to finish. I can't praise it enough. I could say more, I could be more specific, but I don't want to ruin the fun for any first-time viewers. See it for yourself and it will quickly become a Christmas tradition, as it has for me.

The Blue Carbuncle is a large, extremely valuable gemstone owned by the Countess of Morcar. To her horror she finds that it has been stolen. To Sherlock Holmes's surprise he finds himself in possession of it, via a Christmas goose. Tracing the previous owners of the goose Holmes sets out to find out who stole the Blue Carbuncle.

A wonderful Christmas episode of Sherlock Holmes, one of the best, if not THE best, episodes of the show. There's a very interesting mystery, solved by tracing the path of a goose. The perpetrator is a bit obvious but in the grand scheme of things this is a minor negative.

Moreover, there is a great Christmas "vibe" to proceedings, making it a great episode to watch at that time of the year. Even rational, curmudgeonly Holmes gets into the spirit of things. On that note, we do see a more friendly, common man representation of Holmes in this episode and it is very refreshing.