The Blue Carbuncle

For as long as I can remember, I've spent a day before Christmas, wrapping presents, sherry, and a seasonal playlist. Part of that will forever be the Blue Carbuncle. It's a fabulous episode, it ranks among the very best, it's a fairly simple tail, The Countess of Morcar has her prized possession stolen from her hotel room, a glorious jewel steeped in blood, the fabulous 'blue carbuncle,' and someone in her employ has found an ingenious way of purloining it.

It's a glorious story, lacking any deep or dark overtures, the tone is almost whimsical, particularly in comparison to the previous episode 'The Speckled band.' Nevertheless it is clever, engaging and almost heart warming, even Holmes enters somewhat into the Christmas spirit.

Rosalind Knight does a great job playing the Countess, she adds a wonderful amount of pomposity and aristocracy, a truly skillful actress who's been in the business for so long, from the dark eyed beauty in Carry on Teacher to the hilarious Mrs Cresswell in Only fools episode 'The Jolly Boy's outing.'

All in all it's one of my favourites, very much recommended, it's very easy viewing.

9/10.

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.

As we see from the opening scenes. The Blue Carbuncle has been associated with death.

The Countess of Morcar is staying in a hotel and her valuable jewel, the Blue Carbuncle has been stolen while she was out Christmas shopping. A workman with a criminal record has been arrested for the theft.

Holmes meanwhile is on a wild goose chase. The Commissioner approaches him with a goose and a hat. A man who was being pushed about by some ruffians dropped it and ran off with it.

Holmes has fun describing to Watson, the character of the man who possessed such a hat.

It later transpired that the goose contained the valuable jewel in its gullet.

Holmes and Watson now need to find out how it got there and free an innocent man. First they need to find out who the goose was actually destined to go to.

This story has a festive setting. How the two stories get to intertwine was very well done. It offers some good moments of character acting. Frank Middlemass, Frank Mills, Ken Campbell all get a chance to shine.

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.