The Dancing Men

Taking a break from "filler" loaded Endeavor. Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes is no "filler" to the point. No need to sillily stretch stories out to fill time. "Dancing Men" was truly satisfying. Brett displays his keen powers of observation in a quick paced pure old fashioned mystery. I'll only watch Sherlock Holmes if it's Jeremy Brett. Marvelous way to spend an hour. Vito S 9-5-20

Sherlock Holmes is hired by a wealthy landowner, Hilton Cubitt. His wife has been receiving strange notes with all the contents in the form of dancing men. She is clearly shaken by these messages but won't be drawn on what they mean. Could these be related to her American past?

After the sedate, not-violent, hardly-a crime-involved opener, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Dancing Men steps up the tension in a big way. Quite riveting and thrilling as Holmes and Watson try to figure out what the dancing men mean and how this affects the Cubitts.

Once intriguing at the end too as Holmes unravels the mystery and sets out to catch the person responsible.

Excellent episode.

"The Dancing Men" is a favorite of mine. One of the neat things about the Holmes canon is that sometimes there is no poetic justice. While the great detective always solves the case, there is often collateral damage. In this one, a young bride is terrified by various images of dancing stick figures that are sent to her or appear in various settings. Her husband goes to Holmes to find out what is going on. Holmes, of course, is able to interpret the figures, but in the meantime, things don't go so well. Holmes often produced characters that came from America, and, invariably, there history seemed to present them with some nearly insurmountable obstacles. In this one, we have the sympathetic husband who has fallen into a situation he can't control. Holmes and Watson, played masterfully by Jeremy Brett and David Burke respectively, are eventually called to what appears a murder suicide scene, for which there is little explanation, other than the eerie figures that have pervaded the story. Again, the English countryside and a respect for the era are major factors in the success of this episode.

The Dancing Men shows the wonderful imagination Conan Doyle had, such an intriguing mystery, which requires Holmes to use his intelligence to catch a killer and solve a mystery.

It's not my favourite episode of the first batch, it has some very strong competition, but it's a fine episode nonetheless, Brett is fantastic as Holmes, for me he's still THE Sherlock Holmes, his expressions and antics are fantastic in this episode, he is so energised. I love the scenes between Holmes and Inspector Martin. It moves along at a pace, and offers some intriguing ideas, I do like the dancing men code.

Fantastic production values throughout as you would expect, it looks great. Tenniel Evans is great as the loving and sympathetic Hilton Cubitt, if I'm honest I didn't care much for the performances of Elsie or Abe Slaney, personal taste I get.

The story of The Dancing Men is one of my favorites - OK,as I am a huge fan of Jeremy Brett,I love all the episodes,but I like this one especially.The story is exciting and as time passes, the viewers may try to put together the meaning of the drawings themselves. But I like it mostly because of the excellent acting - Jeremy just looks gorgeous in that sexy dressing gown in the scene where he deduces that Watson did not invest in goldmines. His gestures and mimic are awesome, not to mention his wonderful diction. During the Adventures series he still was thin and quick and healthy - later, due to his illnesses and the loss of his wife his appearance changed, but his performance remained larger than life.And if I consider the fact that he was 50 when he first appeared as Sherlock Holmes, he made a miracle - for me at least, because he is absolutely convincing as Holmes somewhere in his thirties. David Burke is always great as Watson and the supporting cast did a fine job too.I recommend this episode to everyone as a fantastic introducing into the realm of my one and only Sherlock Holmes, the unforgettable Jeremy Brett.