The Greek Interpreter

Watson is shocked to learn Sherlock has a brother, that brother comes in handy during the case of Mr Melas, and his strange story.

A strong story and the first appearance of Mycroft make for a particularly good episode. As a story I've always found this one particularly nasty, it's one of my favourites. Particularly fine production values, it looks wonderful, the music also is excellent. The scenes on board the train in particular look excellent.

I love how evil George Costigan is as Kemp, one of the most memorable from the show, he's thoroughly evil and sinister. Charles Gray was very memorable in the part, and a terrific contrast to Brett.

Excellent. 9/10

In The Greek Interpreter Sherlock Holmes finds his next client at the Diogenes Club where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduces the character of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother. As played by Charles Gray, Mycroft has every bit of Sherlock's deductive reasoning powers, but has chosen to use that in a different though honest field of endeavor. He's a career civil servant, but THE civil servant in the United Kingdom, much like Nigel Hawthorne a century later in Yes Minister.

Much like the other tales that Conan Doyle has written, Jeremy Brett as Holmes gets a client with an unusual tale. A very mysterious man played by George Costigan with a unique foreign accent kidnaps Alkis Kritikos and brings him to a house where his talents as an interpreter are needed. Costigan and Nicholas Field are holding Anton Alexander captive and are torturing him. But since he only speaks Greek they need an interpreter to convey to him to sign some important document so that they will stop. Alexander's sister Victoria Harwood is also involved, but I can't say more than that.

Since the villains are identified right away this particular Conan Doyle story is not any kind of whodunit, but rather almost an action adventure as the brothers Holmes and David Burke as Dr. Watson race against time to affect a rescue. Their efforts are considerably hampered by Scotland Yard Inspector Oliver Maguire and their own respect for due process UK style.

George Costigan was extremely interesting as the villain. Since I'm not familiar with him over on this side of the pond, I was wondering whether he was imitating Peter Lorre or that was his natural voice. Either way he was one sinister dude.

Not too bad an entry in the Conan Doyle catalog of Sherlock Holmes stories.

Jeremy Brett was brilliant as Holmes. I've just caught up with this episode, which I don't think I saw when it was originally screened. The team get so much right - creating tableaux from lovingly recreated interiors (including police stations). But the direction and editing lack a sense of timing - there are filler shots of people standing in halls, or gazing in puzzlement, or at the camera. I love to gaze on the face of Sherlock Holmes, but I also want to get on with the story. The dialogue needs to be faster, faster, faster, and they need to cut in on the end of each others' lines! They should have watched the Maltese Falcon, as did George Costigan as one of the villains. Or Rathbone and Bruce! Perhaps it was a current acting style (I'm looking back to my brief theatrical career).

This adaptation has a gripping and suspenseful plot involving gang kidnapping as well as superb performances by Nicolas Field and George Costigan (doing an impersonation of Peter Lorre) as the sinister perpetrators. Also, Jeremy Brett and David Burke continue to be in fine form as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. However, what really makes this episode special is that it marks the debut of Holmes's brother Mycroft, wonderfully played by Charles Gray. He is what you would call an armchair detective, he tends to be lazy yet he's as brilliant if not more so than Sherlock himself. Although, it plays more like a crime story than a mystery it turns out to be a not too shabby entry.

A Greek interpreter is taken to a house where two sinister types are trying to force a Greek man into signing a document. After he's released, he tells his story to his neighbor, Mycroft Holmes, who of course gets his brother Sherlock to look into the case.

This is one of my two favorite episodes from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which curiously have the lowest ratings of the series on imdb (the other being The Norwood Builder). It's noteworthy simply for the introduction of the Diogenes Club and the amazing Charles Gray as Mycroft Holmes, a role that's probably as hard to cast as Sherlock himself. Gray steals every scene, but this would've been a memorable episode even without him. Yes, this is not much of a whodunit, since the villains are apparent from the very first scene, but Sherlock Holmes stories aren't only about finding out who did what: they're about procedure, deduction, logic, great dialogue. In that sense, this is a wonderful, very memorable episode.