The Naval Treaty

Sherlock Holmes is hired by someone Watson knew at school, Percy Phelps. Mr Phelps works at the Foreign Office and was tasked with making a copy of a top secret Naval Treaty between Britain and Italy. This incredibly important document has been stolen, leaving Mr Phelps a broken man.

Another great adaptation of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story. Very intriguing as Holmes and Watson go about gathering clues as to the identity of the culprit.

Jeremy Brett once again puts in an excellent performance as Holmes with David Burke giving solid support as Watson. Some good guest performances too.

As always the exquisite recapturing of 1890s London, and England generally, adds a further dimension to proceedings.

The Naval Treaty is one of the Conan Doyle short stories that had to be expanded to an hour's length.

It features a strong performance from David Gwillim. He plays Percy Phelps, a foreign office who has lost an important document. Embarrassingly his uncle is also the foreign minister. Phelps has literally fallen to illness brought about by the shock of losing the papers. He calls on his old school friend, Dr Watson for help.

Sherlock Holmes is certainly intrigued by the puzzle. Phelps working late at night only left his office briefly and the document swiftly disappeared. However Holmes knows enough to serve Phelps something special for breakfast.

This is a well adapted story, Jeremy Brett looks suave in his light coloured suit as he spends an afternoon in the country. It does lose some mystery because of the well known guest star syndrome.

This episode puts us right in the middle of another great mystery when a young man, Percy Phelps, working very late at the foreign office is copying a very important treaty for the British Government. Being alone, he takes a small break to go get some coffee from the night watchman when suddenly the bell rings from his office. No one is suppose to be in the room. When Percy runs back upstairs he finds that the treaty had been stolen. Now his job and his honor have been stained. Percy becomes bedridden with guilt and his last straw will be to get Sherlock Holmes to take the case.

A very nice episode with plenty of situations that, at the end, all lead the viewer to think outside of their limit. A very well written script with fine acting throughout. This is an episode you will watch again to see how many clues that were missed on the first view. Good watch.

An old school chum writes to Dr. Watson and asks for Sherlock Holmes' help: an immensely important naval treaty document, which was entrusted to him for copying, has been stolen. The poor guy, devastated and hardly able to carry a conversation for two minutes before getting into another nervous fit, is hopeless.

This is the first time where the plot involves a mystery in the true sense of the word, because while Holmes is putting the pieces together in his mind, the audience isn't given much of a clue.

I admit this was my least favorite episode when I first binge-watched this series, since I found the constant whining and nervousness of Percy Phelps (the character who lost the treaty) too tiresome and annoying. But upon a couple of repeated viewings over the years, I now find it better than most episodes. Recommended.

The Naval Treaty is a strong episode with a lot that makes the Granada Sherlock Holmes series so great evident. It's not one of the best, with the perpetrator rather obvious from the get go due to a lesser amount of suspects as usual. However, the story is the usual clever and mostly compelling standard, and the script is of high quality, thought-provoking and sometimes playful with some suspenseful parts too. The music is wonderful, I always find the music in this series haunting, beautiful or often both, and this episode is an example of the music being both. The production values are typically splendid, evocative and very beautiful-looking. The photography is always focused and fluid. The acting is strong too, the support cast are good but nobody as such stood out. David Burke is a composed and intelligent Watson, but this episode belongs to the supreme Holmes of Jeremy Brett, who never fails to delight with his gritty baritone and towering presence. All in all, not one of my favourites but still very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox