The Red Headed League

It's foolish to say this episode comes during a purple patch for the show, hard to imagine, but it does, almost every single episode in this series is great, this is perhaps my favourite. It is whimsical and amusing on the surface, but underneath it's cunning, sinister and fiendishly clever. The presence of Professor Moriarty always adds that extra something, and although he's not visible for very long, his presence is strong, I love Moriarty's final scene, where you see him utterly frustrated by Holmes. Holmes at his cleverest.

Wonderful characters all of them, I particularly loved Richard Wilson as Ross, donned in a red wig he was terrific. Tim McInnerny also brilliant, that great scene where he reveals his identity. Terrific music and production values as always.

Pay the proper wage! There's a lesson in that. 10/10

Sherlock Holmes is contacted by Jabez Wilson with a strange, harmless-seeming, chain of events. Mr Wilson is red-headed and was hired by the Red Headed League to perform a minor task each day for a very decent salary. To his surprise, however, the work is suddenly stopped and his employer is nowhere to be found. Though paid handsomely he feels he has been tricked in some way. Holmes initially finds the series of events amusing but after some contemplation sees a much more sinister plot in operation.

Another very intriguing Sherlock Holmes mystery. Like many of the Holmes stories the crime is not immediately apparent, as it hasn't been committed yet. Here Holmes needs to get ahead of the criminals to prevent a crime being committed.

The other interesting thing about this episode is that we are introduced to Holmes's nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

Jabez Wilson comes to Sherlock Holmes with a perplexing case and strange request. It seems Jabez answered an ad for the 'Red-Headed League'...a seemingly charitable trust guaranteeing easy money for simple work. In this case, he was hired to stay in a room for four hours a day and copy from the Encyclopedia...a tedious but very well-paying task. Oddly, dim Jabez never questioned any of this...he just wanted Holmes to find the people from this organization and help him get his job back, as they simply disappeared! Holmes sees that there is a hidden motive for Wilson's being recruited...and that motive is crime!

I have always enjoyed this story and always thought Jabez was an incredibly dim guy. After all, he never questioned any of this and just assumed everything they told him was on the up and up. So what is really going on here? Well, see the show and find out yourself.

This is once again a beautifully made episode...one that is enjoyable and also gives you an introduction to Holmes arch nemesis, Moriarty. Well worth seeing.

You can sense Holmes figured out early a mastermind was involved. I like very little is explained until approaching the end. I really enjoy a detective mystery how this story was laid out., then revealed. Some reviewers are commenting the episodes aren't true to the original story. Well, to me, Jeremy Brett is the perfect Sherlock Holmes. No one comes close.

This is perhaps the best known Holmes story next to "The Hound of the Baskervilles." It involves a man, Jabez Wilson, who has been given a strange job, copying pages from the Encyclopedia Britannica in longhand. He sits at a desk in a stark room and receives payment beyond that fitting the job. Not only that, he has gotten the job because he passed muster, competing against other men with red hair. He actually went to interviews where the authenticity of the red-headed gentlemen was checked. Now, something has changed and he decides to bring his case to Holmes and Watson. One has to accept that the potential criminal enterprise has become so convoluted as to draw attention. Still, it is a delightful story which has stood the test of time. Like "The Blue Carbuncle," we are never to take anything as a life or death situation. Conan Doyle had a sense of humor. Jeremy Brett coolly investigates this with his deep tones filling the room at 221B. Well acted and portrayed with relish.