The Abbey Grange

It's hard to think of any such quality one hour mysteries being produced nowadays, I'm glad I grew up in an era of Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. One of the most memorable of episodes for me is 'The Abbey Grange,' a wonderful mystery, brought vividly to life by all concerned. It's a murder mystery caught up in a love story, with glorious production values, a first rate outing for the detective duo, the banter between them over Watson's writings, and the delightful performance of Anne-Louise Lambert, as Lady Mary, who dazzles with a soft, innocent beauty. I love the ending too, there is a reality in the showdown between Jack and Sir Eustace.

Sure enough the elements are all there, Abbey Grange is a first class episode, one of the best. 9/10

Another entertaining episode featuring a brutal murder that needs the expertise of Sherlock Holmes to help bring the facts to light.

It begins in a wealthy manor where the lord of the house has been found dead from being hit over the head with a fire-poker. The lady of the house was a witness as she described to Holmes and the police that she walked in on three men robbing the house. She advised that she was beaten and tied up before her husband entered the room for her rescue. But instead, her husband was killed and the men left after stealing all the silver.

Holmes hears the story but seems interested in the woman's account of the story that involved the three men taking a drink out of the glasses on the counter. There is something to this part of the story that mesmerizes Holmes to the point of returning to the manor and again talking to the injured lady. And as we know when Holmes goes in for a second account of the story, the walls of fiction will be revealed.

Another fine episode featuring Jeremy Brett as the always interesting actor playing Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy is brilliant as his tics and facial expressions are just as compelling as the character he portrays. Good Watch.

This is one of the more complex stories. Holmes is called to the home a nobleman who has been beaten to death with a fireplace poker. His wife has been tied to a chair in a state of great distress. As the episode unfolds there are series of inconsistent clues which lead Holmes to be suspicious of the lady's story. There is a bell rope to nowhere, a knot that doesn't fit, and a set of wine glasses which aren't as they should be. Holmes must tread lightly because the lady is fragile and must be treated as such. The beauty of this particular episode has to do with the amassing of clues. It has a more contemporary sense to it and requires more decoding. Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke are very adept as the sleuths, and when one hears the wrapping up at the end, it is quite satisfying. It has a side issue which a stickler for traditional justice might find unsatisfying. Holmes must become judge and jury once again.

Holmes is excited when Inspector Hopkins requests his attendance over the death of Sir Eustace Brackenstall. He was found dead in his country house after being hit on the head by a poker.

His battered wife tells Holmes that the house was broken into by three robbers who attacked them, they left with some stolen silver.

Something about her story does not add up and it concerns Holmes. He wonders why the robbers left her alive when she could have identified them.

Holmes regards Sir Eustace has a hot tempered drunk who married a younger wife who has joined him from Australia. Holmes and Watson are looking for another man who is of interest to them.

There is an amusing scene after Holmes has castigated Watson for his writing style. They meet Mr Viviani the managing director of the London office of a shipping line. He is a diligent reader of Watson's writings and he puts into practice what he has learned of Holmes methods which leads to them getting an important lead.

In many ways this is a standard Holmes mystery, yet Holmes is intrigued by the description of Captain Croker by Mr Vivavni. It does lead to a different outcome.

Although the accent of course is on our protagonist Sherlock Holmes ferreting out a solution to a murder, in this particular story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was years ahead of his time in using as a subject a battered wife of the Victorian Era. Options for battered women were quite a bit more limited than they are today.

For reasons he's not quite clear himself about, Scotland Yard's Inspector Hopkins (Paul Williamson) calls in Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke (Holmes and Watson) in on what looks like a break-in robbery of a Victorian mansion gone wrong right into a homicide. Perhaps because the victim was a titled individual and a rich one, Scotland Yard wanted to be sure.

Of course Holmes deduces it was not a break-in gone bad which left the man murdered and his much younger wife tied up. Rather quickly Brett says that Anne-Louise Lambert was the victim of long time abuse. And he also figures out that a sailor is somehow involved in this affair.

What to do about it, well all I can say is that Agatha Christie might have taken a bit from Conan Doyle when she wrote Murder On The Orient Express with her solution for Hercule Poirot when he found the murder.

As Arthur Conan Doyle was an observer of Victorian society, I believe that his victim/villain Lord Eustace Brackenstall may very well have been modeled on the Marquis of Queensbury who later made life miserable for Oscar Wilde. Queensbury had the same kind of temperament that Brackenstall displays and he certainly abused his family. Conrad Phillips plays Brackenstall with relish.

Good Holmes story and dramatization of same.