The Bruce Partington Plans

As people may well know by now, I am a big fan of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series. As far as the episodes in The Return of Sherlock Holmes go, I still think The Devil's Foot is the standout of this particular series, but The Bruce-Partington Plans is one of those episodes that shows why I love the series as much as I do.

The pace is mostly solid, if dragging a tad once or twice. That said, the story is an interesting and well-told one, and is further helped by the thoughtful dialogue, the meticulous production values(one of the series' best assets), the wonderful music and the top notch acting of Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke and Charles Gray.

All in all, a great episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I recall looking forward to this episode. It would feature Charles Gray as Mycroft Holmes. I remember the character being played by Christopher Lee in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

The episode begins with a bored Holmes, lamenting on the lack of crime in London. Mycroft calls on his brother on a matter of national importance. Confidential designs on a secret submarine project have gone missing. A government clerk, Cadogan West has been found dead. He is the likely suspect for the theft. His body was found next to the railway line with some pages of the plans on his body.

Holmes needs to visit all the people who had the keys to the safe where the plans were stored. One of whom has subsequently died before Holmes can get to talk to him.

Of course Holmes soon realises that there is more to this theft as it points towards international espionage. The clerk it seems was killed elsewhere and his body placed on the railway.

This is a more thoughtful case and it needs more deductions from Holmes. It also involves Holmes breaking and entering. Gray was an imposing Mycroft and would go on to appear a few more times as Mycroft, mainly as cover for an ill Jeremy Brett.

A very nice episode, certainly. Conan Doyle seemed to get caught up on some plot elements, however. From "Scandal in Bohemia" to the present effort, we have people who have either carelessly or through victimization, lost some sort of item of worth, be it a photograph, a set of blueprints, or a letter, Holmes spends a goodly amount of time trying to recover these things. Of course, in most situations, there have been other crimes committed, even murder. Often the fate of the world hangs in the balance, as in the "Bruce Partington Plans. A body has been found by a railroad track with three pages of a major plan to build a submarine in his pocket. What is interesting is that he apparently didn't die in this setting but was moved there. This leads Holmes and Watson to deal with two things: recovering the document and figuring out what happened to this man. It's all about location and opportunity. This is a very well done mystery with lots of twists and turns and a not-so-simple solution.

Sherlock Holmes is urgently contacted by his brother Mycroft. Top secret submarine plans have been stolen and the man believed responsible, Cadogan West, found dead on a train track with some of the plans on his person. The most important parts of the plans of the plans are still missing. Mycroft needs Sherlock to find the missing plans before they land in the hands of a foreign power.

An interesting, intriguing mystery. A tale of espionage, murder and honour.

As always, Jeremy Brett is excellent as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Harwicke is great as Dr Watson. Good to see Charles Gray back as Mycroft. It's a pity he only appears in two Holmes episodes: he and Sherlock make a great combination and it's wonderful to think that there's someone Sherlock regards as more intelligent than himself.

A young copyist is found dead beside the railway lines on the Underground with a massive head wound but little bleeding. He has no ticket but he does have plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine in his pocket. Is he a traitor? How did he board the train without a ticket? Who killed him and why, or was it an accident?

It's well that "The Bruce Partington Plans" is the finale of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," which has such fine episodes as "The Man With The Twisted Lip," "The Abbe Grange" and "The Second Stain." And Freddie Jones' delightful performance in the otherwise lackluster "Wisteria Lodge." It's a worthy climax.

Brett by this time has developed that delivery problem that makes him sound like he suffers from a perpetual head cold, but it's not eggregious here.

The episode opens with the reintroduction of Charles Gray as Mycroft. I was never sold on Gray's Mycroft; Gray's been too common in movies and TV to be definitive in the way Brett, Burke, Hardwicke and Jeavons are. But he and Brett seem to enjoy acting together, which gives them that glow of brothers who aren't terribly close but who are always glad to see each other.

The story is one if Holmes' triumphs of detection. It's a bit of a shame Lestrade couldn't join us; no doubt Jeavons' schedule precluded it. Amanda Waring is affecting and she does her best with lines like, "if you could only save his honor," which rings so hollow in a more cynical age where honor is treated as a joke.

They do a good job to keep anyone who hasn't read the story guessing at the culprit, making even the ticket-seller at the station a suspicious character.

This is one of those Brett/Holmes stories so delicious one doesn't need to go back to ACD to enjoy it as it should be enjoyed. It's good (enough) as an adaptation and it stands up alone on its own merits.

BTW, the story contains one of ACD's greatest howlers, where Mycroft says the submarine is one of Britain's most closely guarded secrets but then is astounded his brother hasn't heard of it. But his brother is Sherlock Holmes the omniscient. My brother wasn't even Lestrade.

Apart from that, this is a beautiful story beautifully told, unlike some of the travesties like "The Six Napoleons," which should have been left untampered with (though, to be fair, tampering with "The Priory School" improved it).