ho hum,this is the last (i believe) of three episodes that i have found of the Shelock Holmes Adventures featuring the excellent Jeremy Brett & as every minute goes by,i am watching what i consider to be Jeremy Brett's last performance. A lot of screaming,hysterical women in this episode.More than usual.Why can't they just accept that they are wrong & leave it at that?Not worthy of mine or Sherlock Holmes attention. The dream sequence,is it true?If a brain lies numb for a length of time can it see into the future?If drugs played a part as some sort of amplifier for the brain then maybe.Geronimo,who was at one with the land & done a lot of pipe smoking had visions. As the plot unravels before my very eyes i cannot help but be riveted to the spot by Jeremy excellent performance. At the end of the show,where they are sitting in the opera box & one of the ladies thanks Sherlock,the cameras zoom out slowly & credits start to roll.I think was that thanks worthy of the great Sherlock Holmes?Who's presence had so much effect on the outcome of the case.But wait,thinking about it,Sherlock Holmes did not really play much part in concluding the events.He did manage to solve the case but it would have solved itself if Shelock had just stood back. An excellent performance (i say again) by Jeremy Brett,a joy watching Shelock Holmes living & breathing once more.

This feature length episode is - apart from the equally dreadful "The Last Vampyre" - the worst adaption of a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One really wonders what was going on in the producer's mind wasting Jeremy Brett's rapidly diminishing energy and life-span for this crude story, especially after having been so faithful to the spirit of Doyle's works before. The theme of Holmes' dreams depicting exactly the events to come stands in stark contrast to his previously stated belief in rationality, facts and logical deduction. One can't help feeling the scriptwriters took to Holmes' former vice of drug abuse. Sad and unworthy of Jeremy Brett's talents.

Of the three feature length adaptations Granda made of Conan-Doyle's novels (rather than the usual 50 min ones) this was the one that veered the most from the original tale. The original idea of mistaken identity is turned into a surreal gothic horror, with the hero of the original story now a serial murderer and bigamist. Holmes is also turned into a detective with a more tortured soul and what appears to be second sight. The story, however, benefits from this as the original short story was a little bland and boring. Brett rises to the challenge and gives one of his best ever performances, and Simon Callow is suitably suarve and evil as the main protagonist. Generally, a sumptious adaptation, given a 90's polish and reworking!

This dramatization of a short story is stretched past breaking point. Far, far, far too much padding takes place before the story gets started. Even when it does, every scene is dragged out to painful length with no explanatory dialogue so as to make it impossible to comprehend nor actually care for any of the characters. Only Jeremy Brett's usual excellence as Holmes makes this awful mess even slightly worth watching.