OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DOCTOR WATSON

From 1979-1980, here are four episodes of a rare Sherlock Holmes television show, starring Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson.  This was a Polish-British production as you can tell by the credits.  Writer Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange) served as script consultant .

"A Motive for Murder" was directed by Freddie Francis and written by Harold Jack Bloom and Sheldon Reynolds.  Reynolds, the producer of this series was also responsible for 39 episodes of a previous Sherlock Holmes show, starring Ronald Howard.  (A number of the Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson episodes were remakes of the earlier series.)  In this episode Watson meets Holmes for the first time.  Look for Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes in a small role.

According to the link, "The Baker Street Nursemaids" was the second episode in the series but IMDb lists it as episode 11, so perhaps the episodes were shown out of order.  A crying baby is left in a basket at Holmes' doorstep and the game is afoot.  Directed by Val Guest and written by Joseph Victor, this episode begins with a crying baby left in a basket at Holmes' doorstep -- and the game's afoot!  This one has a mostly Polish cast.  This was a remake of an episode of the same name from the earlier Sherlock Holmes series starring Ronald Howard.

In "The Perfect Crime" (either the third or the fifth in the series, take your pick), a daring jewel thief has targeted London and has even stolen jewels from the Queen Elizabeth Museum.  Holmes is relulnctant to take on the case, but why?  Directed by Roy Stephens from a script by Joe Morheim.  This was a remake of "The Neurotic Detective," a 1955 Holmes episode starring Ronald Howard.

The last episode of the four is fittingly called "The Final Curtain," another one directed by Val Guest.  Again Joe Morheim provided the script.  (Again, this is either the fourth episode or the fifteenth, depending on who want to listen to.)  With hours to go before his execution, a death row inmate asks Holmes to find the real killer of his wife.  This was a remake of the 1955 episode "The Impromptu Performance" from the Ronald Howard Holmes series.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson ran for one season only for a total of twenty-four episodes, each about twenty-five minutes in length.

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veuSvSbmZjs&t=1452s