- Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – The Crooked Man
- wiki: link
Sherlock Saturday takes us back to 221 B Baker Street and the Granada Television’s faithful adaptations of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. “The Crooked Man” is an interesting episode for a couple of reasons. The entire episode, except for the epilogue, take place outside of Baker Street. Also, it becomes a case in search of murder that reveals that no murder actually occurred. Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and Watson (David Burke) are hired to look into the death of Colonel James Barclay (Denys Hawthorne) whose body was discovered along with that of his uncurious wife Nancy (Lisa Daniely) in a locked room after an argument.
Most of the episode involves Holmes piecing together the events of the night, and the preceding day which leads him to find something unusual about a meeting the woman had with a hunched over man (Norman Jones) in the hours before her husband’s death which shook the woman to her core. It is the thread the detective then pulls, unweaving a 30 year-old murder plot, treachery, and tragedy eventually all coming out that night. The truth about that night, and the events which precipitated it so long ago, is revealed through a series of extended flashbacks narrated by the crooked man who gives the story its title.
While he does quite the work to put the events of the night into focus and eventually find the crooked man, the true solution of the crimes do not come from the famous detective’s deductions but instead from the once proud soldier’s retelling of his story. Holmes famous line of “Elementary” from the story does appear in the episode, although the writers play with the events to allow Watson, rather than Holmes, to utter the line in relation to his (albeit relatively simple) deduction of Holmes’ recent actions.
