Review of The Hound of the Baskervilles

I am glad to find that I am not alone in my disappointment with this most famous of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Most people have heard of this Holmes story if they know of no others.

Virtually every other episode in the two series is first-rate in acting, script, drama and production values and I don't know of any critic who seriously disputes that Jeremy Brett is the definitive screen Sherlock Holmes but something falls terribly flat with this episode. I just felt I had to mark down the episode because I feel strongly it should not have come to this but for whatever reason did.

I can't quite put my finger on it but would venture that either through slack direction, mediocre script or lack of atmosphere, and the 'Baskerville hound' sequences themselves are I consider but poorly dramatised, the whole episode just falls quite flat and limp.

This was my disappointed reaction when I first saw it first screened all those years ago and the intervening years have not changed my opinion.

I watch it now out of a sense of duty when I see the series revived on cable but was frankly glad when the two and half hours was over.