cimorene

So, continuing to watch and screencap my Granada Holmes episodes today! Because the box sets are packaged differently in North America and in northern Europe, I thought I had seen all the episodes in the Granada Sherlock Holmes "Movie Box", but I had not.

"The Master Blackmailer" is an extended 100ish-minute version of the Return short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton". There are a lot of Holmes/Watson stories out there which deal with blackmail, because the blackmailer, that vile creature, is particularly dangerous in the context of Victorian homosexuality - since it was still illegal.

This episode, however, is remarkable. To think it should have been one of my favorites all along, but I didn't even know it! This is not as adorable as "The Six Napoleons", nor as romantic as "The Devil's Foot", but it is one of the most intensely established-relationshippy episodes, I think, and has lots of really funny parts - besides which it adds context to the whole thing where Holmes flirts with Milverton's housemaid for information, and that was badly needed. Brett's Holmes feels badly about it, but it's also quite clear that his rival for her affections is ready and more than willing to step in. Besides which, the maid is saucy and rather charming, and Holmes's scenes with her are hilarious. It also adds homosexuality explicitly, which I think is good on the whole, even though the gay couple turns out Evil and Dead (respectively). But yay for the drag show!