A different kind of mystery from this series; a murder that turns out to be anything but. It's very mysterious, as it should be, and contains a good variety of ingredients; as a sucker for the supernatural, I particularly enjoyed the voodoo aspects of the story. Also great to see Esmond Knight still going strong into the 1970s.
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV Series)
The Affair of the Tortoise (1971)
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The Affair of the Tortoise
Prismark1027 January 2020
The Affair of the Tortoise is probably the best of the first series of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
Martin Hewitt (Peter Barkworth) returns as the private detective. He has been hired by a firm of solicitors to trace a governess Miss Chapman and inform her that she has been left a fortune from a long lost relative.
The house she is staying in is very noisy because of the uproar caused by one rowdy drunk resident, Rameau who is from Haiti. He wears a uniform full of medals. He even kills the pet tortoise of another resident, Goujon while playing a prank on him.
When the bloodied body of Rameau is found, Goujon becomes a suspect after all he was seen chasing Rameau with a hatchet. Then the body of Rameau disappears.
Miss Chapman hires Hewitt to save Goujon.
There is a lot going on in this episode. A seedy landlord, nosy neighbours, voodoo and terror in Haiti. In part I was reminded a little of the Sherlock Holmes story, Wisteria Lodge.
Hewitt certainly leaves an impression. Largely helps by Peter Barkworth's performance although his lower class accent is a bit iffy. He does a lot of legwork and actual investigating leaving Inspector Nettings for dust.
This could easily be seen as a Sherlock Holmes type story.
Martin Hewitt (Peter Barkworth) returns as the private detective. He has been hired by a firm of solicitors to trace a governess Miss Chapman and inform her that she has been left a fortune from a long lost relative.
The house she is staying in is very noisy because of the uproar caused by one rowdy drunk resident, Rameau who is from Haiti. He wears a uniform full of medals. He even kills the pet tortoise of another resident, Goujon while playing a prank on him.
When the bloodied body of Rameau is found, Goujon becomes a suspect after all he was seen chasing Rameau with a hatchet. Then the body of Rameau disappears.
Miss Chapman hires Hewitt to save Goujon.
There is a lot going on in this episode. A seedy landlord, nosy neighbours, voodoo and terror in Haiti. In part I was reminded a little of the Sherlock Holmes story, Wisteria Lodge.
Hewitt certainly leaves an impression. Largely helps by Peter Barkworth's performance although his lower class accent is a bit iffy. He does a lot of legwork and actual investigating leaving Inspector Nettings for dust.
This could easily be seen as a Sherlock Holmes type story.
Flawed, but the best story so far this series.
Sleepin_Dragon10 January 2023
A Haitian government official is killed inside a boarding house, on the case is Private Investigator Martin Hewitt, clues include a dead tortoise and a voodoo doll.
This has been the first episode that I've felt very mixed about, those that have gone before, I've either liked or disliked, this one is harder to review.
So it's a mix of really good, and really bad, on the debit side, I couldn't understand what was going on in that house, some of it looked grand, some of it looked like a run down boarding house, it made no sense. Some of the acting was very questionable, I thought Goujon and Rameau were like characters from a Carry on film.
On the plus side, I loved the voodoo angle, the story itself is one of the best ones. The strongest element though, Hewitt, the best of The Detectives by a country mile, all thanks to the excellent Peter Barkworth, he even looks the part, great performance from him.
The good outweighed the bad here, if this had been readapted I could have easily seen Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes investigating this case.
I'll score it seven instead of six, based on Barkworth's excellent performance.
7/10.
This has been the first episode that I've felt very mixed about, those that have gone before, I've either liked or disliked, this one is harder to review.
So it's a mix of really good, and really bad, on the debit side, I couldn't understand what was going on in that house, some of it looked grand, some of it looked like a run down boarding house, it made no sense. Some of the acting was very questionable, I thought Goujon and Rameau were like characters from a Carry on film.
On the plus side, I loved the voodoo angle, the story itself is one of the best ones. The strongest element though, Hewitt, the best of The Detectives by a country mile, all thanks to the excellent Peter Barkworth, he even looks the part, great performance from him.
The good outweighed the bad here, if this had been readapted I could have easily seen Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes investigating this case.
I'll score it seven instead of six, based on Barkworth's excellent performance.
7/10.
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