Prior to Sherlock, the BBC dabbled with producing Sherlock Holmes back in 2002 and 2004 (one every other year – so only slightly less frequently than Sherlock).  I previously reviewed their 2002 The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart.  Just recently, cable channel “Drama” showed the 2004 The Case of the Silk Stocking starring Rupert Everett and Ian Hart.

In many ways, The Case of the Silk Stocking can be seen as a natural progression from The Hound of the Baskervilles in 2002 to Sherlock in 2010.  In comparison with its 2002 predecessor, The Case of the Silk Stocking eschews a familiar and competent portrayal of Sherlock Holmes (Roxburgh) in favour of an insufferably arrogant and annoyingly dislikeable version (Everett).  We have an ineffectual, weak, non-descript, useless lapdog of a Watson (Ian Hart) who, this time around, has a dislikeable bossy and highly incompatible fiancé/wife.

The Case of the Silk Stocking has little in the way of detection and mystery and instead plays the first hour centred around the thoroughly irritating title character.  After an hour of nonsense padding and little plot, we get eleventh-hour rushed facts thrown in to present us with a suspect together with some highly illogical presumptions on the part of Holmes in order to make the plot a pseudo “mystery”.

Whilst it isn’t contemporary, The Case of the Silk Stocking is slightly modernised for absolutely no coherent purpose whatsoever – apparently so that the story can incorporate phones and the like.

The Case of the Silk Stocking isn’t entirely unwatchable but it does contain too many annoyances to make it enjoyable.  In so many ways it can be seen as the precursor to Sherlock, and it certainly makes you think that Sherlock owes an awful lot to its predecessor here.

The plot, for what little there is, revolves around young women being questionably bound before being killed.  Keeping the “mystery” of the killer until the last half-hour doesn’t really work because they chose to hire a “name” who, back then, was a semi-star and, today, is a very big star.  The perils of stunt casting.

The Case of the Silk Stocking could have been a much better adventure if they’d removed Holmes, Watson, and Watson’s fiancé and instead written Lestrade as a more credible character.  Lestrade here is played by Neil Dudgeon (some years before he would move on to become the second Barnaby in Midsomer Murders).

This is one for the completists only.