| Genre: | Crime Mystery |
| Director: | James Cellan Jones |
| Producer: | Mark Shivas |
| Starring: | Edward Fox Elaine Taylor Christopher Cazenove |
| Network: | BBC |
| Runtime: | 70 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Doctor Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery is a 1974 British made-for-television mystery film directed by James Cellan Jones and starring Edward Fox as Doctor Watson.[1]
While Sherlock Holmes is away on holiday, Watson journeys to Darkwater Hall in the Cotswolds to protect a woman's husband from harm.
Filmed at Stow-on-the-Wold,[2] Watson was portrayed as competent and intelligent[2] as opposed to the popular idea of a bumbling character as Nigel Bruce portrayed him in an earlier series of fourteen films. He is also portrayed as a virile womanizer as the character claims to be in The Sign of the Four.[1] [3]
The film references A Study in Scarlet, "The Adventure of Black Peter", "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".[4] Fox would go on to play the character of Alistair Ross in another Sherlock Holmes pastiche, The Crucifer of Blood.[4]
According to author Kingsley Amis, "the reviews were excellent."[2] Alan Barnes calls the film "part-deconstruction, part-parody of Doyle" that "ends up resembling a long drawn-out shaggy dog story."[4]
. Matthew Bunson . Encyclopedia Sherlockiana . 1997 . . 67 . 0-02-861679-0.
. Peter Haining (author) . The Television Sherlock Holmes . 1994 . Virgin Books . 72 . 0-86369-793-3.
. Alan Barnes (writer) . Sherlock Holmes on Screen . 2011 . Titan Books. 54–56 . 9780857687760.