Another of the strongest entries in the long-running Sherlock Holmes Television series from Granada, The Speckled Band finds distraught Helen Stoner (Rosalyn Landor) coming to Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and Dr. Watson (David Burke) in fear for her life since announcing her betrothal. The reason: Helen's sister Julia (Denise Armon) died mysteriously and in apparent terror in her bedroom two years earlier, on the night before her own wedding. The only clue to her death was Julia's strange reference to a "speckled band," uttered among her final words. Threatened to keep out of the case by Helen's fearsome stepfather (John Gill), Holmes and Watson proceed anyway, uncovering (in Watson's words) a "horrible and subtle crime" that is among author Arthur Conan Doyle's most imaginative. This episode has it all: a damsel in distress, a considerable villain, lots of suspense, and a solution worth waiting for. Brett and Burke are at the top of their game as Doyle's dynamic duo; this story was, in fact, Doyle's personal favorite from the Holmes canon. --Tom KeoghMpi Home Video