I guess the powers that be behind the Granada Holmes series didn't have enough of a story to tie up two hours when adapting the Sussex Vampire from the original canon. It sort of pulls the characters from the story and some of the basic plot, but beyond that, it is an entirely new plot. It's also exceedingly dumb. At least it banks on a group of characters who live by all sorts of foolish bits of knowledge, it drags Peru into the mix again, and proves that Holmes still rejects the supernatural as an explanation for murderous intent. I could see that the the series was coming to an end when the producers decided Conan-Doyle just wasn't up to the task.

As a long-standing fan of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories and four novelettes--I have read them all many times--I found nearly all of the video adaptations starring Jeremy Brett to be outstanding, with just a few only very good and a couple of them below that. If DVDs wore out the way VHS tapes did, mine would be ready for the fire that consumed the poor Stockton's worldly possessions at the hands of the villagers following his death in "The Last Vampyre." What a sorry production--not from any technical standpoint, given that everything else was its usual superb self--but because of the meat-axe butchering of a wonderful story, hacked and bludgeoned beyond recognition to fill two hours.

When someone is as good as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was at this particular thing--no one ever was better at detective fiction, and many would say he was unequaled--it is an unforgivable offense to go beyond the reasonable necessities of converting a written work to a visual work. This exceeded those bounds by orders of magnitude and is especially offensive in dropping Holmes into supernatural ridiculousness that anyone familiar with him knows to be completely alien to the character.

They should have changed the characters slightly, added a few pratfalls and some trick bubblegum, and called the movie "Pee-Wee's Great-Grandfather's Big Adventure."

It's fair to say this season of feature length episodes was a little hit and miss, after reading the novel I always wondered how The Sussex Vampyre would translate into television. A unique story from the pen of Conan Doyle, so different in many ways, fair to say they altered the original text greatly, for dramatic effect I can only assume. The opening is fantastic, has the feel of a movie about it, and the production values are excellent as always. Maybe a story that's a little far fetched for some mystery fans, but a nice drama for Halloween. There is a quality to it, that somehow wasn't in the next offering 'The Eligible Bachelor.'

Brett and Hardwicke are fantastic as usual, at total ease with each other. In deed you actually get to see just how good a Doctor Hardwicke made as Watson. Maurice Denham, Juliet Aubrey and Keith Barron are all great, but it's Roy Marsden that steals the show, one of the best villainous actors I can think of, he's great, and that hair!!

Far from the best, but I disagree with the mainly negative reviews, it is well worth a look, they went for something a little different, and for the most part they succeeded, even with a little supernatural silliness. 7/10