The story wasn't Conan Doyle's best in the first place, and this episode The Creeping Man ranks around the lower middle of the list for ranking the episodes of the Sherlock Holmes Granada series from best to worst. The story is ridiculous and felt rather rushed in the adaptation, and while I did like some of the playful tone of the script some of it did feel overdone with the comedy, almost in a farcial way. On the other hand, the episode is beautifully filmed and made, the music is hauntingly beautiful as always, the beginning is quietly intense contrasting to the thunderously shocking ending and the acting from Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke while having been better is suitably commanding. The supporting cast are solid, but nobody really stands out. All in all, reasonably enjoyable but not one of the best, still better than Last Vampyre and Eligible Bachelor as far as the Casebook episodes go. 7/10 Bethany Cox
13 Reviews
Great Galloping Gonads!
trimmerb123429 July 2010
This episode starts very quietly - a young woman thinks she sees a shadow of something outside her window in the middle of the night, but her room is on the second floor 20 or more feet from the ground. The obvious explanation is that it was a dream. But the young woman's fiancé believes her story yet it seems too impossible to report to the police - he contacts Holmes. No sooner has he done that than he returns demanding that Holmes drops the case. Holmes' instinct tells him that there is a deep mystery here - but at this stage all there are is just a few unconnected oddities. And so it continues: more oddities without connection yet, if its form cannot yet possibly be imagined, the truth is getting closer. The episode progresses like an express train first heard quietly in the distance but with steadily building loudness. The conclusion is completely thunderous as the truth is finally shockingly revealed. The conclusion of this most extravagant episode in the entire series does not disappoint.
Entertaining, if wonderfully over the top.
Sleepin_Dragon15 August 2016
Having had the out and out brilliance of the Illustrious Client, the Creeping Man sees a vast change, I won't use the words from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the sentiment is there.
It's a beautifully well made episode, as always, with superb production values, glorious designs etc. The acting is excellent, fans of mysteries will recognise the young and dashing Adrian Lukis, a fine actor that has very much done the rounds. Charles May delivers the script he's given with a quality, a great scene where he dismisses Holmes. The best element being Jeremy Brett, who is in Stirling form.
However, not a story I regard with a huge deal of fondness, it has elements of silliness to it, the last quarter of the episode lacks some of the quality associated with the series, and the climax lacks a little reality. Viewers were in for a treat with the next offering, The Master Blackmailer.
Enough quality and entertainment, it just veers somewhat into the realms of fantasy. 7/10
It's a beautifully well made episode, as always, with superb production values, glorious designs etc. The acting is excellent, fans of mysteries will recognise the young and dashing Adrian Lukis, a fine actor that has very much done the rounds. Charles May delivers the script he's given with a quality, a great scene where he dismisses Holmes. The best element being Jeremy Brett, who is in Stirling form.
However, not a story I regard with a huge deal of fondness, it has elements of silliness to it, the last quarter of the episode lacks some of the quality associated with the series, and the climax lacks a little reality. Viewers were in for a treat with the next offering, The Master Blackmailer.
Enough quality and entertainment, it just veers somewhat into the realms of fantasy. 7/10
One of the more fantastical episodes of Sherlock Holmes
grantss31 December 2022
After his fiancée, Edith Presbury, sees an intruder outside her 2nd floor bedroom in the middle of the night, Jack Bennett seeks the services of Sherlock Holmes. When Holmes and Watson arrive at the Presbury house, they are confronted and evicted by Ms Presbury's father (who is also Mr Bennett's employer), the famous natural scientist Professor Presbury.
An unusual episode of Sherlock Holmes, especially as regards the background and revelation. While quite fantastical, some of the mystery of the 2nd floor intruder is revealed in the opening scene. Fortunately this doesn't completely explain the goings-on at the Presbury house so there is still quite a fair bit of mystery to solve.
The left-field nature of the conclusion does feel more like sci fi than a detective drama in the end, making for a clumsy, contrived sort of feel to proceedings. Nevertheless it's interesting enough.
An unusual episode of Sherlock Holmes, especially as regards the background and revelation. While quite fantastical, some of the mystery of the 2nd floor intruder is revealed in the opening scene. Fortunately this doesn't completely explain the goings-on at the Presbury house so there is still quite a fair bit of mystery to solve.
The left-field nature of the conclusion does feel more like sci fi than a detective drama in the end, making for a clumsy, contrived sort of feel to proceedings. Nevertheless it's interesting enough.
Juiced Up
tedg17 March 2007
This is an extraordinarily good Holmes. And it is so, independent of Brett's jumpy characterization which sometimes works.
Usually these are dreadful, but the practice of passing them around to different adapters and directors means you will sometimes hit a gem. Oddly, this is packaged on a DVD with one of the all-time worst episodes.
What makes this good is the way the director performs two tricks. One is that he settles on objects. He examines them, even though they may seem ordinary. Its roughly what Holmes is described as doing. The second trick he pulls is misdirection. The story itself is rather simple and it itself is a matter of unintentional misdirection.
These two are combined in the an opening scene which begins with a slow pan around the room of a man of science. This is obviously Holmes' room, we think, all the way up to and even after the first few moments of seeing some unfamiliar characters. Then we see a stuffed monkey and get some lines that tell us this is the study of a zoologist, a biologist who studies primates.
This misdirection is done again in the beginning. We see a kidnapped gorilla and then we see a point of view shot with gorilla panting and a woman sees the outline of a gorilla on her window ledge. We obviously think these are the same. No no. Tut tut.
As a detective story, its weak; it was in the original. But it is one of the Holmes stories where Doyle dealt with matters of science.
The whole business of the invention of Holmes was the sudden appearance of rational science in the affairs of men. The belief was that if Darwin could bring science to evolution, a similar science could be brought to the governance of thought and behavior. Holmes was the extension of Darwin in London thought, a superscientist. No intuition, no guessing, just pure rational deduction.
This story is on the extreme end of that fantasy of science. I won't give it away, but lets say just that its rather brilliant in superimposing the deepest science on the needs of libido.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Usually these are dreadful, but the practice of passing them around to different adapters and directors means you will sometimes hit a gem. Oddly, this is packaged on a DVD with one of the all-time worst episodes.
What makes this good is the way the director performs two tricks. One is that he settles on objects. He examines them, even though they may seem ordinary. Its roughly what Holmes is described as doing. The second trick he pulls is misdirection. The story itself is rather simple and it itself is a matter of unintentional misdirection.
These two are combined in the an opening scene which begins with a slow pan around the room of a man of science. This is obviously Holmes' room, we think, all the way up to and even after the first few moments of seeing some unfamiliar characters. Then we see a stuffed monkey and get some lines that tell us this is the study of a zoologist, a biologist who studies primates.
This misdirection is done again in the beginning. We see a kidnapped gorilla and then we see a point of view shot with gorilla panting and a woman sees the outline of a gorilla on her window ledge. We obviously think these are the same. No no. Tut tut.
As a detective story, its weak; it was in the original. But it is one of the Holmes stories where Doyle dealt with matters of science.
The whole business of the invention of Holmes was the sudden appearance of rational science in the affairs of men. The belief was that if Darwin could bring science to evolution, a similar science could be brought to the governance of thought and behavior. Holmes was the extension of Darwin in London thought, a superscientist. No intuition, no guessing, just pure rational deduction.
This story is on the extreme end of that fantasy of science. I won't give it away, but lets say just that its rather brilliant in superimposing the deepest science on the needs of libido.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Monkey see, monkey do
vitoscotti14 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
If you have a sense of humor, you'll love this episode. If you don't, you'll hate it All Brit detective show's plots are out there. This is just a little more out there. Sci-fi and Holmes? Amazing combination! The revelation scene must of been tough to complete with everybody laughing. Brett had to love this episode's courage. Sir ACD pushing the envelope as far as ever in this series. All the clues. The title of course again, dog attacks, stolen primates, old professor's young babe. I'm thinking some experiments with primates? Then kaboom. It's revealed. This episode got a lot of bad reviews here. Hopefully they don't persuade viewers to skip this gem.
Modern Genetics Aside.....
Hitchcoc15 February 2014
The makers of these Granada episodes dedicated themselves to producing the entire Holmes canon. Unfortunately, some of the stories are not very good, and the wonderful Jeremy Brett didn't survive to the end. When the series aired on Masterpiece Mystery, it was introduced by Vincent Price. His presentation at the time pointed out that we were in for some real suspension of disbelief if we were going to enjoy the episode. Conan Doyle was basically a scientist, but this is really more science fiction than detective work. Because I know that early fiction writers often made assumptions that proved medically unsound (the blood transfusions in Stoker's Dracula, for example), I can still watch and enjoy. The conclusion floored me. I had not read this story and so I wasn't prepared. It is both startling and really laughable. Jeremy Brett at one point delivers one of those awful pronouncements, more indicative of Basil Rathbone. Brett had pretty much let the pontificating go. Far from the best, but fun nevertheless.
The Evolution of Sherlock Holmes
Ian_Jules15 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The "monkey episode" of Sherlock Holmes works succeeds beyond what it should, and is far better than you'd think in view of the source material. Although I admire the Holmes character and many of Doyle's stories, this one was (and remains) one of his most far-fetched and, from the viewpoint of today's reader, would be simply ridiculous.
As such, I applaud Granada's bold decision to tackle this story. Adapter Robin Chapman carries over the essence (such as it is) of Doyle's story, but by allowing himself (and being allowed by Granada) a moderate degree of creative freedom, he gives the story a big shot in the arm. Another surprise asset is Charles Kay as Professor Presbury. Kay takes what could have been an absolutely risible character and turns in one of the most engaging, sincere performances of the entire series. The viewer may actually feel a little measure of sympathy for Kay's character, even as his actions are (in the context of the story's internal logic) dangerous and misguided.
Added by Chapman is a subplot built around a series of primate thefts discovered at various London zoos. This novel yet logical expansion of the original gives Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) another welcome appearance, and provides Watson a bit of footwork when he's dispatched to locate the store from which Presbury is purchasing his illicit goods. Although the original premise of the story (Presbury's daughter sees an intruder at her window when no human could have climbed to her second floor room) is outlandish enough to be engaging, the monkey robbers add much adventure and tension to the goings on, culminating in an exciting and funny encounter when Holmes catches the criminals at work and places them in a cage with one of their abductees to await the police.
The two ruffians in question, Wilcox and Jenkins, are played by Steve Swinscoe and Peter Guinness respectively. Oddly, their characters are reversed in the credits: Wilcox is clearly the prominently-mustached figure played by Swinscoe, but the role is credited to Guinness and vice versa. No matter: both play a great scene threatening Hardwicke's Watson at knife point outside the store, ensuring that they deserve their inevitable defeat by Holmes and Watson. Guinness can also be scene as an unfriendly priest in the Cadfael episode "The Raven at the Foregate", and makes an excellent heavy.
In total, "The Creeping Man" is full with energy and panache, succeeding largely because both adapter and director embrace and run with the outrageousness of the story, never once balking or trying to artificially water it down but meeting it with the unfettered style needed to engage the viewer.
The director is Tim Sullivan, and oddly his other episodes ("The Illustrious Client", "The Last Vampyre") are staid, undistinguished if not labored. It seems that a lively adaptation can make quite the difference: Chapman, less adventurous with "The Illustrious Client", finds his groove here, adding to and reshaping the narrative where helpful while allowing the wackiness of the original to breathe to its fullest possible extent. Apparently responding to this mojo, Sullivan's direction is attentive yet quick, marked by clever camera work and editing that knows when (and where) to linger and when to show some urgency. In particular, more camera movement (gradual pans and surprising handheld shaky shots) than seen in "The Illustrious Client" pays off, energizing the narrative in ways the story's undeniable ludicrous qualities.
Defying the odds, this emerges as one of my favorite Casebook episodes alongside "The Problem of Thor Bridge", which succeeds by playing up the more expected detective elements, pairing a powerful human story with clever plotting. This one prevails through a powerful synergy of screenwriting and direction and via sheer audacity of willfully embracing the ridiculous with style
As such, I applaud Granada's bold decision to tackle this story. Adapter Robin Chapman carries over the essence (such as it is) of Doyle's story, but by allowing himself (and being allowed by Granada) a moderate degree of creative freedom, he gives the story a big shot in the arm. Another surprise asset is Charles Kay as Professor Presbury. Kay takes what could have been an absolutely risible character and turns in one of the most engaging, sincere performances of the entire series. The viewer may actually feel a little measure of sympathy for Kay's character, even as his actions are (in the context of the story's internal logic) dangerous and misguided.
Added by Chapman is a subplot built around a series of primate thefts discovered at various London zoos. This novel yet logical expansion of the original gives Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) another welcome appearance, and provides Watson a bit of footwork when he's dispatched to locate the store from which Presbury is purchasing his illicit goods. Although the original premise of the story (Presbury's daughter sees an intruder at her window when no human could have climbed to her second floor room) is outlandish enough to be engaging, the monkey robbers add much adventure and tension to the goings on, culminating in an exciting and funny encounter when Holmes catches the criminals at work and places them in a cage with one of their abductees to await the police.
The two ruffians in question, Wilcox and Jenkins, are played by Steve Swinscoe and Peter Guinness respectively. Oddly, their characters are reversed in the credits: Wilcox is clearly the prominently-mustached figure played by Swinscoe, but the role is credited to Guinness and vice versa. No matter: both play a great scene threatening Hardwicke's Watson at knife point outside the store, ensuring that they deserve their inevitable defeat by Holmes and Watson. Guinness can also be scene as an unfriendly priest in the Cadfael episode "The Raven at the Foregate", and makes an excellent heavy.
In total, "The Creeping Man" is full with energy and panache, succeeding largely because both adapter and director embrace and run with the outrageousness of the story, never once balking or trying to artificially water it down but meeting it with the unfettered style needed to engage the viewer.
The director is Tim Sullivan, and oddly his other episodes ("The Illustrious Client", "The Last Vampyre") are staid, undistinguished if not labored. It seems that a lively adaptation can make quite the difference: Chapman, less adventurous with "The Illustrious Client", finds his groove here, adding to and reshaping the narrative where helpful while allowing the wackiness of the original to breathe to its fullest possible extent. Apparently responding to this mojo, Sullivan's direction is attentive yet quick, marked by clever camera work and editing that knows when (and where) to linger and when to show some urgency. In particular, more camera movement (gradual pans and surprising handheld shaky shots) than seen in "The Illustrious Client" pays off, energizing the narrative in ways the story's undeniable ludicrous qualities.
Defying the odds, this emerges as one of my favorite Casebook episodes alongside "The Problem of Thor Bridge", which succeeds by playing up the more expected detective elements, pairing a powerful human story with clever plotting. This one prevails through a powerful synergy of screenwriting and direction and via sheer audacity of willfully embracing the ridiculous with style
An utterly ridiculous story idea...but it's still enjoyable because the production is so excellent.
planktonrules19 September 2023
"The Creeping Man" is among the very worst episodes of the Sherlock Holmes stories starring Jeremy Brett. The fact that I still give it a 7 is a testament to the extremely high quality of the production.
A young woman swears that she saw someone outside her second story window. Oddly, her father is adamant that she saw nothing and her weasel of a boyfriend goes along with Daddy, saying she must have dreamed she saw someone. However, despite their not taking her seriously, Holmes certainly does.
When Holmes goes to the home to investigate, he's shocked by her father's reaction when he returns home. He is nasty, hostile and threatening...which tells you (and Holmes) that something IS happening despite the protestations. What's happening here and why has their been a disappearance of various apes from the zoo? And, no, it is NOT what you'd suspect!
Although I read this story long, long ago, I'd forgotten the conclusion to the mystery...and I must say it's utterly ridiculous! Still, the story is so well made that it's still worth seeing...but be forewarned, the ending is just silly!
A young woman swears that she saw someone outside her second story window. Oddly, her father is adamant that she saw nothing and her weasel of a boyfriend goes along with Daddy, saying she must have dreamed she saw someone. However, despite their not taking her seriously, Holmes certainly does.
When Holmes goes to the home to investigate, he's shocked by her father's reaction when he returns home. He is nasty, hostile and threatening...which tells you (and Holmes) that something IS happening despite the protestations. What's happening here and why has their been a disappearance of various apes from the zoo? And, no, it is NOT what you'd suspect!
Although I read this story long, long ago, I'd forgotten the conclusion to the mystery...and I must say it's utterly ridiculous! Still, the story is so well made that it's still worth seeing...but be forewarned, the ending is just silly!
Bed Time For Bonzo.
rmax3048231 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
We know for certain that Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle had been reading the detective stories of Edgar Allan Poe before he began the Sherlock Holmes series. He not only stole certain inferential tricks from Auguste Dupin, sometimes he ripped off whole apothegms: "Whenever you eliminate all the impossibles, whatever remains......" Here, I wonder if Conan-Doyle could have gotten into Robert Louis Stevenson too, "The Strange Case of Doctor Jeykll and Mister Hyde" having been published by his fellow Scotsman some forty years earlier.
"The Creeping Man" requires more than just a willing suspension of disbelief. You must take your disbelief and perform a frontal lobotomy with a crude garden tool. Holmes is called into a case in which some kind of animal has been crawling about a scientist's rural estate and disturbing his daughter, his own fiancée, and his Irish wolfhound, Sam. These intrusions into the ground happen shortly after the theft of male primates from one or another of the local zoos. The scientist is engaged to a younger woman. The woman is rethinking the arrangement because, as she tells the biologist, "You are too old." The scientist's solution is as simple as it is impossible. You have gorillas and chimps kidnapped -- or is it "stolen"? -- take extracts from their glands, and shoot yourself up to see what happens.
Holmes' climactic pronouncement: "When a man tries to rise above his nature, he often falls far below it." And here I begin to wonder if Conan-Doyle, who published this story in 1927, has been dabbling in Sigmund Freud. Or maybe he's taken a refresher course and refamiliarized himself with the concept of "hubris."
It is, as I say, completely implausible. Holmes is not much more than an investigator in a horror movie. Yet, given that it's one of the weaker stories in the canon -- along with "The Mazarin Stone" and the last few stories narrated by Holmes himself -- it's delightfully told. The performances are as good as they ever were. Jeremy Brett by this time was feeling and showing the effects of congestive heart failure and is not as lean as in the earlier seasons, but the change in his appearance hasn't put a crimp into his acting.
"The Creeping Man" requires more than just a willing suspension of disbelief. You must take your disbelief and perform a frontal lobotomy with a crude garden tool. Holmes is called into a case in which some kind of animal has been crawling about a scientist's rural estate and disturbing his daughter, his own fiancée, and his Irish wolfhound, Sam. These intrusions into the ground happen shortly after the theft of male primates from one or another of the local zoos. The scientist is engaged to a younger woman. The woman is rethinking the arrangement because, as she tells the biologist, "You are too old." The scientist's solution is as simple as it is impossible. You have gorillas and chimps kidnapped -- or is it "stolen"? -- take extracts from their glands, and shoot yourself up to see what happens.
Holmes' climactic pronouncement: "When a man tries to rise above his nature, he often falls far below it." And here I begin to wonder if Conan-Doyle, who published this story in 1927, has been dabbling in Sigmund Freud. Or maybe he's taken a refresher course and refamiliarized himself with the concept of "hubris."
It is, as I say, completely implausible. Holmes is not much more than an investigator in a horror movie. Yet, given that it's one of the weaker stories in the canon -- along with "The Mazarin Stone" and the last few stories narrated by Holmes himself -- it's delightfully told. The performances are as good as they ever were. Jeremy Brett by this time was feeling and showing the effects of congestive heart failure and is not as lean as in the earlier seasons, but the change in his appearance hasn't put a crimp into his acting.
Worst episode I've seen
chesser-217 October 2009
Jeremey Brett is fantastic as always, but the plot is beyond ridiculous. I won't give it away, but the conclusion had me laughing out loud due to its implausibility. The direction almost seemed tongue-in-cheek to me at times--especially the shots of an obviously fake grunting gorilla. There's a few token nods to Darwin thrown around, and the sets show lots of stuffed monkeys and skeletons, but the theme of man vs. beast is not treated seriously. I have to admit, this is one of Doyle's very weakest stories, so one can't expect too, but even still, the climax and denouement are rushed, melodramatic, and don't even begin to provide any kind of teleological explanation for what we saw. Overall, it's an embarrassment to waste Jeremy Brett's talents on such a ludicrous storyline.
The Creeping Man
Prismark105 May 2019
Edith Presbury thinks she has seen something outside her bedroom late at night. Her father Professor Presbury is a celebrated but stern scientist.
Edith's fiance Jack is also the Professor's assistant who reluctantly calls on Sherlock Holmes.
Professor Presbury is not pleased to see the great detective snooping around his house.
The key seems to be that the Professor is also engaged to a much younger woman and the theft of primates by some louts.
No monkeying around, this is a weak story with a silly ending. To see poor Charles Kay prancing about was laughable. Oh if only they had invented those little blue pills a hundred years earlier!
Edith's fiance Jack is also the Professor's assistant who reluctantly calls on Sherlock Holmes.
Professor Presbury is not pleased to see the great detective snooping around his house.
The key seems to be that the Professor is also engaged to a much younger woman and the theft of primates by some louts.
No monkeying around, this is a weak story with a silly ending. To see poor Charles Kay prancing about was laughable. Oh if only they had invented those little blue pills a hundred years earlier!
Frightfully silly, as the Brits might say
El Cine23 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
(spoilers)
Silly, yes...But then, Doyle's story had an over-the-top solution ("solution" in more ways than one!), too, more akin to a Hammer horror film than a Holmes mystery. The Granada/Jeremy Brett series never got around to filming all of the Holmes stories, and one wonders why they didn't shunt "The Creeping Man" towards the end of the to-do list.
It would probably be a challenge for anyone to adapt this story for TV, but the filmmakers seem to make things worse for themselves. Any of the series' stylishness and cool factor go out the window from the beginning, as the episode starts with a guy in a gorilla suit. He returns later on to snarl at some crooks Holmes and Watson cruelly throw into the gorilla cage. The heroes could have put them at ease by telling them, "Don't worry, it's just a stunt man in a Disney movie costume."
At the zany climax, we go from the Disney Channel to Comedy Central as we finally see who's responsible for the prowling at the Presbury house. I doubt that was actually Charles Kay swinging high up on the tree, but I wonder if he provided the monkey cackling. It figures that Kay went on to guest star in a Jonathan Creek episode called "The House of Monkeys"!
The final scene keeps the groans piling on as Holmes operates a music box that actually plays the TV series theme song; Holmes smiles at the camera before merrily conducting with his finger! The music box has a rather racist mechanical figure on it, too: a Middle Eastern man with simian features (to tie into the episode's monkey theme).
But maybe the filmmakers were deliberately going for humor. That would explain Holmes's dainty, even campy manner here and there; it's hard to think Brett was taking things seriously. Actually, I suspect that Brett, a great actor as well as an LGBT actor, was making some good-spirited fun of Holmes' renowned gay undertones and camp. Besides the above-mentioned finger conducting, only Brett can pull off a "Yeeees?" like that when he sits down at Professor Presbury's desk, and only an earringed Brett can get away with calling the series a "great pink success" on the DVD extras.
For more general humor, you'll hoot at Holmes extinguishing a cigarette in his egg at breakfast and offering his theory to an unexcited Watson about how dogs reflect the mood of their households, saying lines like "snarling people have snarling dogs" with an inflection that suggests a more recent comedy routine than the Victorian era.
Of course there's also Holmes's ridiculous sermon at the conclusion about the folly of trying to rise above nature and veer off "the straight road of destiny" (admittedly taken from Doyle's text). Even Lestrade and Watson don't buy it. And how about the scene where Miss Morphy breaks off her engagement with Presbury by doing little more than simply exclaiming, "You're too old!" Really diplomatic of you, Miss Morphy.
To take the comedy even further, maybe they could've changed Jack Bennett's name to Jack Benny. At least the viewers of my DVD version can browse the chapter titles and see how whoever wrote them got carried away with a bunch of primate/animal jokes. The titles actually include "Monkey Business," "Animal House," and "Bedtime for Bonzo"!
Silly, yes...But then, Doyle's story had an over-the-top solution ("solution" in more ways than one!), too, more akin to a Hammer horror film than a Holmes mystery. The Granada/Jeremy Brett series never got around to filming all of the Holmes stories, and one wonders why they didn't shunt "The Creeping Man" towards the end of the to-do list.
It would probably be a challenge for anyone to adapt this story for TV, but the filmmakers seem to make things worse for themselves. Any of the series' stylishness and cool factor go out the window from the beginning, as the episode starts with a guy in a gorilla suit. He returns later on to snarl at some crooks Holmes and Watson cruelly throw into the gorilla cage. The heroes could have put them at ease by telling them, "Don't worry, it's just a stunt man in a Disney movie costume."
At the zany climax, we go from the Disney Channel to Comedy Central as we finally see who's responsible for the prowling at the Presbury house. I doubt that was actually Charles Kay swinging high up on the tree, but I wonder if he provided the monkey cackling. It figures that Kay went on to guest star in a Jonathan Creek episode called "The House of Monkeys"!
The final scene keeps the groans piling on as Holmes operates a music box that actually plays the TV series theme song; Holmes smiles at the camera before merrily conducting with his finger! The music box has a rather racist mechanical figure on it, too: a Middle Eastern man with simian features (to tie into the episode's monkey theme).
But maybe the filmmakers were deliberately going for humor. That would explain Holmes's dainty, even campy manner here and there; it's hard to think Brett was taking things seriously. Actually, I suspect that Brett, a great actor as well as an LGBT actor, was making some good-spirited fun of Holmes' renowned gay undertones and camp. Besides the above-mentioned finger conducting, only Brett can pull off a "Yeeees?" like that when he sits down at Professor Presbury's desk, and only an earringed Brett can get away with calling the series a "great pink success" on the DVD extras.
For more general humor, you'll hoot at Holmes extinguishing a cigarette in his egg at breakfast and offering his theory to an unexcited Watson about how dogs reflect the mood of their households, saying lines like "snarling people have snarling dogs" with an inflection that suggests a more recent comedy routine than the Victorian era.
Of course there's also Holmes's ridiculous sermon at the conclusion about the folly of trying to rise above nature and veer off "the straight road of destiny" (admittedly taken from Doyle's text). Even Lestrade and Watson don't buy it. And how about the scene where Miss Morphy breaks off her engagement with Presbury by doing little more than simply exclaiming, "You're too old!" Really diplomatic of you, Miss Morphy.
To take the comedy even further, maybe they could've changed Jack Bennett's name to Jack Benny. At least the viewers of my DVD version can browse the chapter titles and see how whoever wrote them got carried away with a bunch of primate/animal jokes. The titles actually include "Monkey Business," "Animal House," and "Bedtime for Bonzo"!
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