User Reviews

Nothing very interesting in another talky episode. A lot of chit chat about industrial espionage and the like. Arthur Morrison's hero Martin Hewitt was one of the drier creations from the era and makes no impact on screen. Nice to see Jacqueline Pearce and James Bolam appearing but they have very little to do here.

Ronald Hines is rather flat as the dogged detective Jonathan Pryde. At one stage I thought they should had given the part to James Bolam who makes an appearance in this episode who would had bought a bit of spikiness. Even Jacqueline Pearce who plays Pryde's wife is winsome but dull.

Pryde has been hired by the Russian Embassy to investigate a counterfeiter of Russian roubles and the British government have hired him to look into the theft of the design of a new torpedo system for the Royal Navy.

Pryde finds that both cases are linked as he seems to be following the same man for both cases.

There are similarities to the Sherlock Holmes story The Bruce-Partington Plans although this story was written first but it featured the detective Martin Hewitt.

It does all look rather uninspired and lifeless, just a lot of men in rooms talking. The inventor of the torpedo system Dixon is full of bluster and his employer played by Bolam are the only people who stood out.

The episode features a lot of men with moustaches, especially from the British Admiralty. It actually made me think of a sketch from The All New Alexei Sayle Show featuring the then unknown Christoph Waltz.

Jonathan Pryde is hired by a representative from The Russian Government, and soon after employed by one from The British Government, to search for some missing military plans.

I got the impression that this was based on, or at least inspired by The Bruce Partington Plans, it's a very similar plot, but where that is tight and intriguing, this imitation falls short.

The story isn't the most interesting, that Russian angle served no purpose at all, other than to pad the story out. If you do t guess where those plans are within two minutes, there's something wrong.

Some of the acting was very good, I really enjoyed the presence of both James Bolam and Jacqueline Pearce, the problem, is that neither had enough screen time. The main problem, was the central character, Pryde, I thought Ronald Hines gave a very flat, lifeless performance, it's almost as if the experienced actor was bored.

Sorry to say, this was a poor episode.

4/10.