THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES “A Message from the Deep Sea.” 19 September 1971 (Season 1, Episode 1.) Thames Television, UK. John Neville (Dr. Thorndyke), James Cossins, Bernard Archard, Terence Rigby, Eve Pearce. Based on the story by R. Austin Freeman. Director: James Goddard. Currently streaming on PBS/Masterpiece.

   The title of the overall two-season British series will tell you most of what might need to know, even if it’s managed to miss your attention all of the time since it first appeared. The stories presented were based on various detective stories written at the time Sherlock Holmes was around and solving mysteries, penned  by various authors who were Conan Doyle’s contemporaries, mostly forgotten or not, justified or not. Comparatively speaking, I hasten to add.

   This one’s by R. Austin Freeman, whose books are still generally available, and to the extent that they’re still being reprinted today. In this first episode of the series, Dr. Thorndyke, his most well-known detective, solves a case of young woman who’s found murdered in her room in a semi-reputable rooming house, her throat cut.

   The setting of the tale is sumptuous, as is almost always the case in British TV productions such as this, while Dr. Thorndyke – who is much younger and more handsome than I have ever pictured him – continually rags on the police as constant tramplers of the evidence, saying that it is the facts that matter, not preconceived and half-cocked ideas that count for nothing.

   In that regard, I confess to being guilty of following the facts well enough, as presented, but having little idea what to do with them. No matter. It is still a pleasure to follow a tale that has the right idea, done more than well enough.