The Return of Sherlock Holmes (TV Series) The Six Napoleons (1986) User Reviews

The best version of this story.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 28 July 2016]

The Six Napoleans is one of the best known Sherlock Holmes stories, possibly because it is an exquisitely clever work. It has been made many times, and this, by far and away is the best version. The acting is sublime, particularly the serious performance by Eric Sykes, who shines through, not just a comic actor. The Italian side of the story is fantastic, adding a wonderful tone of theatre and drama, it adds to the story. I've read it many times, and in my mind's eye, this is exactly how I picture it. I love the touches of humour throughout, there is a great mixture of humour and drama. I love the scene where Holmes, Watson and Lestrade are waiting to catch the killer, it is very humorous. I love the whole idea of the black Borgia pearl too, such a great story.

Wonderfully theatrical, the quintessential version. 9/10

Stick around to the end to witness Jeremy Brett's brilliance.

[msghall · 9/10 · 6 March 2021]

This is a fine episode in which the oft dim-witted Lestrade gives us a rare glimpse of his and the police's admiration of and cooperation with the master sleuth. In response, Holmes demonstrates, in a momentary but wholly rewarding scene, how this unaffected, genuine praise deeply moves him.

It is an illustration of Mr. Brett's particular talent of how, within a few seconds of barely perceptible eye and facial transformations, he is able to convey the degree to which the respect of the police touches him as if he has longed for the acknowledgment. Just as briefly, Brett switches back to the colder, ruder Holmes. I replayed the scene over and over to fully capture an accomplished thespian showing us how it's done.

LeStrade in a Human Role

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 11 February 2014]

This is one of the better known stories. A number of plaster figures of Napoleon have been smashed by someone. It would appear to be burglary, but nothing much has been taken. It's not a fetish. No one has been harmed until one day that ends with a murder. The best part of this offering is the byplay between Holmes and Inspector LeStrade who plays Hamilton Burger to Holmes' Perry Mason. He's always wrong, but he has the best of intentions. Holmes is perpetually disappointed by the police and their ineptness, but not as bad in the original stories as they are in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Holmes episodes. In this, while LeStrade comes up with some pretty preposterous theories, Holmes doesn't overtly abuse him. They actually work together well and LeStrade actually pays him a great compliment, telling him how significant his contributions are to Scotland Yard. The problem at this time, of course, is that the fine points of detection had not been really used. Scotland Yard was as much a political entity as a police force. That aside, Holmes suspect that the Napoleon bust must have some existence beyond the mere acts of vandalism. Apparently, LeStrade all but disappears from the canon after this story. He is a much more human character in the Granada series (as is Watson) and as a true fan, I really appreciate that.

Hugely entertaining, and superbly acted.

[CatherineChang · 10/10 · 13 July 2010]

This episode of the Granada Holmes series is one of my all-time favourites. The story line is not in itself remarkable: a family residing in the Italian quarter of London plan to steal the Black Pearl of the Borgias from the Prince of Colonna. The daughter of the Italian family is the Princess of Colonna's maid. However, to avert suspicion from her, the family employ a go- between, called Beppo. Unfortunately, Beppo is a wily character, and having stolen the pearl, he refuses to give it up. So begins a Vendetta (Italian style).

The episode opens with members of the Italian family - father, son and daughter - bawling their heads off at one another. Son especially, who after calling his sister very rude names, eventually storms off to look for Beppo and reclaim the pearl.

A fight ensues, during which son (Pietro) is stabbed by the more agile Beppo, who evades the police long enough to hide the pearl inside an almost-dry plaster bust of the Emperor. Beppo happens to know that this is one of six busts bound for a certain shop in London.

We then cut to Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sprawled in front of the fire in Baker Street, enjoying a post-dinner drink / cigar / read. Lestrade reveals that three busts of Napoleon have been smashed, and the three discourse upon the reasons or motivations of such a bizarre crime... And so it goes on.

What makes the episode memorable is the rapport the three lead actors - Brett, Hardwicke and Colin Jeavons (perfect as the 'ferrety' Lestrade) - manage to establish between the three characters, and the streak of mischievous humour they inject into their scenes, which is nowhere evident in the written story, but which adds indescribably to one's enjoyment of the film! Look out in particular for:

• The scene at the mortuary. Holmes spends a certain amount of time examining the corpse at close quarters, at one point his nose an inch away from the deceased's. Once Holmes has left, Lestrade does the same, clearly wondering as he does so what it is Holmes sees that he has missed.

• The scene where Holmes and Watson, returning to Baker Street, find Lestrade surreptitiously peeping through one of Holmes's notebooks. They smile, then retreat and cough theatrically to give Lestrade enough time to leap up and start pacing the room as though he hadn't been doing anything he shouldn't.

• Lestrade's incredulous and baffled, 'Chiswick?!' In my books, this single utterance rates with Edith Evans's 'Handbag?!' in the 1952 production of Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'

• The scene when all three are sitting in a summer house in Chiswick, frozen stiff and awaiting their quarry. The exchange about 'humbugs' is particularly noteworthy.

• The scene in which Lestrade expounds upon his theory for the smashing of the busts. Holmes takes no notice whatsoever, until Watson asks him what he thinks, at which point he apologises for not having heard a word, giving the reason that he 'had a rather late night.' Given that all three had (at Holmes's instigation) been up for most of the night, Lestrade's 'And what do you think I had?' with all the requisite indignation and astonishment is hilarious.

• The entrance of, and ensuing scene with, 'Mr. Sandeford of Reading' with the final bust. Jeffrey Gardiner's performance is a gem. Reminiscent of Dickens's more comic characters.

• The prelude to the final 'denouement': not just Brett's various antics, which show us Holmes indulging to the full, his penchant for the 'dramatic,' but also the expressions on Watson's and Lestrade's faces as they watch him, which seem to alternate between, 'Oh, my! Now what's he up to?' and 'He's mad!'

• The handshake scene with Lestrade and Holmes, when Lestrade for the first and only time, gives full, unfettered acknowledgment of the master detective's genius. No further comment needed here beyond saying it was masterly - and it's a mystery to me why Brett never received an award for his Holmes. The depth of characterisation and attention to the minutest detail was astounding! And in this snippet, we see the camera at its most ruthless - a well-lit close-up on a face completely exposed by the severity of the slicked back hair. Every single facial movement, every twitch is captured.

One to enjoy and savour!

Maybe the best from the Return episodes

[agni0504 · 10/10 · 28 February 2009]

The Six Napoleons is one of my favorite from the Return cases, the others are The Empty House and Devil's Foot. I like this episode especially because of its lighter and funnier atmosphere.Holmes, Watson and Lestrade make such a cool trio!I love their conversation besides the fire, it makes me laugh every time I see it.All three actors are awesome in it, and it shines through that they enjoy each other's company so much. I think Colin Jeavons was an excellent choice for the role of Inspector Lestrade, he does such a wonderful job!My opinion is that he gives his best in this episode and in The Norwood Builder.Jeremy Brett told in an interview he loved to work with Colin Jeavons and they liked each other. Another thing I like in this episode is the tablecloth trick of Holmes.It is not easy at all!

The Six Napoleons is highly recommended to cheer up one's day and have a good laugh in addition to the exciting investigation.

Human side of Holmes

[ravimirna · 10/10 · 17 May 2020]

This is one of the very best performances by Mr. Jeremy Brett. We usually see Sherlock Holmes cold as ice with no emotions to the persons involved in any case and merely treats them as subjects. However, human side of Holmes surfaces at the end of this episode when Inspector Lestrade Played nicely by Mr. Colin Jeavons admires him from the bottom of his heart that moves Holmes almost to watery eyes. Many have played Sherlock Holmes ; but Mr. Brett lived Sherlock Holmes with equal contribution by Mr. Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson and their on screen chemistry was flawless. I understand in real life too, they were good friends.

So much fun!

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 27 May 2012]

The Six Napoleons is easily one of the best of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" series, and one I have seen five times over the past three weeks, finding something new to love and admire every time. For instance if you love Holmes, Watson and Lestrade together you are in heaven as their scenes in The Six Napoleons are the best and funniest of the entire series especially the humbug exchange, the build up to the final denouncement and the scene where Lestrade shares his theory about the busts smashing. The story may not be the most interesting in hindsight, but what is done with the story here is what makes the episode so remarkable. The Six Napoleons is well paced, suspenseful, funny, exciting and always compelling, while there are some absolutely brilliant episodes other than this one not many have all five of those qualities and so well in the way The Six Napoleons has. Once again, it is superbly made, evocative in atmosphere and meticulous in detail. The music is hauntingly beautiful, and the writing is droll and intelligent. Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke and Colin Jeavons couldn't have been more perfect as Holmes, Watson and Lestrade, Brett is commanding, Hardwicke is composed and quietly intelligent and Jeavons is a comic joy(his Chiswick explanation is yet another little thing I loved about the episode) and gives perhaps his best performance of the episodes he starred in. The supporting cast also give good performances, in Jeffrey Gardiner's case as Sandeford, great. Overall, such a fun episode. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Good combination of humor and mystery...very well done episode...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 19 May 2009]

I can hardly believe it. I actually guessed where the end solution was going before Holmes announced it to Watson and Lestrade, suspecting all along the reason for the smashing of the six Napoleons.

All the proper atmosphere is here, and of course the acting is top notch. Particularly enjoyable in this episode is the relationship between Lestrade and Holmes, each playing cat-and-mouse games with each other with Holmes always coming out ahead.

The back story is interesting too--all the mayhem that was involved before the Napoleons began being smashed. Jeremy Brett seems to be enjoying himself immensely as the great detective.

I wonder how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would feel about his works being done on this TV series.

Who hates Napoleon?

[lawrenceconwayvulcan · 10/10 · 7 February 2017]

An number of busts featuring the likeness of Napoleon are being broken and when latest one turns up with a dead body, Sherlock Holmes brings his skills to the matter.

The Six Napoleons features Jeremy Brett's Holmes at his most imperial best as goes through the evidence. While Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) has made up his mind about the case Holmes is always thinking outside the box. The case is presented as rather bizarre crime yet when it is resolved it has all too human motives. When Holmes explains the crime and it's background in full detail there is a touching moment when Lestrade tells Holmes of the pride that Holmes invokes at Scotland Yard.

The episode features 2 guest appearances of note. British comic great Eric Sykes plays a newspaper reporter whose home happens to the site of the murder, Sykes gives a great performance as a newsman unable to write the story of his life because he is afraid of reprisals. A pre Star Trek-The Next Generation Marina Sirtis makes a impression even though her character speaks only in Italian.

The Six Napoleons is one of the best episodes of Jeremy Brett's take on the role of Sherlock Holmes.

Enjoyable Entry.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 13 March 2010]

Holmes is bored, and his boredom isn't relieved when Lestrade informs him that an intruder has entered someone's house and broken to bit a bust of the Emperor Napoleon. Not until the second and third, which also involves a body with its throat slit, does Holmes' interest perk up. His Darwinian points practically quiver. Well, Jeremy Brett, as Holmes, is always either quivering or sitting still like a bronze idol.

Lestrade is hung up on some nutty theory and goes his own way while Holmes, with his vast knowledge of international crime, is able to unravel the mystery and find at least one of those responsible.

An introduction and coda involve the conflict in an Italian family. It's colorful and passionate but isn't really necessary to the story, however much it adds to the film.

There is one outstanding scene. Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade are standing around the shattered remains of the last bust of Napoleon as Holmes explains the antecedents of the crime. This coincidentally makes a fool out of Lestrade. Lestrade stalks up to Holmes and begins to list the number of times he's outwitted Scotland Yard, while Holmes stares at the floor and smirks. He's used to these jealous fits. But then Lestrade adds that there isn't a man among the police who wouldn't be happy to take Holmes' hand and shake it. He's sincere. Holmes looks directly at him, as if to make some snotty remark, then his smile fades and he says simply, "Thank you." He then hustles Lestrade out because men don't talk that way.

Nice job.

That magical tear

[maxandria · 10/10 · 7 March 2014]

To me and clearly a great many others, Jeremy Brett was the man born to play Holmes. No-one else can or will ever come close.

The point that struck me about this particular episode above all others, is perhaps the most 'singular' moment of the entire Granada series....Holmes's tear.

If you somehow missed it, re-watch it. If you've seen it, did it not affect you? It goes way beyond the, 'softer human emotions' mentioned by the author. It seemed to come straight from Brett's heart.

That he allowed this definitive portrayal of Holmes to be so very human (and caused me to shed a tear in the process) was quite simply, extraordinary.

As a footnote, I wasn't sure about the overtly 'Mafioso' theme of this episode. Though there are clear Mafia references in the original, I felt the screenplay became just a bit too G-dfatherly. Didn't spoil it though, still 10/10!

Excellent episode ruined by padding

[aramis-112-804880 · 10 July 2023]

What does a murder on a journalist's front steps have to do with the destruction of busts of the Emperor Napoleon? Lestrade is baffled, as usual, but Sherlock Holmes is determined to get to the inside information, so to speak.

In this dramatization of one of my favorite ACD stories, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes, before his untimely decline. I'd rather have seen the Burke/Watson in this whimsical tale but the Hardwicke/Watson is as solid as usual. I particularly like Watson's pally relationship with Lestrade.

We forget, in the shadows of Brett and Burke/Hardwicke, Colin Jeavons also redefined Lestrade with his precision of speech and the fact that he's not the buffoon usually portrayed. It's just that he's not Holmes' intellectual equal (nor even Watson's).

Bit the light-hearted pursuit of the destroyer of busts, with its marvelously funny conclusion, is ruined by the addition of superfluous material included to make the adaptation darker.

Part of this is ACD's fault. His original story produces a rabbit from a hat at the end with no foreshadowing. This is hardly fair play for a mystery. I suppose the writer(s) who produced this drek also supposed murder should have its down side.

Those parts of this episode that depict the ACD story as written are superb, with a good part for Eric Sykes. The rest, I fear, is only worth fast forwarding through. I invariably go through this episode in about half its running time by skipping the garbage.

The episode does contain one of my favorite scenes in the second series, with Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sitting around of an evening. Without the extraneous background material it would have been my favorite episode.

Holmes' conclusion to the case is still a pure delight. They should have stopped the show with Lestrade's speech. Instead, they went on. Too bad. What a waste.

The Six Napoleons

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 3 August 2019]

Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) tells Sherlock Holmes a bizarre story of how someone has been breaking into homes and smashing small busts of Napoleon.

Holmes is intrigued enough to investigate. While Lestgrade has a fanciful theory, Holmes fathoms that someone is looking for something inside those busts.

It is all to do with the theft of a valuable Black Pearl of the Borgias, some double dealing and a vendetta.

It is a very atmospheric production especially the Italian part of the story which is very well done that features Marina Sirtis.

There is an emotional speech from Lestrade at the end of the episode to Holmes which almost brings a tear to Holmes eye as well as some pride.

It is obvious that this is another short story that had to be stretched to fit the one hour long slot.

the TV episode took the mystery out of the story

[hornymesohorny · 4/10 · 26 February 2014]

This was one of my favourite stories as the facts were as baffling as the solution was ingenious. However, the TV episode ruined the mystery by putting so much of the background story at the beginning of the episode. We learned that a statue factory was involved and saw the unpainted Napoleons. We also saw Beppo hiding from the police in the drying room with the Napoleons. It didn't take much to figure out that Beppo was breaking the Napoleons and was looking for something. The intro deprived the audience of what were otherwise bizarre elements to the story. It became easy to figure out what would otherwise have been the sort of outré facts that we love about Sherlock Holmes stories.

Flawless adaptation

[kieran-wright · 10/10 · 11 May 2023]

From the first frame to the very last, this flawless adaptation is a thing of great beauty and a credit to David Carson, who directed it. I have seen this at least six times and I'm always so completely moved by Jeremy Brett's facial expressions and the emotions conveyed during the scene in which Inspector Lestrade - adeptly played by the great Colin Jeavons) pays him a heartfelt compliment. Every single actor plays their part with great aplomb. A pre-Star Trek Next Generation Marina Sirtis appears as Lucrezia and is perfect. She would join up with Carson again in the following decade with 'Generations'. See Eric Sykes, who is always a delight and I can imagine there are a few giggles on set between him and the other members of the cast. In summary, this may be the best of the bunch from Brett and Hardwicke. Emil Wolk is amazing and memorable as Beppo. One of the very few episodes in which Mrs Hudson doesn't appear. Will Granada ever come close to achieving what they did with this series? I sincerely doubt it but one always lives in hope. What I can say for sure is that no-one will ever come as close to being the authentic Holmes as Jeremy Brett did; and please be assured that I do not say this lightly, but as someone who reads the original stories by Conan Doyle then compares the Granada adaptation.

Excellent episode

[grantss · 10/10 · 7 December 2022]

In passing, Inspector Lestrade mentions to Holmes a series of minor vandalisms that have taken place: three busts of Napoleon have been destroyed for no apparent reason. Holmes is initially disinterested but his interest is piqued when the next vandalism involves a murder.

An excellent episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, probably the best in the series thus far (The Musgrave Ritual being the only other contender for that title). Quite intriguing: why would anyone want to smash small busts of Napoleon?

The opening few scenes do give a clue of the Italian connection but this still doesn't explain much. We then get to see Holmes put the puzzle together, piece by piece.

Speaking of the opening scenes, that would be the only negative: the overacting in those scenes. For a moment I thought those scenes were some sort of overblown, over-animated theatrical play within the episode.

Napoleonic Complex

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 February 2010]

Fans of the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films will recognize that The Six Napoleons is the basis for The Pearl Of Death film from that series. This version from the BBC is far closer to what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle actually wrote.

Here the action originates in Italy when someone who steals a black pearl reputed to have once belonged to Lucretia Borgia doublecrosses his partners and hides it in a freshly cast bust of the Corsican Emperor. Making note of the fact it's part of a consignment of six being shipped to Great Britain, the culprit makes his way to the United Kingdom with his confederates on his heels.

Of course the break ins and the smashing of these plaster busts have no significance to anyone, but Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. As was the case in the Basil Rathbone film. I should point out that the villains from the film and this BBC television episode are entirely different.

Having a very small role and in fact not speaking any English is future counselor of the Enterprise Marina Sirtis.

I didn't find a great deal of suspense in this episode in fact the film was juiced up a lot more in that direction. Still Brett as Holmes is always good.