View source for Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking

{{short description|2004 television film directed by Simon Cellan Jones}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox television
| image          =
| image_size     = 
| caption        = 
| director       = [[Simon Cellan Jones]]
| producer       = Elinor Day
| writer         = [[Allan Cubitt]]
| starring       = [[Rupert Everett]]<br />[[Ian Hart]]<br />[[Jonathan Hyde]]<br>[[Eleanor David]]<br />[[Helen McCrory]]<br />[[Neil Dudgeon]]
| music          = [[Adrian Johnston (musician)|Adrian Johnston]]
| cinematography = David Katznelson
| editor         = Paul Garrick
| network        = [[BBC One]]
| released       = {{Start date|2004|12|26|df=y}}
| runtime        = 99 minutes
| company        = [[BBC]]<br />[[Tiger Aspect Productions]]
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         = 
| related        = ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002 film)|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]''
}}

'''''Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking''''' is a British [[television film]] originally broadcast on [[BBC One]] in the UK on 26 December 2004. Produced by [[Tiger Aspect Productions]], it was written by [[Allan Cubitt]] and was a sequel to the same company's adaptation of ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002 film)|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'', made for the [[BBC]] two years previously.<ref name="barnes">{{cite book |last=Barnes|first=Alan| author-link=Alan Barnes (writer) |title=Sherlock Holmes on Screen |year=2011 |publisher=[[Titan Books]]|pages=203–205 |ISBN=9780857687760 }}</ref> Although ''Silk Stocking'' retained the same [[Dr. Watson]], [[Ian Hart]], this time the character of [[Sherlock Holmes]] was played by [[Rupert Everett]].

==Plot==
In November 1903, young women are being killed in [[London]], each with a silk stocking stuffed down her throat. Watson seeks help from the [[Retirement|retired]] and disenchanted Holmes, who determines that the victims are well-born ladies, not prostitutes. Evidence found includes a thumbprint, a pair of ladies' dancing shoes, broken glass, a strong smell of chloroform and a silk stocking removed from a victim's gullet. It seems that the killer has a foot fetish.

Holmes questions a survivor - a young girl who was apparently set free by her captor because she has a club foot - and arranges for her to "accidentally" see the footman that he suspects is the killer, despite his ironclad alibis. The girl identifies him as her kidnapper, but the thumbprint clears the suspect. Holmes then baits a trap for the killer: he uses the sister of a victim and has her perform in a classical tableau at an event attended by the King and Queen. Her Grecian-Roman costume is revealing, and her sandals expose her feet. After the performance, she walks away to be alone; the suspect drugs her and is quickly caught by Holmes and placed in custody. The sister returns home and is tucked into bed by her father.

However, the suspect's thumbprint doesn't match the evidence. Holmes suspects the killer has an identical twin, and that the real killer is still on the loose. Holmes telephones the father of the "bait" sister to warn him, but the real killer has kidnapped her from her bed just minutes earlier. The viewer sees the killer carrying her over his shoulder as blood drips from her face, where he cut her with broken glass.

The police force the other twin to lead them to his brother, but he escapes the police. Holmes finds the killer and his victim just in time; the young woman has a silk stocking tied around her neck, and Watson has to cut it and perform something that looks like [[Cardiopulmonary resuscitation|CPR]], which was known in similar form from the late-18th century but did not come into standardised common usage until the mid-20th century. Holmes gets the killer twin to confess that he wanted his victims' attention, because they looked at him while in captivity. Both twins are then taken into custody.

At the end, Watson marries his fiancée Jenny Vandeleur, an American [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] who had aided in the investigation. They leave on honeymoon, and Holmes is left sitting alone at the table.

==Cast==
{{castlist|
* [[Rupert Everett]] as [[Sherlock Holmes]]
* [[Ian Hart]] as [[Dr. Watson]]
* Nicholas Palliser as Dr. Dunwoody
* [[Neil Dudgeon]] as [[Lestrade]]
* [[Anne Carroll]] as [[Mrs Hudson]]
* [[Tamsin Egerton]] as Miranda Helhoughton
* [[Perdita Weeks]] as Roberta Massingham
* Jennifer Moule as Georgina Massingham
* [[Eleanor David]] as Mary Pentney
* John Cunningham as Bates
* [[Michael Fassbender]] as Charles Allen
* [[Jonathan Hyde]] as George Pentney
* [[Helen McCrory]] as Mrs. Jenny Vandeleur
* [[Julian Wadham]] as Hugo Massingham
* Penny Downey as Judith Massingham
* Roger Monk as Workman
* Jonathan Emmett as Policeman
* Max Harvey as Master of Ceremonies
* Andy Wisher as Constable
* [[Guy Henry (actor)|Guy Henry]] as Mr. Bilney
* [[Rachel Hurd-Wood]] as Imogen Helhoughton
* Kristine Kavanaugh as Lady Helhoughton
* [[Gina Beck]] as Maid
}}

==Production==

===Development===
Some co-production funding for the drama was provided by United States [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] broadcaster [[WGBH-TV|WGBH]], and it was later shown on PBS's ''[[Masterpiece Theatre]]'' in 2005. The original title for the production was ''Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Season'', the name being changed only a few weeks before transmission.<ref>BBC Press Office release &mdash; [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/11_november/24/xmas.shtml A magical mystery tour of the world on the BBC this Christmas]. BBC. 24 November 2004.</ref> While Ian Hart returned from the earlier ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002 film)|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'' film, in this film Rupert Everett replaced [[Richard Roxburgh]] as Sherlock Holmes.<ref name="barnes"/> [[Guy Henry (actor)|Guy Henry]] who had earlier portrayed Sherlock Holmes in ''[[Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House]]'' was cast in the minor role of Mr. Bilney.<ref name="barnes"/>

Directed by [[Simon Cellan Jones]], the production filmed in and around London in late summer 2003.<ref name="barnes"/> The musical score is by [[Adrian Johnston (musician)|Adrian Johnston]].<ref name="barnes"/>

The book given to Holmes by Mrs Vandeleur is ''[[Psychopathia Sexualis (Richard von Krafft-Ebing book)|Psychopathia Sexualis]]''.<ref name=tele/>

===Writing===
[[File:LondonSmog.jpg|thumbnail|Filming on location at [[Somerset House]] for Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking]]
Unlike ''Baskervilles'', this production was an original story written by [[Allan Cubitt]],<ref name=pbs>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/silkstocking/|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking |access-date=29 January 2012|publisher=[[PBS]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051102041838/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/silkstocking/|archive-date=2 November 2005|df=dmy }}</ref> although the script used some lines of dialogue for Holmes taken from [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s original stories. Set in the early 1900s, Cubitt provided Watson with a new wife and indicates that it had been some time since he and Holmes last worked together.

{{blockquote|"This is a departure," said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer for WGBH in Boston, which produced the show with the BBC and Tiger Aspect Productions. "That's what we say at PBS when we don't know what is going to happen. We could be arrested by the Conan Doyle police - or at least severely reprimanded - because we are departing from the canon."<ref name="tele">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/22/arts/television/22sher.html?ref=ruperteverett|title=Attention, Holmes Devotees: Baker Street Is Irregular|date=22 October 2005|access-date=29 January 2012|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</ref>}}

==Reception==

Reviews of the drama were generally mixed. "I did feel that this peculiar tale was intended to tickle American tootsies," [[Nancy Banks-Smith]] wrote in ''[[The Guardian]]''. "The king was announced as 'King Edward the Seventh', Dr Watson married a Yankee psychiatrist [psychoanalyst], the duchess was having an affair with the footman, well, two as it turned out, and the London fog never lifted."<ref>Banks-Smith, Nancy. ''[http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/comment/0,7493,1380079,00.html Who's the daddy now?]'' (subscription link). "The Guardian". Monday 27 December 2004.</ref>

The film had a rating of 75 out of 100 on [[Metacritic]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/redirectcritic?tv=sherlockholmesandthecaseofthesilkstocking |title=Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Silk Stocking reviews at |website=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=23 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905111508/http://www.metacritic.com/redirectcritic?tv=sherlockholmesandthecaseofthesilkstocking |archive-date=5 September 2014 |df=dmy }}</ref> Robert Bianco of ''[[USA Today]]'' remarked, "Everett sticks close enough to the outline created by Arthur Conan Doyle to be recognizably Sherlockian, and yet he deviates enough to create an amusing character all his own."<ref>{{cite web|last=Bianco|first=Robert|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2005-10-20-sherlock-holmes_x.htm|title=Everett steps into Sherlock's 'Stocking'|work=[[USA Today]]|date=20 October 2005|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref> Dorothy Rabinowitz of the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' wrote, "Everett carries the role of the master detective off with dispatch—a portrayal rich in tortured silences and seasoned with touches of campy authority."<ref>{{cite web|title=Return of the Master Detective|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112984197779674772?mod=2_1168_1|date=1 January 1980|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref> Marilyn Stasio, writing for ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', called Everett's interpretation "elegant and decidedly decadent".<ref name=tele/>

Melanie McFarland of the ''[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]'' said, "''The Case of the Silk Stocking'' contains more than the usual share of pedestrian turns of phrase, and [[Neil Dudgeon]]'s [[Inspector Lestrade]] is less than an afterthought here. Everett makes up for it with a haunting portrayal."<ref>{{cite web|last=Mcfarland|first=Melanie |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/tv/245497_tv22.html |title=BBC shows get away with murder in the U.S|publisher=Seattle Pi|date=21 October 2005|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref> Brian Lowry of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote, "''The Case of the Silk Stocking'' is a rather wan addition to the Holmes filmography, yet respectable enough in showcasing the character's cerebral charms. If push comes to shove, though, when all the revisionism's done, I prefer my Holmes in black-and-white."<ref>{{cite web|author=Brian Lowry TV Columnist @blowryontv|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117928619.html?categoryId=32&cs=1|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking Review - TV Show Reviews - Analysis Of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking The TV Series|work=Variety|date=20 October 2005|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref>

The ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' rated Everett as number 12 on their 20 greatest Sherlock Holmes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8998228/Sherlock-the-20-greatest-Sherlock-Holmes.html?image=8|title=Sherlock: the 20 greatest Sherlock Holmes|access-date=29 January 2012|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref>

==DVD release==
The film was released on [[DVD]] in 2005, with an [[audio commentary (DVD)|audio commentary]] by Cellan Jones and producer Elinor Day.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{BBC programme | title=Sherlock Holmes and The Case of The Silk Stocking}}
*{{IMDb title|0429032|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051023011357/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/silkstocking/ ''Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking''] at the ''Masterpiece Theatre'' web site. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051102041838/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/silkstocking/|date=2 November 2005}}

{{HolmesNovels}}
{{HolmesFilms}}
{{Simon Cellan Jones}}

[[Category:2004 television films]]
[[Category:2004 films]]
[[Category:British television films]]
[[Category:BBC television dramas]]
[[Category:Sherlock Holmes films]]
[[Category:Sherlock Holmes pastiches]]
[[Category:Films directed by Simon Cellan Jones]]
[[Category:Films set in 1903]]