The Hound of the Baskervilles

Despite the naysayers Tom Baker does an excellent and more than possible portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. In a bit of an overused story he brought a freshness to it. If you get a chance watch this and you'll see what I mean. Pity it wasn't hailed as one of the better Sherlock Holmes outings.

I've had this production tucked away for over a decade and never seen it, until now. As a die hard Tom Baker fan (Doctor Who) I have struggled on occasion to get to grips with him in other roles, but as always he totally came up trumps. My initial thoughts of him being miscast were unfair and wrong, he gave a very strong, down to Earth, honest performance, adding character and presence, not dramatics as I had expected. Terence Rigby made for a very good Watson too, finally not made to be a bumbling buffoon, he was a worthy sidekick to the great detective.

I was very impressed by the production values and the closeness of the original text, it didn't seem like they'd tinkered about with the script a great deal. The costumes and set designs look spot on, that quality you always expect from the BBC.

My only negative would be the casting of Nicholas Woodeson, and his character, a fine actor, but I found the character lacking in any warmth, unsympathetic almost, I picture Henry Baskerville as handsome and lacking harshness. If our Henry here had been dog food, I'd not have lost a huge amount of sleep.

It's an excellent production, it's well worth obtaining.

8/10.

Tom Baker did this film just after putting in 7 years as Dr. Who. There are traces of his eccentric turn as The Doctor that show up here. I enjoyed him as Holmes. The story is familiar to me so I could look at other things at leisure. It does look pretty good, considering it's a BBC-type tv production. This is neither the best nor the worst version of this story I've seen. The fact that Baker donned the Holmes outfit in a Dr. Who serial and that he had played Holmes on stage before must have made him very comfortable in the role, for he does so effortlessly. Tom Baker is such a joy to watch doing anything, and the chance to see him play one of my favorite characters gave me special thrill. His Holmes seems to enjoy life more. He dives into the chance to solve this most chilling of murder mysteries. The supporting cast is fine, and special kudos must go out to the set designers. All in all, I would give it a "6" out of "10".

Although I enjoyed Tom Baker as Dr. Who, watching him play the same character and renaming it Sherlock Holmes was a bit of a yawn. This film is pretty much unwatchable, especially after seeing the Jeremy Brett version. The only casting of Holmes that is worse was Roger Moore

My family watched this when it was broadcast by the ABC in Australia and we were enjoying it very much. We were disappointed that we would miss the last instalment as we were going away to stay in a caravan without TV.

Fortunately I'd learnt that a mono FM radio could receive the sound of the ABC TV signal. We tuned in and sat in the caravan mesmerised, like a family in the 1940's listening to a radio drama.

Because we had seen the earlier episodes on TV we could easily imagine the characters and locations, thereby truly experiencing 'theatre of the mind'. It was very special.