The Resident Patient

Dr Trevelyan has a problem that is really his patient's problem. Blessington, the man who paid for his practice and lives on the premises, has been gripped by spells of intense anxiety, and neither man can say why. Then a Russian father and son come for a consultation and vanish without a trace. The next day Blessington is found hanged. Trevelyan had feared for his friend's health and life. He was right to.

Holmes works from a doctor's testimony and a dead man's fears, and the trail leads straight to enemies, the one thing Blessington swore he did not have. Blessington's terror is the engine of the episode, and Patrick Newell plays it without ever tipping into pantomime. The episode is notable for bringing in the Baker Street Irregulars, Holmes's ragged little army of street boys, and there is a particular pleasure in watching a gang of urchins outperform the police. Nicholas Clay, of Excalibur, plays Trevelyan with the right blend of gratitude and guilt. Tim Barlow's Russian Count and Brett Forrest's son are the mystery's vanishing act. Charles Cork, John Ringham, Rosalie Williams and David Squire complete the cast.

David Carson directs, with the script credited to Arthur Conan Doyle, John Hawkesworth and Derek Marlowe. Michael Cox produced, with music by Patrick Gowers and cinematography by Ken Morgan.

The story starts as a domestic worry and ends as something much darker, which is the series at its best. But Blessington protests that he has no enemies right up until the case proves him wrong. Holmes and Watson solve it between them, and the Irregulars get the credit they rarely receive. It is the Irregulars who keep the story human, small boys doing the work the grown-ups cannot. It is a grim little tale, and the episode does not flinch from it.