The Second Stain

The Prime Minister does not call at Baker Street for trifles. When Lord Bellinger turns up in person, it is because a diplomatic letter has been stolen from Trelawney Hope, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, and if its contents ever reach a foreign power, England may find itself at war. Holmes takes the commission, and no sooner has the door shut on the Prime Minister than a veiled lady arrives with her own interest in the same business.

The case is all discretion and half-truths. Trelawney Hope wants his letter back without the world ever learning it went missing, and his household runs on nerves and polite lies. There is a bloodstain on the carpet of the room where the letter was kept, and Holmes keeps coming back to it, because somebody's blood is on that floor and nobody will own up to whose. He sees through the deceptions of great and small alike, and the viewer gets the pleasure of watching him do it slowly, while Lestrade fumes.

John Hawkesworth and Conan Doyle wrote it, John Bruce directed. Jeremy Brett's Holmes and Edward Hardwicke's Watson anchor the affair, with Harry Andrews as Lord Bellinger, Patricia Hodge as Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope, Stuart Wilson as the Secretary of State, Colin Jeavons as Lestrade, Sean Scanlan as Constable MacPherson, Yves Beneyton as Eduardo Lucas and Yvonne Orengo as Madame Fournaye. Rosalie Williams's Mrs Hudson does what she can with the comings and goings.

Political thrillers are not always Holmes's natural ground, but this one suits him. The stakes are enormous and the setting is a drawing room, which is exactly the kind of disproportion he enjoys. The bloodstain earns its place in the title. And the ending, when it comes, is quieter than the build-up promised, which is a compliment.