The Eligible Bachelor

The eligible bachelor of the title is Lord Robert St Simon, and on the day he finally marries, his bride vanishes. Henrietta Doran, known as Hatty to everyone who loves her, is an American heiress with a fortune and a smile. She marries the lord in the morning, and by evening London is agog, because the bride has gone without a trace.

The police find her wedding dress in the Serpentine, a lake in a London park, with a note tucked into the pocket. A dress in a lake is the sort of clue that suggests design rather than accident, and Inspector Montgomery brings the case to Holmes before the newspapers can chew it any further. The note suggests the bride meant to go, which is worse for the groom than being taken. But Holmes is not at his best. He has been sleeping badly, troubled by nightmares that he cannot shake, and he is honest enough to treat the dreams as a factor in the mystery rather than a distraction from it. Watson watches his friend with a doctor's eye and finds the state of him worrying.

The search for Hatty pulls in a whole gallery of St Simon relations: Lady Helena, Lady Florence, Lady Mary, Lady Blanche, each with an opinion and a reason to give it. Anna Calder-Marshall takes on both Lady Helena and Agnes Northcote, the sort of doubling that rewards a careful eye. The family, as families will, closes around the scandal with more opinions than information. Everyone has a theory. Nobody has the bride.

T.R. Bowen wrote it, Peter Hammond directed. Simon Williams is the bewildered groom, Paris Jefferson is Hatty, and Geoffrey Beevers is Inspector Montgomery. Rosalie Williams is Mrs Hudson, while Mary Ellis, Phillada Sewell and Elspeth March complete the family ranks. Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke are Holmes and Watson, with Brett making the nightmares feel real rather than decorative.

Part one ends with the dress in the lake and the note in the pocket. The bride is still missing, and the second part has a lot of explaining to do.