The BEST episodes of Sherlock Holmes (1984)

Every episode of Sherlock Holmes (1984) ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Sherlock Holmes (1984)!

Sherlock Holmes is one of the world’s most popular fictional detectives, famed for his legendary powers of observation and deduction. Adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novels, this classic series by Granada Television starred Jeremy Brett as the definitive Holmes, with David Burke and later Edward Hardwicke as his able assistant Dr. Watson.

Last Updated: 9/16/2024Network: ITV1Status: Ended
Share:
The Dying Detective
star
8.95
176 votes

#1 - The Dying Detective

Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/14/1994

A man dies suddenly of a mysterious fever, and Holmes suspects murder.

Directors: Sarah Hellings
Watch Now:Amazon
The Hound of the Baskervilles
star
8.53
150 votes

#2 - The Hound of the Baskervilles

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/31/1988

Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on Dartmoor, with his face contorted in terror and the footprints of a huge dog near his body. On arrival in England, Sir Charles's American heir, now Sir Henry Baskerville, engages Holmes to come to Devon and get to the bottom of the age-old legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles - a phantom which kills.From the outset, Holmes is convinced there is a human murderer at work and he lays a deep plan to foil him.

Directors: Brian Mills
Watch Now:Amazon
The Priory School
star
8.44
184 votes

#3 - The Priory School

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/13/1986

The Duke of Holdernesse needs Holmes's help when his son, Lord Arthur Saltire, is kidnapped from the Priory School. Holmes finds the connection between an old mystery and a teacher who has also gone missing.

Directors: John Madden
Watch Now:Amazon
The Master Blackmailer (2)
star
8.37
97 votes

#4 - The Master Blackmailer (2)

Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/2/1992

Concluding the case of Charles Augustus Milverton, king of blackmailers, who has given Holmes a good run for his money.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Amazon
The Red-Headed League
star
8.28
158 votes

#5 - The Red-Headed League

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/22/1985

A notice in a newspaper seeks red-headed men, inviting them to join a league which will pay them well - and Jabez Wilson, a pawnbroker who responds, finds he is hired and paid generously for spending four hours a day copying an encyclopedia in long hand. When the league is suddenly dissolved, Holmes is asked to find out what has been going on, and he quickly suspects crime. Indeed, behind this curious arrangement lurks Holmes's arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty.

Directors: John Bruce
Watch Now:Amazon
The Last Vampyre
star
8.25
114 votes

#6 - The Last Vampyre

Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/27/1993

Holmes investigates a killing which has all the hallmarks of the worst kind of Ruritanian vampire. He is sceptical (to say the least) about the possibility that the undead are up to their mischief just a short train journey from his rooms in Baker Street. If a local resident really found his South American wife sucking blood from their young son, what might it signify?

Watch Now:Amazon
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
star
8.22
153 votes

#7 - The Boscombe Valley Mystery

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/14/1991

Alice Turner sends for Holmes when her lifelong friend farmer William McCarthy is killed and police suspicion falls on his son, James. James McCarthy admits quarrelling with his father, but he will not explain what their argument was about.

Directors: June Howson
Watch Now:Amazon
The Golden Pince-Nez
star
8.21
112 votes

#8 - The Golden Pince-Nez

Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/21/1994

The police are baffled by the murder of Willoughby Smith, and Inspector Hopkins looks to Holmes to solve the case.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Amazon
The Problem of Thor Bridge
star
8.21
164 votes

#9 - The Problem of Thor Bridge

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/28/1991

Maria Gibson, the wife of a gold-mining millionaire, is found shot dead at their country house. Gibson asks Holmes to find his wife's killer and thus to clear the name of his children's governess, Miss Dunbar, who has been charged with the crime. Is Gibson acting as a kindly employer, and what are the hidden depths of the case?

Directors: Michael Simpson
Watch Now:Amazon
The Cardboard Box
star
8.20
115 votes

#10 - The Cardboard Box

Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/11/1994

When Susan Cushing first consults Holmes about the disappearance of her sister Mary, he shows little interest in the case. But then, at Christmas, Susan receives an alarming present in a cardboard box, and Holmes is quickly on the trail of a dangerous criminal.

Directors: Sarah Hellings
Watch Now:Amazon
The Six Napoleons
star
8.20
181 votes

#11 - The Six Napoleons

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/20/1986

Holmes is curious about a series of attacks on figures of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte around London. One such incident leads to a violent death, and he investigates. Lestrade sees an Italian connection and proposes to focus Scotland Yard's attention on the Italian quarter of London, but Holmes is more interested in Chiswick.

Directors: David Carson
Watch Now:Amazon
The Man with the Twisted Lip
star
8.20
152 votes

#12 - The Man with the Twisted Lip

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/6/1986

Neville St Clair works in the City of London and is a man of very regular and respectable habits. One day, his wife goes into town for lunch and is shocked to see her husband in the window of an opium den. That evening, he fails to return home, and Mrs St Clair decides to consult Holmes.

Directors: Patrick Lau
Watch Now:Amazon
The Resident Patient
star
8.16
159 votes

#13 - The Resident Patient

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/15/1985

Dr Trevelyan calls on Holmes on behalf of his friend Blessington, after a Russian father and son vanish during a consultation. Blessington knows of no one who wishes him ill, but he is found hanged the next day. Holmes investigates, with advice from Watson.

Directors: David Carson
Watch Now:Amazon
The Sign of Four
star
8.14
196 votes

#14 - The Sign of Four

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/29/1987

For years after her father's disappearance, the beautiful Miss Mary Morstan receives anonymously every year one large and valuable pearl. When, finally, an invitation arrives to meet the mysterious pearl-giver, Mary Morstan seeks Holmes's advice, and he begins to unravel some remarkable clues, including a poison dart and a man with a wooden leg. What Holmes finds is an old soldier who is determined to punish those who betrayed him and his friends by stealing their oriental treasure.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Amazon
Wisteria Lodge
star
8.09
167 votes

#15 - Wisteria Lodge

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/20/1988

On a visit to Wisteria Lodge, Scott Eccles gets a strange reception. A mysterious note arrives for his host, Garcia, and the next morning Garcia and his servants have vanished without trace. Eccles consults Holmes, who decides to treat the case as a murder investigation, but it appears that Holmes and Watson are on a wild goose chase.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Illustrious Client
star
8.06
157 votes

#16 - The Illustrious Client

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/21/1991

Colonel James Damery calls on Holmes when the rich and beautiful Miss Violet Merville announces her engagement to Baron Gruner, a dangerous Austrian. Gruner has persuaded Violet that he is not a killer, and Holmes has to establish the truth and foil the powerful baron.

Directors: Tim Sullivan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Empty House
star
8.05
165 votes

#17 - The Empty House

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/9/1986

Three years on from Holmes's fatal fall into the Reichenbach Falls, Watson wrestles with a murder case under his own steam. But who is the enigmatic stranger in the Coroner's court, listening intently to all the evidence?Holmes returns home and explains how he escaped death at Reichenbach, while Moriarty lost his life. Holmes and Watson must now bring a partner of Moriarty's to justice, by proving he is a murderer.

Directors: Howard Baker
Watch Now:Amazon
The Bruce Partington Plans
star
8.03
130 votes

#18 - The Bruce Partington Plans

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/27/1988

The body of one Cadogan West is found in an underground tunnel near Aldgate Station, with his skull smashed, and Holmes is puzzled by the interest his brother Mycroft is showing in the case. Mycroft explains that the top secret plans for a new submarine were in the dead man's pocket, but three of the ten pages were missing when the body was found. Mycroft, on behalf of the British Government, asks his brother to find the missing pages.

Directors: John Gorrie
Watch Now:Amazon
The Musgrave Ritual
star
8.03
149 votes

#19 - The Musgrave Ritual

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/30/1986

Holmes and Watson are staying with Reginald Musgrave, the head of an ancient Sussex family, when his butler, Brunton, suddenly disappears. Brunton (something of a ladykiller and a highly educated man) had been taking an interest in an ancient family tradition called 'the Musgrave Ritual', which centres on a Carolingian riddle. And then a second member of the household vanishes, equally suddenly. The old riddle proves to be the key to tracing the butler's body and finding the treasure the dead man was after - the crown jewels lost in the English Civil War. And as so often, it's a case of 'cherchez la femme'.

Directors: David Carson
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.01
178 votes

#20 - The Devil's Foot

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/6/1988

Reluctantly, after an illness, Holmes takes a holiday in Cornwall, with Watson for company. Then one day he finds himself investigating a mysterious death... after a quiet evening at home playing cards, three local inhabitants have been found in the morning in a terrible way: the two brothers overtaken by sudden mental illness, babbling incoherently, and their sister dead, with her face twisted into a look of terror. Holmes is delighted with the chance to bury his holiday boredom by taking on the case.

Directors: Ken Hannam
Watch Now:Amazon
The Red Circle
star
8.01
140 votes

#21 - The Red Circle

Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/28/1994

Mrs Warren, a London lodging-house keeper, comes to Holmes with a curious story of a reclusive and eccentric tenant. Mrs Warren's husband has been abducted and then quickly released again, perhaps a case of mistaken identity. Holmes decides the case is more important than it appears.

Directors: Sarah Hellings
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Norwood Builder
star
8.00
203 votes

#22 - The Norwood Builder

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/8/1985

A young solicitor, John Hector McFarlane, seeks Holmes's help after retired builder Jonas Oldacre dies in a fire. McFarlane, who benefits from Oldacre's will, is suspected of murder and asks Holmes to clear his name. Holmes looks for another motive and another killer, and dresses up as a tramp to get the information he needs about the Oldacre household. The surprising answer he finds is that Oldacre is not exactly dead.

Directors: Ken Grieve
Watch Now:Amazon
The Mazarin Stone
star
7.99
137 votes

#23 - The Mazarin Stone

Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/4/1994

The Mazarin Stone, a famous jewel, acts as a magnet for crime. Holmes investigates the latest and perhaps most curious episode in its adventures.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Amazon
The Master Blackmailer
star
7.98
88 votes

#24 - The Master Blackmailer

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/1992

Holmes and Watson are called in to deal with a blackmailer. A dazzling young lady is about to be married, and Charles Augustus Milverton, the slithery king of all blackmailers, has letters she wrote to another man. Watson is astonished when Milverton calls at Baker Street at the invitation of Holmes, who has a plan to thwart him. As ever, things are not quite as they appear to be.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Amazon
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
star
7.98
130 votes

#25 - The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/21/1991

Watson, on holiday in the Lake District, meets the enigmatic Lady Frances Carfax, who is being haunted by the ghost of a horseman. Holmes decides to come up to join Watson, but by the time he arrives Lady Frances has vanished without trace. Holmes investigates and becomes very curious about the ghost.

Directors: John Madden
Watch Now:Amazon