Although it’s not nearly as well known as the latter-day series starring Jeremy Brett, the British Sherlock Holmes television series that ran for one season between 1954 and 1955 was a pretty good attempt at portraying the great detective on the small screen. The role of Holmes was played by Ronald Howard who was practically a dead ringer for his father, matinee idol Leslie Howard. And Howard Marion-Crawford, who specialized in playing bluff, hearty Brits, was an admirable choice for the role of Dr. John H. Watson.

The Case of the Christmas Pudding (originally broadcast on April 4, 1955), the series’ only episode set during the Christmas holidays, was directed by Steve Previn and written by George and Gertrude Fass. (Sheldon Reynolds, the producer of the show, could not get the rights to most of the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, so most of the episodes were original stories.)

The Case of the Christmas Pudding begins with John Norton (Eugene Deckers) being sentenced to the gallows for murder. Norton swears revenge against the man who brought him to justice who, of course, is Holmes. A few days later, Norton’s wife Bess (June Rodney) asks the Warden (Richard Watson) of the prison if she can give her husband the traditional Christmas pudding she baked for him.

The Warden inspects the pudding and, finding nothing hidden in it, allows Bess to bring it to her husband’s cell. It turns out that the item the Warden overlooked was the ribbon tied around the box the pudding was in. It’s actually wire wrapped in ribbon. Norton uses the wire to cut through one of the bars of his cell and escapes.

The Warden warns Holmes that Norton is loose and assigns a policeman to guard Holmes’ residence, 221B Baker Street. Norton murders another policeman and steals his uniform. While Watson is out following up on a clue to Norton’s whereabouts, Norton walks up to the guard disguised as a fellow police officer and asks him if he wants to get a bite to eat and some hot coffee for this cold December night. The guard gratefully accepts and Norton is left alone with his intended victim…

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Christmas Pudding can be viewed for free on-line at Hulu and the IMDB.