This adaptation is worth watching, as an overall Granada Sherlock Holmes adaptation it is not as disappointing as The Last Vampyre and The Eligible Bachelor. But... I couldn't get over how strange and dull it was, though in fairness it was an interesting try at something new, which meant writing Mycroft in the Holmes role and merging two stories together into one.
Granted it is very well made on the whole. The sets are wonderfully meticulous, the costumes are typically beautiful and most of the camera angles are skilled. However, I did have problems with some of the lighting, at the end it was so dark you couldn't see what was happening really, though I could just about see Jeremy Brett's(who was very ill and hardly in it, though his appearance at the end actually makes up for the omission of the moving scene in the story concerning Holmes' true feelings for Watson) face and Charles Gray's eyes. I did like the music on the whole, the beginning motif was very haunting and there are some beautiful and intense parts too, but some of the music in the build-ups got rather overbearing in an attempt to make it sound intense. And I can't fault the acting of the two leads, Edward Hardwicke is an appropriately dignified, thoughtful and composed Watson, while Charles Gray, not just in the voice, face and mannerisms but especially in those haunted and shrewd eyes he has, is brilliant as Mycroft. Everybody else is good, without standing out too much.
However, The Mazarin Stone has a lot of problems. One is the pace, not as tedious mind you as the aforementioned adaptations but I did find bits on the dull side. The direction was a disappointment too, too low key and over-the-top for my liking especially in the ending, which was the definition of strange not just story wise but theatrically too. What hurt the Mazarin Stone most was the way the script and story were written. The script does have some intelligent and witty quips with Mycroft but all the other characters are saddled with dialogue that is banal even for Sherlock Holmes, and some of the secondary characters are uninteresting. The story is made up of two stories, and it doesn't help that the stories even by Conan Doyle standards are fairly weak. But the structure and telling of the plot here is very confused, unfortunately I saw it live so I couldn't re-wind the bits(which were a fair few actually) that I didn't understand.
Overall, I am a fan of this series, but I didn't care for this one. Perhaps it needs a re-watch so I can understand the plot better, which I wouldn't mind doing seeing as Gray is so good. But it is such a shame that the direction, pace and story spoiled what could have been a solid adaptation, making it an interesting but failed attempt. 5/10 Bethany Cox