SH Guide #1: The Blind Banker

The Blind Banker is the mid-series story of the first season of BBC1's Sherlock which sees Conan Doyle's classic characters updated to the 21st century. Although not directly based on any single original Holmes story it does contain elements of The Sign of the Four, The Valley of Death and The Dancing Men.

Credits

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
Martin Freeman as John Watson
Zoe Telford as Sarah Sawyer
Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson
Louise Brealey as Molly Hooper
Gemma Chan as Soo Lin Yao
Al Weaver as Andy Galbraith
Bertie Carvel as Sebastian Wilkes
Daniel Percival as Eddie Van Coon
Paul Chequer as Detective Inspector Dimmock
Howard Coggins as Brian Lukis
Janice Acquah as Museum Director
Jack Bence as Raz
John MacMillan as Community Police Officer
Olivia Poulet as Amanda

Written by Stephen Thompson
Directed by Euros Lyn

First Broadcast 1 August 2010


Synopsis

An old university colleague of Sherlock's calls the Consulting Detective to a high-class bank where a portrait of a banker has been defaced with graffiti across the eyes (hence the title). Simple stuff for our hero surely? However, the portrait was on the fifth floor and must have appeared within 60 seconds. 'How did it get here?' 'What does it mean?' are the questions people are asking but, as Sherlock points out: 'Who was it meant for?'
The mystery leads Sherlock and John, with his new girlfriend Sarah, on an adventure involving an acrobatic assassin, an ancient Chinese crime syndicate and an ASBO...


Villains

The Black Lotus  - Lead by General Shan, they are a international smuggling organisation who specialising in selling historial Chinese antiques that survived Mao's communist 'cultural revolution' to Western countries illegally. They emply smugglers to work for them who bear the Lotus' tatoo on their heel. Soon after both Van Coon and Lukis, two of their smugglers had been on an errand for them they noticed one of their antiques, the Empress' hairpin, worth nine million pounds, had been stolen and so they came to London to reclaim the item, aided in the shadows by the mysterious Moriarty. To ensure their secrecy, the Lotus doubles as a travelling Chinese circus, the Yellow Dragon.

Review

Although perhaps not quite as impressive as the first and last episodes in the series, this is still a rollocking good adventure with an intricately clever and original plot while still feeling very Sherlockian.  8/10


For Dr Watson's own notes on the case click here.