"Equal to the Task" [SHOS]

by Scott Monty November 16, 2009

News today via the BBC indicates that veteran actor Edward Woodward has died in Cornwall.

He was known on the small screen for secret agent Callanand later the cult classic The Equalizer, Woodward brought a grittiness and panache to the roles he inhabited in the spy and mystery worlds. Sherlockians may remember Woodward (and his intrepid toupee) as he took a turn as Sherlock Holmes in the 1990 made-for-television movie Hands Of A Murderer, with John Hillerman as his Watson and Anthony Andrews as Professor Moriarty. Interesting casting, to be sure.

The plot revolved around Moriarty escaping the gallows and kidnapping Mycroft Holmes in order to discern some state secrets. Add to that a femme fatale who specialized in hypnotism and, well... you've got a CBS television movie. It actually did quite well in the ratings when it first aired, achieving a 9.5 rating with a 15 share, according to the January 1994 issue of Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press.

Of note was that it was written by Charles Edward Pogue, who also penned the television movies The Hound of the Baskervilles and Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Four which starred Ian Richardson. Both of those are highly recommended.

Whether or not his time beneath the deerstalker was a success or a failure, we do have to hand it to Woodward for passing away in a Canonical fashion, "in peaceful Cornwall." [DEVI]

What are those four-letter abbreviations in the headlines?