On This Day 27th January

OTD in 1993 The Last Vampyre premieres on Granada’s Sherlock Holmes in the UK

Cast

• Sherlock Holmes : Jeremy Brett
• John Watson : Edward Hardwicke
• John Stockton : Roy Marsden
• Rob Ferguson : Keith Barron
• Carlotta Ferguson : Yolanda Vazquez
• Reverend Merridew : Maurice Denham
• Jack Ferguson : Richard Dempsey
• Dolores : Juliet Aubrey
• Michael : Jason Hetherington
• Mrs. Mason : Elizabeth Spriggs
• Mr. Gresty : Peter Geddis
• Mrs. Gresty : Kate Lansbury
• Vera Gresty : Maria Redmond
• Pedlar : Freddie Jones
• Miss Ruddock : Hilary Mason
• PC Ware : Stephen Tomlin
• Mrs. Carter : Ellen O’Brien
• Mr. Carter : Andrew Abrahams
• Albert, the pageboy : Paul Parris
• Ricardo, the baby : Anthony Price

Crew

• Producers : Sally Head, June Wyndham-Davies
• Director : Tim Sullivan
• Screenplay : Jeremy Paul
• Music : Patrick Gowers
• Set Decoration : Christopher J. Bradshaw

Plot summary (spoiler)

Ferguson’s return to Lamberley with his new wife and baby arouses the jealousy of his crippled elder, Jack. The villagers, on the other hand, fear their new fellow citizen, Stockton, a descendant of their cruel lords. The Pastor confided to Holmes his concern: the sudden death of the blacksmith after a dispute with Stockton and that of the baby the day after his visit to the Fergusons convinced everyone that Stockton was a vampire. When Holmes and Watson arrived in Lamberley, there was an epidemic. Mrs. Ferguson, her maid and especially Jack, fascinated by vampires and convinced to be one of them, seem hypnotized by Stockton who, according to Holmes, is only a “psychological vampire”. But deaf to his soothing advice, Ferguson attacked Stockton, who, furious, left in a cart at triple gallop and died in a terrible accident. The villagers threw his coffin into the castle’s cellars, where Ferguson rushed to pierce his heart. Holmes discovered him lying, knocked out, on the body of the “vampire” and could not stop Jack, his attacker, from throwing himself off a wall. Leaving Lamberley bereaved, the two friends returned to London, dark and perplexed.