The Adventure of The Bruce-Partington Plans - Adaptations

Adaptations

An adaptation of "The Bruce-Partington Plans" was used for an episode of the 1965 television series Sherlock Holmes starring Douglas Wilmer as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Watson. The episode is now lost.

The 1986 film The Twentieth Century Approaches, the fifth part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, features the story.

The story was adapted for a 1988 episode of the television series The Return of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Doctor Watson and Charles Gray as Mycroft Holmes. It differs in showing that the death of West was manslaughter, as well as that, after the capture of Oberstein, Colonel Walter is allowed to "disappear" so that Special Branch can use him to trap other spies. Lestrade is replaced by Inspector Bradstreet.

A series of four TV movies produced in the early 2000s starred Matt Frewer as Sherlock Holmes and Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Watson. One of these films, The Royal Scandal, adapted "A Scandal in Bohemia" and combined its story with "The Bruce-Partington Plans".

"The Great Game", the third episode of the 2010 television series Sherlock, uses several of Doyle's stories as inspiration, among them "The Bruce-Partington Plans". The story borrows many elements of the original story and is updated to the modern era. The victim here is an MI6 clerk named Andrew West, nodding to the original victim's name. Many of the other clues, like an unused train ticket and blood traces on a windowsill, are also used. The theft in this story is carried out by the brother of West's fiance, for financial reasons. Both the perpetrator and the motive are taken from the short story The Adventure of the Naval Treaty which likewise deals with the theft of government papers.