"The Case of Lady Beryl" was the second episode of 1950s Sherlock Holmes television series starring Ronald Howard, and it's a very good one. This series featured almost all original stories about the Great Detective, so this episode, despite the title, is not based on the Conan Doyle story "The Beryl Coronet." Here, the series' lighthearted tone mixes very well with a mystery that is largely played straight. It opens rather nicely with a follow-up to end the of the previous installment of the series, then continues with some very pleasant, well-written and lightly humorous scenes that further establish the characters of Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade within the series, as the latter two agree on the newspaper's coverage of the Cunningham case then go off to investigate a murder, while Holmes hears about it and is too engrossed by making tea and poison with the messenger to do anything about it. Inspector Lestade, while he still misses everything important to the case, seems far less glaringly incompetent here than in other episodes. One can actually image that he would have kept his job longer than a week.
The mystery itself here, while not too difficult to solve after a certain point, is a clever one if not flashy. One thing it has going for it is that the lack of much character development for the suspects becomes an advantage, since a large part of the mystery consists of why Lady Beryl lied about having killed the victim. Paulette Goddard makes a guest appearance which gives her a chance to act without being too involved. There is also a chance for some extended scenes of dazzling deductions on Holmes' part which are very well played and written. This episode probably establishes him as the most absentminded master detective in history with its punchline.
A very entertaining entry which gets the series proper -- once we have been introduced to who Sherlock Holmes and Watson are -- off to a worthy start.