[4] According to H. F. Heard's official website, kinescopes of this TV dramatisation survive, and, in 2014, it was made commercially available for home video as one of several features in a DVD, released by Synergy Entertainment, titled Sherlock Holmes: The Archive Collection Vol.

[5][6] The film opens with two men from an unnamed ministry commenting on a spate of letters from a beekeeper claiming to have developed a strain of killer bees.

He tells her that he used his visit to the other farm as a pretence to plant the fear pheromone and kill Hargrove, his target all along, as he suspected Manfred's ill intentions.

However, she thwarts his attempt by destroying his moth recording, leading him to be stung to death and crash through a banister but also accidentally setting the house on fire.

Though the script was originally adapted from Heard's novel by noted author Robert Bloch, best known for Psycho, critics invariably derided the film, citing its uninspired acting, ludicrous special effects (including plastic flies glued to actors' faces to show them being "stung"), and continuity errors.

According to Bloch:I still felt the story and characters strong enough to warrant preservation, and tried to retain as much of the basic plot and atmosphere as possible, working with a synopsisation Milton Subotsky provided ...

I did put my kindly old villain in a wheelchair – which made the part right for Boris Karloff of course – and my red herring character was designed for Christopher Lee.

But while the producers were away ... the director decided to improve my work; besides, Karloff and Lee were too expensive anyway ... My concept was a far cry from what emerged as Frank Finlay's part.

As is often the case, he decided to improve it, with the aid of a writer called Anthony Marriott, but apparently without the knowledge of Rosenberg and Subotsky [Amicus Films' producers], who left prior to production.