A Study in Pink
The Title
In the books, Holmes complains about the “romanticism” Watson adds to their first adventure when he publishes it “in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of ‘A Study in Scarlet’” (presumably referring to the violent murders and the message written in blood above the undamaged body).
“A Study in Pink” subverts and modernizes the story – pink is a cheerful, feminine color, and the garish look of the woman in pink from head to toe adds a lighter touch to the murder. Above all, it emphasizes that this story is a loose adaptation, not a retelling of the original tale.
The Story
The episode and “A Study in Scarlet” are notably similar, though with details often flipped or twisted. In both, Watson has just returned from war in Afghanistan as an army surgeon. He’s looking for lodging, so his friend Stamford from St. Barts introduces him to Sherlock Holmes, seeking a roommate. Much of the dialogue is identical. Holmes of the books is a bit friendlier, but his priorities are much the same.
“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about hœmoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?”
Modern Sherlock asks a quick “Afghanistan or Iraq?” then returns to his case. Later, both detectives explain their reasoning:
The train of reasoning ran, ‘Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.’ The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan, and you were astonished.
On the show, Sherlock notes:
I didn’t know, I saw. Your haircut, the way you hold yourself says military. But your conversation as you entered the room...said trained at Bart’s, so Army doctor – obvious. Your face is tanned but no tan above the wrists. You’ve been abroad, but not sunbathing. Your limp’s really bad when you walk but you don’t ask for a chair when you stand, like you’ve forgotten about it, so it’s at least partly psychosomatic. That says the original circumstances of the injury were traumatic. Wounded in action, then. Wounded in action, suntan – Afghanistan or Iraq.
In both stories, Holmes is pleased to hear there’s been a murder in Lauriston Gardens. Both times, he invites Watson to come and tells him about being a consulting detective – when the police are out of their depth, they call him. “Naturally, being the arrogant so-and-so he is, he’d had to give himself his own unique job title,” Watson adds in his blog entries, available online for those seeking supplemental insights to the episodes (Watson’s Blog, “A Study in Pink”)
In both stories, Watson admires Holmes’s deductions; on the show it’s far more obvious that many people hate him for them.
In the book, a man has been murdered by being forced to take poison. RACHE is written over him in blood though he has no wounds. On the show, it’s a woman in pink, and she scratched RACHE, not the murderer.
In the original adventure, a second man is murdered, stabbed, but with the pills left behind. Testing them, Holmes deduces the murderer has been making the other man choose a pill while he takes the other. As it turns out, the murderer, an American named Jefferson Hope, has come from America to revenge himself on the two men who killed his sweetheart. He makes them take the pills so God can choose the guilty and punish them.
Both this man and the modern “Jeff” work as cabbies (and thus get close to their victims, whom they murder in empty houses). Both murderers are terminally ill with aneurisms. In the book, Holmes calls for a cab, handcuffs the man, and reveals him as the murderer. The show has a more complex battle of wits, with Sherlock’s own life at risk.
Certainly, in the book, there’s no Moriarty or Mycroft, and Holmes and Watson are not in personal danger (though they are in many other cases).
Symbolism: Pink!
John Watson explains his titling, saying, “Well, you know, pink lady, pink case, pink phone – there was a lot of pink.” “A Study in Scarlet” is renamed “A Study in Pink”…but what change does that create? Scarlet is of course the color of the splashed blood even at the violence-free crime scene (the first at least – the second involves an actual stabbing.
Pink by contrast, especially eye-searing electric pink, is a frivolous color, indicating the ridiculous, more modern and silly than noir. It’s artificial, flamboyant, the shade of one desperate for attention. This is not just the dead woman but Holmes himself, as he shows off for all he’s worth at the pink-colored murder scene.
Pink is a feminized color, one the cabbie fears as it will stand out and make him look ridiculous. Sherlock and Watson of course both fear looking ridiculous – for Watson, it’s letting his life be taken over by Sherlock’s wacky adventures, for Sherlock, it’s loosening his rigid unemotionalism enough to make a friend. All their companions warn them they’re in danger of being tainted forever by their association. By the episode’s end, however, both have thrown out caution and embraced the madness of becoming a team. They’ve submersed themselves (metaphorically speaking) in a world of pink.
Blog
Moffat notes: “I think one of the fun things is, as you update it, as you find each equivalent...I remember Mark thinking, “Well, he wouldn’t write a journal now, would he? He wouldn’t write memoirs, he’d write a blog.” And suddenly you realize, of course, that tells you what memoirs were. They were blogs” (“Unlocking Sherlock”). Thus John blogs about Sherlock’s adventures and thus catapults the Great Detective into fame. This blog is actually available on the web at johnwatsonblog.co.uk, providing background information and John’s emotional reactions to each of the cases, along with the tales of unseen cases references in “A Scandal in Belgravia” and “The Sign of Three.”
So yes, we had a quick look at the flat and chatted to the landlady. Then the police came and asked Sherlock to look at a body so we went along to a crime scene, then we chased through the streets of London after a killer and Sherlock solved the serial suicides/murder thing. And then we went to this great Chinese restaurant where my fortune cookie said, “There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.” After the night I’d had, I beg to differ. (“My New Flatmate”)
This morning, for example, he asked me who the Prime Minister was. Last week he seemed to genuinely not know the Earth goes round the Sun. Seriously. He didn’t know. He didn’t think the Sun went round the Earth or anything. He just didn’t care. I still can’t quite believe it. In so many ways, he’s the cleverest person I’ve ever met but there are these blank spots that are almost terrifying. (Watson’s Blog, “A Study in Pink”)
John, I’ve only just found this post. I’ve glanced over it and honestly, words fail me. What I do is an exact science and should be treated as such. You’ve made the whole experience seem like some kind of romantic adventure. You should have focused on my analytical reasoning and nothing more. –Sherlock Holmes (Watson’s Blog, “A Study in Pink”)
This last directly quotes the text of Holmes’s reaction to Watson’s write-up in the books.
Canon References
In “The Problem of Thor Bridge,” Watson mentions a couple of cases which most likely will never be cleared up. One is the case of “James Fillamore, who stepped into his house to fetch an umbrella and was never seen again” - That is also the name of the second victim in A Study in Pink, the teen who goes back for his umbrella.
Watson and Holmes call each other by first names, which is a bit jarring. Even in Young Sherlock Holmes and Elementary, this behavior is unusual.
John is from the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers in both the episode and the original story.
Anderson is named for the village constable in “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane,” one of Holmes’s last adventures, after his retirement.
Sgt. Sally Donovan is from Sally Dennis, a fictitious character made up by the killer in “A Study in Scarlet” (there aren’t many women’s names in the story).
Sherlock Holmes beats dead bodies with a stick and in “A Study in Pink” he does so with a riding crop (an oddly old-fashioned choice), in both cases to see how far bruises are produced after death.
In both stories, Holmes asks Watson whether he objects to a roommate playing the violin. He adds that he doesn’t speak for days sometimes and that “Potential flatmates should know the worst about each other,” in an adaptation of the original story’s text.
Instead of going to the Criterion Bar, Watson and Stamford get Criterion takeaway cups of coffee.
When Sherlock borrows John’s phone, he texts Lestrade that he should arrest the brother if he has a green ladder. (A reference to an outline for a Sherlock Holmes story found among Conan Doyle’s papers.) Sherlock goes into more detail about this case on his blog.
Benedict Cumberbatch cites Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone (probably the most famous and iconic television/film Holmeses) as influences:
There’s a certain theatricality and ethereal spirituality to [Holmes] which Brett physically manifests beautifully; it’s very animal, it’s very cat-like and predatory and sharp and angular and slightly cold at times as well, and there are moments where I did want to use that. There are great descriptions of his physicality in the books as well, whether he’s curled up on the chair with his feet tucked up so he’s got his knees up and his hands on his knees and then the hands actually resting underneath his chin sort of in a prayer position. And I sort of wanted to play with motifs of that that people could recognize as being Holmesian because, without the pipe, without the deerstalker, without the old magnifying glass, it was important to establish certain codas and behavioral physical patterns that were recognizably Holmesian (“The Great Game” DVD Commentary)
The Jeremy Brett television series was adapted very little – each episode was meant to bring the book episode to life, nearly word for word. The Basil Rathbone ones mixed classic and original stories, and crossed in and out of the traditional setting. For instance, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) begins with a title card describing Holmes and Watson as “ageless,” as an explanation as to why the film is set in the 1940s rather than Holmes’ era of 1881–1914. At Watson’s insistence, Holmes swaps his deerstalker for a fedora. By the next film, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943), the detective is sneaking into Europe to save his country. This series takes much from the mannerisms of both detectives.
Sherlock hops up onto his chair in a way very reminiscent of Jeremy Brett (in “The Adventure of The Empty House,” among others).
Sherlock has a website (which actually exists, like John’s blog) called “The Science of Deduction.” This the second chapter in the original “A Study in Scarlet” describing his methods after book-Watson finds his printed article, dully titled “The Book of Life.” Oddly this is also the title of chapter one in Doyle’s second book, “The Sign of Four,” in which Holmes makes deductions from Watson’s watch.
Watson looks up Sherlock online and says disbelievingly, “You said you could identify a software designer by his tie, and an airline pilot by his left thumb?” This appears to be a nod to a canon quote: “Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction! (“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”).
The lamps in Baker Street resemble gaslamps. Executive Producer Beryl Vertue notes: “It was interesting for everybody doing the interior of 221B Baker Street because, you know, we’re not into gas lamps, as I’ve said to you. This is contemporary; this is modern-day, but at the same time you need – for the Sherlock Holmes aficionados – not to just lose it totally” (“Unlocking Sherlock”).
The cluttered desk and mantelpiece, red walls, haphazard book piles, can all be seen in the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street today. Downstairs is a souvenir shop, not a café.
Of course, Sherlock keeps the sitting room in a terrible mess. His chemicals have been moved to the kitchen. Watson notes in the books:
An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man. But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs. (“The Musgrave Ritual”)
There’s a running joke about organs in the fridge and microwave. Watson mentions in the books: “Our chambers were always full of chemicals and of criminal relics which had a way of wandering into unlikely positions, and of turning up in the butter-dish or in even less desirable places” (“The Musgrave Ritual”).
In the books, Holmes doesn’t keep a skull around, but Sherlock appears to use it as just a head to listen to – on the show he tells John he’s a replacement for the skull. In fact, Holmes enjoys talking aloud to solve cases in both stories.
Mark Gatiss notes in a DVD special:
We were dressing various things in, and I spotted this picture, just there where it is now, and in the original stories Doctor Watson has an unframed picture of a man called Henry Ward Beecher. (He points to the picture.) This is not Henry Ward Beecher, but it’s a complete coincidence. The props people had just dressed in an unframed picture and I said, “Oh, leave that; that’s like a little accidental reference,” you know. Um...and obviously through there in the kitchen, which Sherlock has just completely converted into his laboratory, we’ve got a lot of microscope equipment and test tubes and stuff like that. (“Unlocking Sherlock”)
The three-patch problem is an update on the “three pipe problem” (“The Adventure of the Red-Headed League”). Benedict Cumberbatch notes that it would have looked strange if he had been smoking a pipe on the show and that he wants to maintain the message that “cigarettes are bad for you” (“The Great Game” DVD Commentary)
Modern Holmes has given up drugs and smoking (though continues with patches and skipping meals). He notes, “Impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days. Bad news for brain work.”
In the other modern retelling, Elementary, Sherlock Holmes is recovering from drugs and cigarettes. Cellphones, corporate crime, blogs, hacking, etc. feature heavily in both series.
Mrs. Hudson is the housekeeper in the books and appears to be a genteel widow. In the show, she insists constantly she’s not the housekeeper, and she owes Holmes for making sure her husband was condemned to death.
Mrs. Hudson mentions “Mrs. Turner next door.” Doyle accidentally renamed Mrs. Hudson “Mrs. Turner” in “A Scandal in Bohemia.” On the blog, Mrs. Hudson often posts from Mrs. Turner’s account, adding to the confusion.
Sherlock in both versions keeps his unopened letters on the mantelpiece, affixed by a knife.
Watson says in the books he has no family in England (many fans have added the facts of his “three continents” of experience with women and concluded he was born in Australia). Modern Sherlock observes that Watson clearly has no close relatives he likes.
Watson’s wound switches between shoulder and leg in the books (Doyle wasn’t the most consistent). On the show, Watson was shot in the shoulder but has a psychosomatic leg injury.
In “A Study in Pink,” John receives three text messages from Sherlock:
Baker Street. Come at once if convenient. SH
If inconvenient, come anyway. SH
Could be dangerous. SH
This is straight from the book: “It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1902 that I received one of Holmes’s laconic messages: ‘Come at once if convenient - if inconvenient come all the same – S.H.’” (“The Adventure of the Creeping Man”).
Mycroft’s aide ignores Watson. In the books, however, Watson’s implied to be something of a ladies man: In “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman,” Holmes tells his friend, “With your natural advantages, Watson, every lady if your helper and accomplice.”
“You should come down and meet the Mrs. Just remember she’s mine, Casanova!” – Bill Murray (Watson’s Blog, “Serial Suicides”). Thus Watson’s war buddy (Murray saved his life in the books) reminds viewers Watson really is a ladies’ man. Harry is skeptical, but Bill adds, “The things he got up to before we went out to A. Dirty boy!” Perhaps he’s just having an off year.
Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the City. Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.
Television Sherlock is far more annoying, dragging Watson across the city because he can’t bear to get up. On the show, as in the book passage above, Watson is surprised to learn the disciplined Holmes takes drugs.
Mrs. Hudson says their glee over the homicides isn’t “decent”; Watson likewise comments, “I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens to agree with you” (“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”) when Holmes complains about his recent boredom.
Holmes says “The game is afoot!” in “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” and Watson thinks it in “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge.” It’s one of Holmes’s most famous expressions. Here, Sherlock says, “The game is on,” for the first of several times. This will also nod to “The Game is Back On” in “Many Happy Returns.”
Mycroft is described here with the words “He is the British government,” a line from “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans” that will be repeated through the show. In the books, Mycroft coordinates departments with his massive brain and is indispensable though not necessarily that powerful. In the creators’ beloved The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) however, Mycroft heads many secret projects, as he does in this show.
Sherlock calls Mycroft “The most dangerous man you’ve ever met, and not my problem right now.” In the books, he calls Moran, Moriarty’s lieutenant, “The second most dangerous man in London” – Sherlock had appeared to be the first, but it could in fact be Mycroft. (“The Adventure of the Empty House”)
Mycroft’s three-piece suit and malacca-handled umbrella may nod to John Steed from The Avengers. As Mycroft leans on the umbrella and crosses one leg behind the other, he mimics Steed’s mannerisms. This emphasizes his role as spy and government agent.
Mycroft says, “If you do choose to move into two hundred and twenty-one B...” which is a line a character played by Charles Kay says in the Jeremy Brett series.
The establishing shot of Baker Street and the layout of Sherlock’s furniture are modern day versions of the Jeremy Brett scenes.
Angelo’s helper is named Billy. This is Sherlock’s “page” in “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone.”
The scene in which the police dismiss the dying woman’s message mirrors a scene in The Woman in Green (1945) where a victim clutches a matchbook as a clue. Likewise, in The Woman in Green, Moriarty sponsors a series of murders when he arranges mysterious deaths across London.
A murder victim scratches a message in “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman” – in this and “A Study in .Pink,” Holmes emphasizes putting himself in the victim’s place.
In the books, the detectives are sure RACHE is short for Rachel, and Holmes remarks it means revenge in German and is frequently used by secret societies…however, the letters don’t have a German flourish to them, so he’s sure it’s a false clue. On the show of course it’s reversed – the detectives think it’s “Revenge,” but Holmes concludes it is the name Rachel. “No, she was writing an angry note in German. Of course she was writing Rachel!” he says sarcastically.
The woman in pink’s wedding ring gives Sherlock several vital clues. Likewise, a wedding ring is the basis of the killer’s motivation in the original “A Study in Scarlet.”
The men follow a cab in “Hound of the Baskervilles,” and in “The Sign of Four,” Holmes reveals that he always knows where he’s being taken.
Cabs and guns follow the pair through all of their stories, mostly because they use those in canon. Nowadays, firearms are illegal, and Holmes and Watson might logically take the bus through London. But the producers decided to keep these essential Holmes attributes. Steven Moffat notes:
Now, you really wouldn’t be running round London [with a gun]; you wouldn’t be allowed! Also, we never actually say how he got that gun; it’s just there. It’s one of those marvelous things you can do in television: you say, ‘He’s got a gun,’ and it doesn’t seem incredible that a military man would have one. Maybe not supposed to have it but he’s got it. (“A Study in Pink” DVD Commentary)
The American cab driver Holmes catches is innocent because he’s recently come to London – in the book, an American is the murderer.
In the book, Holmes advertises using Watson’s name to lay a trap for the murderer – that he has a lost ring. On the show, he sends a similar text but that the victim is still alive. Both times, the villain escapes by using another person as a decoy.
Irene Adler says in her short story, “I had been warned against you months ago. I had been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly be you. And your address had been given me.” The cabbie is in the same situation.
Mycroft has a joke with the audience as he introduces himself as Sherlock’s “Archenemy” and wordlessly suggests he’s Moriarty. He’s far thinner than typical Mycrofts – one short story by Neil Gaiman sees Mycroft dying in his upstairs flat and his body being hoisted out and lowered like a piano. Thus as he wants to keep an eye on Sherlock, the viewers are fooled. This isn’t as big a twist as Elementary’s unique spin on Moriarty, but it’s big enough.
Moriarty tells Holmes in “The Final Problem,” “You stand in the way not merely of an individual, but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden under foot.”
JEFF: You’re not the only one to enjoy a good murder. There’s others out there just like you, except you’re just a man...and they’re so much more than that.
SHERLOCK: What d’you mean, more than a man? An organization? What? (“A Study in Pink”)
Sherlock tries luring the villain to Northumberland Street. This street and Northumberland Hotel appear in “The Illustrious Client,” “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”
Holmes prefers texting to calling. In “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot,” Watson notes, “He has never been known to write where a telegram would serve.”
Watson no longer lounges lazily about the house for weeks (as in the books), but is undergoing counseling for his admittedly psychosomatic injury, and blogs as therapy not an eagerness to sensationalize his colleague’s mysteries.
The shock blanket at the end mirrors Sherlock’s iconic cape when he stands up.
The running joke that Holmes would make a wonderful criminal is treated more seriously in the modern version, in which Officer Donovan and Watson express honest concern that this antisocial behavior and constant arrogance will lead to murder. Holmes calls himself “a high-functioning sociopath not a psychopath” – while the Victorian gentleman was considered eccentric with his cocaine, solitude, and lack of friends, the modern detective acknowledges his social failings.
Sherlock appears oblivious to the signals he’s giving off and should be receiving – when Molly Hooper asks him about going out for coffee, he requests some, treating her as his secretary. In Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991), Holmes is just as oblivious, inviting Irene Adler back to his hotel room just so he can have her try on a coat that’s evidence in a case. When she says a gentleman would escort her out, Holmes assigns Watson to the job.
Watson saves the day with his trusty army revolver – he brings it along in many stories and is sometimes forced to fire.
In “The Sign of Four,” Watson offers Holmes his watch as a friendly quiz:
“Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it from your father.”
“That you gather, no doubt, from the H. W. upon the back?”
“Quite so. The W. suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was made for the last generation. Jewelry usually descents to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have the same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many years. It has, therefore, been in the hands of your eldest brother.”
“Right, so far,” said I. “Anything else?”
“He was a man of untidy habits, – very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died. That is all I can gather.”
…
“But it was not mere guess-work?”
“No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit, – destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large inferences may depend. For example, I began by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe the lower part of that watch-case you notice that it is not only dinted in two places, but it is cut and marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys, in the same pocket. Surely it is no great feat to assume that a man who treats a fifty-guinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless man. Neither is it a very far-fetched inference that a man who inherits one article of such value is pretty well provided for in other respects.” I nodded, to show that I followed his reasoning.
“It is very customary for pawnbrokers in England, when they take a watch, to scratch the number of the ticket with a pin-point upon the inside of the case. It is more handy than a label, as there is no risk of the number being lost or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the inside of this case. Inference, – that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference, – that he had occasional bursts of prosperity, or he could not have redeemed the pledge.
Finally, I ask you to look at the inner plate, which contains the key-hole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole, – marks where the key has slipped. What sober man’s key could have scored those grooves? But you will never see a drunkard’s watch without them. He winds it at night, and he leaves these traces of his unsteady hand.
Episode one updates this to a cellphone, but the drunken charging (updated from winding), careless scratching, expense, gift from the older sibling, etc. are all intact. There’s one catch, Watson tells Sherlock – Harry is short for Harriet.
“Across the road, we saw a taxi pull up. We ran out, but it drove off. Sherlock insisted on chasing it and luckily he seemed to have an intimate knowledge of London’s backstreets. Of course, as I realized afterwards, he’s probably memorized the London A-Z” (Watson’s Blog, “A Study in Pink”). This last line of course foreshadows the cypher of “The Blind Banker.”
Pop Culture
Steven Moffat notes: “The moment you bring it up to date, you...it sort of becomes half the familiar Baker Street and half “Men Behaving Badly” because that’s what it is: it is these two fellas living in a flat, putting dreadful things in the fridge.” (“Unlocking Sherlock”)
The typeface used in the overlays is Johnston Sans, well-known for its use in the London Underground.
Apparently Molly introduced Moriarty to Glee. (Molly Hooper’s Blog)
Innuendo
Holmes doesn’t confirm whether he’s gay or straight, leaving the fandom to speculate. He also, in an awkward moment, thinks Watson is asking him out. He responds, “John, you should know that I consider myself married to my work, and while I’m flattered by your interest, I’m really not looking for any kind of...”
At the time the original stories were written, Watson and Holmes were considered bachelors providing each other with company until Watson’s marriage. Fan speculation about homosexuality comes from a more modern lens. On the other hand, some adaptations such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) emphasize that there could have been Victorian-era speculation about the pair.
John, on his blog gushes for some time about Sherlock and how irritating, fascinating, etc., he finds him. The girlfriends he dates through the series barely rate a mention.
MRS HUDSON (pointing upwards): There’s another bedroom upstairs...(she winks)...if you’ll be needing two bedrooms.
JOHN: Well, of course we’ll be needing two.
MRS HUDSON: Oh, don’t worry; there’s all sorts round here. Mrs. Turner next door’s got married ones. (“A Study in Pink”)
ANGELO: Anything on the menu, whatever you want, free. All on the house, you and your date.
SHERLOCK (to John): Do you want to eat?
JOHN (to Angelo): I’m not his date. (“A Study in Pink”)
MYCROFT: What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?
JOHN: I don’t have one. I barely know him. I met him...yesterday.
MYCROFT: Hmm, and since yesterday you’ve moved in with him and now you’re solving crimes together. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?
Locations
The actual address used for filming the exteriors of 221B Baker Street is 187 North Gower Street, London NW1. There was a possibility of filming in Baker Street, but Mark Gatiss notes that “it would have been madness, apart from the fact that you would have had to disguise a hundred thousand things with ‘Sherlock Holmes’ on them,” and the road was just too busy. (“The Great Game” DVD Commentary)
Speedy’s Cafe, which is a genuine sandwich bar, exists on site, with Sherlock-flavored menu items.
The ancient Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital appears in most episodes. (Once a medical treatment center, it’s now an actual research facility.) Holmes and Watson meet here in both the original and “A Study in Pink.” This is also the site of his Reichenbach Fall.
Sherlock’s friend Angelo’s restaurant was called Tierra Brindisa at the time of filming – now it’s Tapas Brindisa Soho.
Scotland Yard, so famous in the stories, still exists, though it’s moved from the street Great Scotland Yard. The Metropolitan Police Force work there, and its database runs on a nationwide IT system named the “Home Office Large Major Enquiry System” or HOLMES for short. The software training program is named Elementary.
Actor Allusions
Martin Freeman begins the first episode is in a dressing gown and pajamas. He dressed similarly in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. In both roles, he played a normal British man being dragged along on wild, larger-than-life adventures by a near-lunatic. Of course, this also describes his role in The Hobbit. Cumberbatch gets a promotion as Smaug and the Necromancer.
Doctor Who
The first actor to audition for John Watson was Matt Smith who, of course, went on to take a role in Doctor Who instead. They auditioned several very good actors but the moment they put Martin with Benedict, it changed Benedict and the way he played the role. “He was suddenly more like Sherlock Holmes,” says Moffat (“A Study in Pink” DVD Commentary).
Many filming locations like the art museum of “The Blind Banker” or the cemetery of Holmes’s grave are also used on Doctor Who. Both shows are actually filmed in Cardiff, except when location shots are used.
David Tennant’s Doctor and Jack Harkness are both known for their ultra-cool long coats.
Sherlock asks John and Lestrade what it’s like to live inside such tiny minds in “A Study in Pink.” In Moffat’s Doctor Who episode “The Doctor Dances,” the Doctor asks Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness almost the exact same question.
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