# BBC Sherlock **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829 "2011-01-08T02:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829/21 "2011-01-12T12:55:53Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I thought this series was delightful, and have been recommending it to lots of people I know. I think they did a very good job of modernizing the characters and mysteries while remaining true in spirit to the original stories. There are plenty of nice little details and in-jokes referring back to “the canon” – I’m sure more than I picked up on, as I’m not the most hardcore of Sherlockians. My favorite was the bit with Holmes and the three nicotine patches. That’s funny enough in and of itself, but even funnier if you know that in “The Red Headed League” Holmes says “It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes” before proceeding to smoke three pipes. (Although not all at once!) The DVD set has a commentary track, in which they mention several other in-jokes. One that I didn’t catch was that the kid in the early sequences who goes to get an umbrella during the rainstorm was named Phillimore, referencing an untold Watson story referenced in the opening of “The Problem of Thor Bridge” about “Mr. James Phillimore, who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world.” Now THAT’S obscure. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829/22 "2011-01-12T13:18:17Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > In both the big screen and BBC version, I was surprised and entertained by the idea that Sherlock might lean a bit Gay…as a Gay guy, that concept had never crossed my mind before. Supposedly, in the original stories, Arthur Conan Doyle married off Watson to either prevent or end such rumors - as a gay hero in Vicotrian times would simply not have been acceptable. So the issue of “gay” isn’t a new one, but since Doyle _clearly_ (in my mind) did not envision Holmes as gay I’d have to say that, any appearances, rumors, or quirks to the contrary, he’s not gay. So I view it as the man being so assured of what he actually is (either straight or asexual) that he’s not worried about other peoples’ wrong conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829/23 "2011-01-12T23:42:07Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Supposedly, in the original stories, Arthur Conan Doyle married off Watson to either prevent or end such rumors - as a gay hero in Vicotrian times would simply not have been acceptable. Do you have a cite for that? It strikes me as pretty unlikely for a number of reasons. First, Watson married very early on in the Holmes canon. He meets and falls in love with Mary in _The Sign of Four_. Second, Watson’s wife (or wives, it’s implied that Mary died and he later remarried) isn’t much of a beard because she’s barely mentioned in later stories. Finally, a heroic homosexual in mainstream Victorian fiction would have been so unlikely that I doubt many readers of the time would ever have even entertained the notion that the two bachelor roommates might actually be in a romantic/sexual relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829/24 "2011-01-13T09:34:02Z")
Lamia’s right - in the time the books were set, for the classes that Holmes/Watson belonged to men ONLY spent time with other men and their wives (unless they were courting). The sexes were pretty much completely segregated socially as was becoming and Christian. Gentlemen’s clubs existed not because men liked to get fruity with each other, but because they’d spent their entire lives in other males’ companies and didn’t know anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829/25 "2011-01-13T11:01:04Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Do you have a cite for that? If I could recall where I read that and who wrote it from 30 years ago, sure, I don’t think it will resurface in my memory at that point. It’s not original with me - at the time it never occurred to me, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-sherlock/566829.md?page=1)