# Survey says.... half of Brits think Sherlock Holmes is real. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 4, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202 "2008-02-04T12:17:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/21 "2008-02-04T22:29:11Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] You mean, he’s _not_ real? ☹ :: sobs quietly in corner :: [/QUOTE] Of course he’s real. Don’t let these nebobs of negativism distract you from the logical course. I will grant you he is extremely old currently and doesn’t get out much especially since the global warming thingy has played havoc with his bees, but should the empire need him he will be Johnny on the spot. Sadly, both Dr. Watson and Mycroft have long since died, but Watson’s great-granddaughter does wheel him around and Mycroft’s grandson (the son of the off spring of a delightful frolic with magician’s assistant who was playing the Paladium in Mycroft’s 88th year) still keeps Holmes up on the goings on around Whithall and Downing Street. Do you really think that the catching of the tube terrorists had anything to do with cameras catching them in the act? Posh and pishposh, I say. Once again Scotland Yard called on Holmes, and once again he delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/22 "2008-02-04T22:30:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] I’m getting the impression that UKTV Gold might not be the most academically rigorous institution over there… might I ask why? Is it a tabloid type station? [/QUOTE] here’s a list of their current line-up: > [@](#): > > ``` > * > Absolutely Fabulous > * | > Blackadder > * | > Carry On > * | > Dad’s Army > * | > EastEnders > * | > Fawlty Towers > * | > Gimme Gimme Gimme > * | > Harry Enfield > * | > I’m Alan Partridge > * | > Jim’ll Fix It > * | > Last Of The Summer Wine > * | > Little Britain > * | > My Family > * | > One Foot In The Grave > * | > Only Fools And Horses > * | > Open All Hours > * | > Porridge > * | > Prison Break > * | > Sharpe > * | > The A-Team > * | > The Bill > * | > The Catherine Tate Show > * | > The Fast Show > * | > The Office > * | > The Royle Family > * | > The Vicar Of Dibley > * | > Wogan Now And Then > * | > Yes Minister > > ``` Some decent programmes there, at any rate far from the worst channel we have. [Here’s a fuller version of the survey](http://uktv.co.uk/gold/stepbystep/aid/598605) - there are some confusions there that are IMO a bit more understandable than Churchill and Holmes. Isn’t the Mona Lisa a painting of a real person, for example? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/23 "2008-02-04T22:34:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] From what I recall, they weren’t claiming to have surveyed a quarter of the British population. The headline referred to the fact that a quarter of the people surveyed thought Winston Churchill was fictional. [/QUOTE] From the survey I link above it seems that that figure is largely made-up of the under twenties? I wonder how much under-twenty they were? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/24 "2008-02-05T00:14:55Z")
Hmm. From **Struan** ’s link to the survey: > [@](#): > > Top ten fictional characters that the British public thinks are real > > ``` > * 1) King Arthur – 65% > * 2) Sherlock Holmes – 58% > * 3) Robin Hood – 51% > * 4) Eleanor Rigby – 47% > * 5) Mona Lisa -35% > * 6) Dick Turpin – 34% > * 7) Biggles – 33% > * 8) The Three Musketeers – 17% > * 9) Lady Godiva – 12% > * 10) Robinson Crusoe – 5% > > ``` [Dick Turpin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin) and [Lady Godiva](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godiva) are actual historical figures, though the stories most commonly associated with them are fictional. Dumas used the names of actual musketeers of the period for The Three Musketeers (see e.g. [Athos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athos_%28fictional_character%29)), so, while their historical basis is extremely slender, they do have a deliberate connection with real people. The identity of the sitter for the Mona Lisa is something people argue about, but most of these assume that she was an actual person and there’s pretty good evidence that she was [Lisa del Giocondo](http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2246872,00.html). The historical basis for King Arthur and Robin Hood are subjects people argue about, with the range of suggestions spanning complete inventions at a later date through to identifications with specific recorded individuals. Sherlock Holmes and Robinson Crusoe are fictional characters commonly recognised as having been _inspired_ by specific well-recorded individuals. Eleanor Rigby and Biggles are fictional. Not the most entirely convincing effort at producing a list of _unambiguiously_ fictional characters to poll people about and then make a fuss about their confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/25 "2008-02-05T02:43:38Z")
[QUOTE=bonzer] Not the most entirely convincing effort at producing a list of _unambiguiously_ fictional characters to poll people about and then make a fuss about their confusion. [/QUOTE] Reading that complete list, I’d have to agree. I will call most of that understandable error, but I can’t quite get over the idea that a significant percentage thought Winston Churchill was fictional. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/26 "2008-02-05T02:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=TV time] Of course he’s real. Don’t let these nebobs of negativism distract you from the logical course. I will grant you he is extremely old currently and doesn’t get out much especially since the global warming thingy has played havoc with his bees, but should the empire need him he will be Johnny on the spot. Sadly, both Dr. Watson and Mycroft have long since died, but Watson’s great-granddaughter does wheel him around and Mycroft’s grandson (the son of the off spring of a delightful frolic with magician’s assistant who was playing the Paladium in Mycroft’s 88th year) still keeps Holmes up on the goings on around Whithall and Downing Street. Do you really think that the catching of the tube terrorists had anything to do with cameras catching them in the act? Posh and pishposh, I say. Once again Scotland Yard called on Holmes, and once again he delivered. [/QUOTE] I love you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/27 "2008-02-05T03:22:40Z")
Ignorance is one of the few true universals. From [this Wired article](http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi?currentPage=all) on high-tech efforts to piece together shredded Stasi surveillance files: “By preserving and reconstructing the Stasi archives, BStU staffers say they hope to keep history from repeating itself. In November, the first children born after the fall of the wall turned 18. Evidence suggests many of them have serious gaps in their knowledge of the past. In a survey of Berlin high school students, only half agreed that the GDR was a dictatorship. Two-thirds didn’t know who built the Berlin Wall.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/28 "2008-02-05T03:28:20Z")
And I made a post earlier that went AWOL! ☹ Who has stolen it? Oh, would that we could get a good detective on the case. Oh, where shall we find one? (It was very unusually witty and clever, but you must all just take my word for it now.) Although it DID, at least, explain that Winston Churchill is entirely a fiction, invented only to be a name for that entity that all newborn babies look like. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/29 "2008-02-05T03:47:21Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] Fictional characters are as real as we wish them to be. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msherlock.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msherlock.html) […] [/QUOTE] Can I just say, that is an OUTSTANDING staff report by **Dex**. It was that sort of writing that brought me to the dope. ETA: [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9441037&postcount=16) ya go, **Celyn**. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/30 "2008-02-05T06:31:33Z")
Well, when I was in London in 2005, I visited [221B Baker Street](http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/home.htm) and looked around his rooms. (On Baker Street, but down the block from the real 221.) They have a book there full of letters that they have received for Mr. Holmes, asking for his help with various cases. Some from kids, some from adults. The most interesting one was from Inland Revenue, to the present owners of the property, asking for their help in locating Mr. Holmes, since he had apparently not been properly paying his taxes for several years. I asked one of the people that worked there about it, he said they really received it but weren’t sure if it was a joke or meant for real. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/31 "2008-02-05T06:34:45Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] And a lot of the French think the sun revolves around the earth. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/42xykzW27Q4/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/42xykzW27Q4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque [/QUOTE] Well, of course. How could it revolve about Paris if it did not revolve around the Earth? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202/32 "2008-02-05T06:52:46Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] Fictional characters are as real as we wish them to be. [/QUOTE] Naturally…we all remember that episode of the Real Ghostbusters with Holmes’ “ghost,” right? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survey-says-half-of-brits-think-sherlock-holmes-is-real/436202.md?page=1)