The Scriptorium

I was inspired to post this entry because of a discussion I had with electrikviolet about The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes references in "The Empty Hearse". I only just got around to re-watching the episode today (probably because I'm home for the second day in a row with some kind of stomach bug/fever thing and I finished off The White Queen yesterday), so I've only just contacted poor electrikviolet about that second possible allusion. Anywaaaaaaaaaay, I thought it might be fun to catalogue the various references to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes that I've noticed throughout the three series. I doubt this will be anything new for fans of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, especially as Moffat and Gatiss have already pointed out the major influence that the film has had on their Sherlock Holmes incarnation. And, yes, I realize that I may only be writing this post for my own benefit, but, to quote Lestrade, "I'm cool with it." The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is my favourite Sherlock Holmes film and Robert Stephens is my second favourite Sherlock Holmes, so I'm going for it. If nothing else, it keeps me from napping. *g*


Mycroft

Mycroft was lifted directly from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Both Moffat and Gatiss have admitted it. In The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft (Christopher Lee) is very tall, very thin and very pompous. Like the Mycroft from Sherlock, he has made Diogenes his base for certain government operations. He's heavily involved in espionage and pointedly tells Holmes to drop the Valladon case. He's also a master of veiled threats. One of my favourite lines from the film is when he says to Watson, "My dear doctor, the last member of your profession who warned me about that was crossing Piccadilly when he slipped on some orange peel and was run over by a delivery van from Fortnum & Mason."

Of course, one of the biggest influences that The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has had on Sherlock is the highly antagonistic relationship between Sherlock and Mycroft. I believe that The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was the first time that we saw any kind of friction between Sherlock and Mycroft. In fact, I think Sherlock may only be the second time we've seen such a relationship between both brothers on screen. The best example of this antagonism can be seen in this clip from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

A Scandal in Belgravia

This episode is just brimming with references to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. You just have to see Irene Adler prancing around naked to realize that...And if you don't want to be spoiled, I would strongly recommend that you scroll past this section.

In this episode, Irene Adler is very much a Gabrielle Valladon. She uses her beauty, charm and wit to bewitch and trick Holmes. While I still maintain that the "love affair" in Sherlock is purely on a cerebral level, I think Holmes does fall in love with Gabrielle Valladon in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. On the train ride to Scotland, Holmes admits that he has loved women before, though every experience ended badly. Very badly. I suppose, then, that it shouldn't be surprising that there isn't a happy ending with Holmes and Gabrielle either. Gabrielle isn't Gabrielle Valladon at all, but a German spy (Ilse von Hoffmanstal) who is posing as the dead woman. Ilse uses Holmes to get to the British government's top secret plans for a submersible. Sound familiar? You may recall that Irene uses Sherlock to get at Mycroft, and, in both The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock, Holmes receives a thorough dressing down by his brother. Interestingly, both Irene Adler and Ilse von Hoffmanstal face execution, but only Irene Adler is saved. However, a surprisingly sentimental Ilse is living under the name of Mrs. Ashdown (her cover when she and Holmes were posing as a married couple) when she's captured by the Japanese, so it's obvious that Holmes left his mark on her as well. Oh! And there is a scene in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in which "Gabrielle" appears before Holmes naked, so I think it's safe to say that Moffat was influenced by this particular moment as well.

Oh, it's also interesting to note that in "His Last Vow," Mary Morstan turns out not to be Mary Morstan at all, but an ex-spy/assassin who took over the identity of a dead woman. I'd argue that this is also an allusion to Ilse von Hoffmanstal in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes .


Homosexuality

I'm sure there were jokes being made about Holmes and Watson long before The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, but I think this was first big or small screen adaptation that joked so openly about the possibility of Holmes and Watson being a gay couple. To escape from a rather awkward situation involving a Russian ballerina, Holmes claims that he and Watson are lovers, which lead to some absolutely hilarious results, such as Watson's initial fury and then complete panic over the situation:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

I'd be very surprised if Moffat, Gatiss and Thompson hadn't been influenced by the gay jokes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. In fact, I know they were because I found a version of the "Then they'd really talk" line cropping up a couple of times when I re-watched "The Reichenbach Fall".


Other Quotes

In "The Empty Hearse," Gatiss takes a quote straight out of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes when he has Mrs. Hudson repeating the line from the other Mrs. Hudson when she says, "I'm sure there's a crying need for that." I'm not absolutely sure about the second quote, but, when learning that the skeleton case is a hoax, Lestrade says, "It seemed so promising," which is a possible echo of Watson's "It seemed so promising" line from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Like Lestrade, Watson is expressing disappointment in a potential case that ends before it even begins...or, so it seems, at the time...


As usual, there are probably references I'm missing, but I've done my best to list all the ones I've noticed in Sherlock.