Sherlock is the classic fan-boy reinvention of the novel series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is set in modern day London away from the "fog of the Victorian era" so that his skills and personality are better understood by modern audiences. The two writers, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, were boy hood detective lovers who came together to write this modern interpretation of the Holmes story. In this behind the scenes peek, the two writers sit down and talk about not only their process for writing and directing the cast, but also about the history of Sherlock Holmes as a literary and screen character. Doyle's novels became incredibly popular in the early 1900's and were serialized in England. By the end of his career, their were 4 novels and over 50 short stories that featured Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr. John Watson. Since then, there have been countless film adaptations of the stories. Ever since film became a medium of story telling there have been Sherlocks to watch. Many of which were popular during the life of the original author. By taking all of these references into consideration, Moffat and Gatiss were able to come up with their comprehensive cast of characters and stories that, to date, have made three seasons worth of suspense and intrigue.
As discussed in the documentary, Sherlock Holmes is a most difficult man and character to get across to an audience. He is not a pleasant man, yet audiences must connect with him in order to follow his lead through the many crime scenes he enters. He must be erratic and over conscious of his own intellect and power, but he also must be internally very emotional hence Irene Adler and the violin playing. But in short, he is an obsessive being, who lives for the chase and finds himself utterly lost in boredom when he is not on the case. In the modern update it was important to the writers to show that Sherlock had his addictions, but not to over emphasis them as so many had done before. The character of Sherlock Holmes was a cocaine and morphine user. Only used when bored, of course, but nevertheless his drug habits were often very prominent in previous adaptations. In Sherlock, Sherlock uses nicotine to stimulate his senses, but he does not use it as a crutch like so many others would lead the viewers to believe.
Another vastly important and prominent character in this adaptation is that of Watson. The good doctor who is more patient than any other person in conjunction with Sherlock and is the only one who open marvels at his abilities and talents for deduction. As Martin Freeman puts it, Watson is the embodiment of the audience. He reacts the way we do; some days he stands in awe of Sherlock's talents and others he is completely baffled by his ignorance and arrogance towards the rest of common society. Moffat and Gatiss made the conscience decision to make Watson a co-lead in their series, a trend which started after an infamous performance by actor Nigel Bruce in the 14 film serial of the 1940s. Ever since his comical interpretation of the character, Watson became an integral part of the Sherlock story, even though without him the story wouldn't have ever existed he had fallen by the wayside in film adaptations until this point. In this modern version he is the sanity behind the madman detective and a clear favorite of the viewing public.
Another integral character to the story of Sherlock Holmes is the actual law force of Scotland Yard. G. Lestrade is the lead detective that uses Sherlock's help in cases and is often portrayed as a more bumbling character because he is good, but he is also aware of the fact that he will never be as good as Sherlock. When the novels were being written, forensic science was just being born. Finger printing hadn't really been delved into as much as it could have been and deduction was used in the stead of science, which is why Sherlock was so invaluable to the force. But Sherlock, true to the original written form was a scientist in his own right. Modern versions of these stories tend to overlook that aspect of his investigation. Sherlock, in fact, only references it in passing with a dismembered hand or head in the fridge as part of an experiment rather than an active part of the narrative. Benedict Cumberbatch, the leading lad of Sherlock, explains that it's his self established authority on crime scenes that takes the audience a bit by surprise. We don't expect him to just take over; what gives him the right, but after the facts have been established it's Sherlock who is able to take the police force to the next step through his thought process and intelligence for all things murder related. It's rather morbid when you dwell on it.
This BBC documentary takes all the information of the characters and the past history of Sherlock Holmes and combines it into one, easy to digest, informative episode. Many of the actors get involved in the examination of their individual characters and the actual influences on their series as well as commentary from the directors, writers, and producers of Sherlock. Intermixed with the explanations is archived footage of various Sherlock Holmes films and series footage from the episodes in the first two seasons, as well as passage readings from the novels brought to the screen by co-writer Mark Gatiss. This is incredibly helpful in catching up if you have waited a while before revisiting the series. It is terrible, though, if you have never seen the episodes in order or have read the books well enough to know the story arches. The opening scene is the season 2 finale, which made many hearts drop when it premiered, but if you haven't seen it then you really shouldn't ruin your appetite with it here until you are ready. Once you jump into this little masterpiece of a series, it's rather hard to crawl your way back out.
