BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » How old are Sherlock and John supposed to be?

Sherlockita · October 16, 2012 4:34 am

Sammy wrote:
monitaa wrote:
I will go with Davina's logic..
Sherlock appears to me 32-32 types
Soooo... he's 32? Haha, sorry

Always figured they would be about as old as their actors, maybe a few years younger.

Hey..I meant 32-34 . Thanks for pointing it out!

besleybean · October 16, 2012 6:28 am

I feel I did Mark an injustice!
He's got a few years yet, before he joins Steven and I at 50!

221B Baker Street · October 16, 2012 11:40 am

Well, perhaps, according to the canon, Sherlock is about 30-33, but in the series he looks and especially behaves as being about 28 . And John looks older than Microft, perhaps because of his wrinkles.

hypergreenfrog · October 16, 2012 2:20 pm

221B Baker Street wrote:
Well, perhaps, according to the canon, Sherlock is about 30-33, but in the series he looks and especially behaves as being about 28 . And John looks older than Microft, perhaps because of his wrinkles.

I am not sure if you are being sarcastic here or not, but what exactly is the difference between behaving like you're 28 and behaving like 32??

I don't know how old you are or how many people in this age bracket you know, but the vast majority of my friends and work mates is between 25-35, and I can assure you that they all behave in their very own ways, virtually irrespective of age. Of course, most people slowly mature as they grow older, but grown ups are not like small children, you cannot tell someone's age that precisely anymore.

The fact that John looks older than we would expect could be attributed to the fact that he was in Afganistan, your skins tends to age faster in hot, arid climates, and bad quality of water can make it worse (I speak from experience ).

221B Baker Street · October 17, 2012 2:38 am

hypergreenfrog, I am not sarcastic at all. Perhaps for you there is no difference between people aged 28 or 32, as for me I see the difference very clearly. There are always some hints in behaviour or especially their reaction to some situations that point to some certain age. Yes, there are individuals who are mature above their age, but even in this case their age is vivid.
By the way, I am 28 and my friends and co-workers are about 25-35 too.

Davina · October 17, 2012 6:48 pm

Gosh! Mark will be terribly happy with that estimate!

veecee · October 17, 2012 7:04 pm

Generally speaking, I think actors tend to play something near their true age or a little younger, unless it's a character part requiring a lot of makeup or "age acting."

I wish Sherlock had gotten the green light and the funding a little earlier so we could have seen more of the maturing process.

Still, Sherlock acts very immature at times, whatever age he is supposed to be chronologically.

Wholockkie · January 7, 2013 9:00 pm

I always put him around 33 in the first series, cause he said he was a kid when the Carl Powers case happened, but for some reason I just assumed he was around 12 when that happened, not quite a teenager, but old enough to be into that kind of stuff, and that case was in 1989, right? So that would mean he was born about 1977, which would mean he was 33 in the first season, 34 in the second season. I always put John at around the same age as Sherlock. Sounds good that Mycroft's 7 years older than him, I always put him in his 40s.

Mary Me · January 9, 2013 7:40 pm

221B Baker Street wrote:
hypergreenfrog, I am not sarcastic at all. Perhaps for you there is no difference between people aged 28 or 32, as for me I see the difference very clearly. There are always some hints in behaviour or especially their reaction to some situations that point to some certain age. Yes, there are individuals who are mature above their age, but even in this case their age is vivid.
By the way, I am 28 and my friends and co-workers are about 25-35 too.

Strange. I don't see much difference in behaviour between people aged 28 and 32. If you would speak about a 12 year old and a 16 year old, I would say yes: There's a huge different.

But for me Sherlock looks like ~35, John a few years older and Mycroft in the middle of the 40s.
What about the other characters like Molly or Irene Adler?
Sherlock mentioned Irene was born in the 80s, so I suppose her to be between 26 and 30.

AliceI · February 22, 2013 5:38 am

Mary Me wrote:
221B Baker Street wrote:
hypergreenfrog, I am not sarcastic at all. Perhaps for you there is no difference between people aged 28 or 32, as for me I see the difference very clearly. There are always some hints in behaviour or especially their reaction to some situations that point to some certain age. Yes, there are individuals who are mature above their age, but even in this case their age is vivid.
By the way, I am 28 and my friends and co-workers are about 25-35 too.
Strange. I don't see much difference in behaviour between people aged 28 and 32. If you would speak about a 12 year old and a 16 year old, I would say yes: There's a huge different.

But for me Sherlock looks like ~35, John a few years older and Mycroft in the middle of the 40s.
What about the other characters like Molly or Irene Adler?
Sherlock mentioned Irene was born in the 80s, so I suppose her to be between 26 and 30.

I thought Irene Adler looked older. Late thirties at least. Yes she is a pretty woman, but I saw the signs of age around her eyes and mouth in particular.

besleybean · February 22, 2013 6:53 am

Well I don't think she's supposed to be any older than Sherlock.
Do you mean Irene was made up to look older?
Or are you saying Lara looked older?

Davina · February 22, 2013 10:24 am

Lara herself is only 32 years old now.

AliceI · February 22, 2013 11:09 am

besleybean wrote:
Well I don't think she's supposed to be any older than Sherlock.
Do you mean Irene was made up to look older?
Or are you saying Lara looked older?

I have no idea if the actress looks older than she actually is or if the make up was done that way, but I thought the whole time that she was older than Sherlock - more Mycroft's age. I wondered why the dominatrix wasn't someone younger, but then thought that maybe an older woman is the one who would have the maturity to pull off knicking all those secrets and have the restraint to hold them for protection only.

Lily · February 22, 2013 12:39 pm

The newspaper article shown in 'A Scandal in Belgravia' (or is it just in the Casebook?) states that John is 37. This article should be from summer 2010, which means that John was born at some point in 1972 or 1973. (Martin Freeman is born 1971.)
The Casebook also says that 'Richard Brook' was born in 1976, so we can assume that this is Moriarty's real birth year? (It's Andrew Scott's real birth year, too.)
Molly is 31 in January 2010, which makes her birth year either 1978 or 1979. (Like Louise Brealey, who was born in 1979.)
Irene is 'clearly born in the 80s'), so she is in her late twenties when she first encounters Sherlock. (Like Lara Pulver was born in 1980.)

These fictional birth dates are all identical or close to the real birth year of the actors, so I would assume that Sherlock is supposed to being born around 1976-1979. Especially in the first series he looks really young, so I would rather go for 1979, which means that he first meets John only three weeks after his 31nd birthday and 'dies' at the age of 32.
I'd put the age difference between Sherlock and Mycroft somewhere between seven years (canon) and ten years (age of the actors), so he should be around 39, 40? (Mark Gatiss was born in 1966, do you think he looks much older than 39/40 or could that be right?)

AliceI · February 22, 2013 4:28 pm

Lily wrote:
The Casebook also says that 'Richard Brook' was born in 1976, so we can assume that this is Moriarty's real birth year? (It's Andrew Scott's real birth year, too.)

What is the Casebook you have refered to, and how would someone get it?

SusiGo · February 22, 2013 4:33 pm

Have a look at this page.

http://www.sherlockology.com/shop

AliceI · February 22, 2013 4:41 pm

Thanks SusiGo,
I'll look the site over and see if I can find a DVD set that will play in Region 1. That is the biggest problem getting dvds from a different region. I had the same problem when I fell in ove with BBCs Merlin. Trying to get a DVD that would play on an American machine. Then Nextflix started to carry it so I stopped trying to find a set in the correct region.

tobeornot221b · February 22, 2013 4:54 pm

Alice, here's the link to Sherlock: The Casebook

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-The-Casebook-Guy-Adams/dp/1849904251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361551975&sr=8-1

It will also be available from amazon.com in July 2013

SusiGo · February 22, 2013 5:06 pm

Sorry, Alice, I wanted to post the link to the casebook in the Sherlockology shop. But I see that Tobe helped you already.

Lily · February 22, 2013 5:30 pm

On Tumblr many people assume that Sherlock was born in 1981, but this is clearly a misinformation.
A girl on Tumblr, who was one of the first to get the Casebook, said that she could clearly see a bit of the number 1 on Sherlock's tombstone (there's a picture of it in the book) but I have looked at it very closely and I definitely can't see anything. Flowers cover most of the inscription, the only thing legibly are a few letters of the word 'January' and the number 6, which at least confirms that his birthday is January 6th.

Last edited by Lily (February 24, 2013 2:14 pm)