First, what do we know about she?
- is alcoholic
- was married with a woman
- John don't get along well with her

From the comments on John's blog, i have the feeling that she has quite a sense of humour.  She tries to be more in contact to John than John to her, she seems worried sometimes about him.

From the blog: -she is 36 at the time of ASIP.

Anything else?

Last edited by A lovely light (August 31, 2014 8:02 pm)

I think she calls herself Harry, but her name is Harriet in official acts. John says " Harry is short from Harriet". 

Now i undertsnad what you mean. Yeah, that she choose and indentifies herself as Harry, is very important.

She was invited.   Mary consoles John when she doesn't show,   and John tries to justifiy it by pointing out that with the free bar at the reception,  it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

I would have loved if Amanda had been given Harriets part, that would have been great!

I have difficulties in choosing an actress to play Harry just because i have difficulties to imagine Harry as character. 

Itshould be a person who doesn't get along well with John. And in such a sublte way that John won't get to her for help.  They share the same family history and both are pretty bad at dealing with some challanges in life. 

One possibility is that both are so similar as characters and so bad in communication that they block each other. Perhaps too much water under the bridge, to much asserted from both parts. 

The other one is that Harry is a very extrovert personality who would challange and chase John every time about his feelings and life outlook. To what John, as a stubborn and repressed personality, as someone who find very difficult to talk about his inner world, don't react well. 

I am a little partial to the second possibility. Harry tries a lot to contact  John, puts questions, some quite explicit. John try to avoid to contact her, to explain her what is going on. Buuuuuuut, how does it works with why Harry doesn't come to the wedding. John looks dissapointed because of it (and Mary knows that it means a lot, because this is a very seldom scene where she is very empathic to him). and does it work with her being an alcoholic?

Last edited by A lovely light (September 3, 2014 9:45 am)

I imagine to be Harry somewhat of an opposite to John.
Small, yes, because John is too.
But less reserved, outgoing (rather too much), expressive, talkative...
I picture her as noisy, and a bit annoying, but I don't know why.
Also in my mind she's always dark-haired. And not very slim.
And I think she has affection for John (and he for her), but they just cannot make it work.
I like to think Mrs. Hudson would get along with her, also maybe Molly and Lestrade, but not John, Sherlock and Mary.

(on that note, I just realise I would really appreciate a female character in the show with a name that doesn't end on -y )

Last edited by Whisky (September 3, 2014 10:07 pm)

Whisky wrote:

(on that note, I just realise I would really appreciate a female character in the show with a name that doesn't end on -y )

Irene? Martha (Hudson)? Elizabeth (Smallwood)? Sarah (Sawyer)? Janine? 'Anthea'? Claudette 'Claudie' Bruhl?

Yeah, I know that's super specific to more minor characters, but they do exist. 

Actually, I've wondered about the names.  Mary is an unusual name for somebody of Mary's age, but obviously it had to be taken from the books.  Irene as well (it's a name which is too "old" for the character - how many 30 year old Irenes are around?   But Janine is also too "old".   Molly is possibly too "young".  Anthea is a little too old, I think.  The men's names are mostly classic (John, James) or unusual enough to be timeless (Sherlock, Mycroft). 

I haven't pictured Harry beyond looking a bit like John. 

Oh, I missed that!  Andrea is a little old too, though.  Not that it matters, but just something that struck me about the names.