BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Mycroft's "I'll be mother"..

**Posted by Mattlocked** September 30, 2012 12:50 pm

I'm not addicted to pictures, no, I'm not!

**Posted by Ivy** September 30, 2012 4:36 pm

Already posted

http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=23298#p23298

It's lovely, isn't it?

**Posted by Davina** September 30, 2012 4:41 pm

Love the sweaters pic. All rather Weasley-like, although their mother looks like Glen Close.

**Posted by Sherli Bakerst** September 30, 2012 5:08 pm

So perhaps Sherlock was speaking from personal experience when he laid into the fisherman wearing the awful Christmas sweater in Hounds???

**Posted by Ivy** September 30, 2012 6:02 pm

Davina wrote:
Love the sweaters pic. All rather Weasley-like, although their mother looks like Glen Close.

We thought she looks like Meryl Streep, the person who draw this said she actally thought of Meryl.

**Posted by Arya** September 30, 2012 8:23 pm

And the expressions on their faces...

**Posted by Davina** September 30, 2012 8:34 pm

Maybe I really meant Meryl. Actually perhaps she could have used Wanda Ventham as the mother.

**Posted by deerstalker** October 1, 2012 3:27 pm

I've taken that dialogue to mean that Mycroft always assumed he had the right to control and direct Sherlock ( as the older brother, as the smarter brother, more responsible, more reasonable, whatever- and then, much later, as the brains behind the British Government). And Sherlock always resented it and went against Mycroft's wishes quite a few times; thus the old friction. The fact that it is wrapped in a word-play is the icing on the cake and one of the things that makes "Sherlock" spectacular.

**Posted by tobeornot221b** October 7, 2012 8:54 am

Sherlock's rejection of tie pins and cufflinks may be part of a pubertal rebellion against Mycroft ("mother"!):

**Posted by harleyq** November 3, 2012 3:10 pm

The Doctor wrote:
.. watched a few excerpts of Scandal with an uninitiated colleague who is quite young - and ended up discussing dialogue. And I realised I never quite thought about Mycroft's "I'll be mother". So I checked:

It's normally heard as Shall I be mother? meaning 'Shall I pour the tea?' It's used because pouring the tea has traditionally been seen as a mother's role. I suspect it's now heard less than it once was for various social rather than linguistic reasons. It's not slang and it's not facetious, but because of the nature of tea-drinking it's likely to be heard in informal situations.

Thank you so much for clearing this up for me. I was never quite certain what he said or what it meant. I love the British terminology they throw in, lean something new every day.

**Posted by beekeeper** March 24, 2013 4:06 pm

There's one small thing about this that might be interesting to some people.

My sense is that this is a northern expression far more than a southern one. Its certainly English rather than say Welsh or Scottish. But I don't think I've ever heard it from a southerner except ironically.

Which of course could be a nod to the idea that the Holmes family is northern-I've seen that idea in spin off fiction and so on before (thus the writers will be aware of it). I think it is based on there being a town called Sherlock or Mycroft or something somewhere in the north? (making Sherlock and Mycroft's parents the forerunners of the Beckhams)

Last edited by beekeeper (March 24, 2013 4:10 pm)