Whilst not posh; or upper class, they do look middle class or upper middle class. Certainly the clothes they wear say middle class or retired professional.
As for the 'coach', many older/retired people enjoy the midweek/long weekend breaks by coach. Many are quite expensive; particularly London, and are based around stays in 4 or 5 star hotels. They are also in their 70s so driving any distance would be a chore.
And their eldest would certainly be on a large salary, with plenty of perks; including a 'grace and favour' mansion. I don't doubt that he takes care of any financial 'worries' they might have.

Now, that I think about it... as a muse about it, I love the idea of their parents being ordinary and the idea of Mycroft and Sherlock being these geniuses that get the best education their parents could give with what they have... It does bring up some funny and heartwarming moments in my mind. XD

Swanpride: I don´t have a feeling Sherlock or Mycroft implying they´ve had a bad childhood. I think there´s a great amount of rivalry between them, but it could have risen during their adolescence /in the boarding school for exceptional children?/ so I wouldn´t blame parents - remember the way they are talking about things that "made mummy upset". and they are both socio/psycho..paths, so I can imagine them refusing to spend or even celebrate Christmas and all those stupid things..  

Last edited by Mrs.Wenceslas (January 4, 2014 8:46 pm)

But again, I know some very ordinary parents who home school their kids.

I can imagine those two kids just not want to play or interact with other children..?

Possible.

dartmoordoggers wrote:

Whilst not posh; or upper class, they do look middle class or upper middle class. Certainly the clothes they wear say middle class or retired professional.
As for the 'coach', many older/retired people enjoy the midweek/long weekend breaks by coach. Many are quite expensive; particularly London, and are based around stays in 4 or 5 star hotels. They are also in their 70s so driving any distance would be a chore.
And their eldest would certainly be on a large salary, with plenty of perks; including a 'grace and favour' mansion. I don't doubt that he takes care of any financial 'worries' they might have.

nope. disagree about the clothes.  I don't think you can tell that much from a British person's clothes anyway. 

If they were as rich as Sherlock and Mycroft act then they would NOT be going on a midweek coach break package hotel deal. They would probably either fly or train to London. The point of those midweek breaks is that they are cheap. 

Yes, they might be rich but immensely frugal but...I don't get that impression. I don't think that's what the writers are trying to communicate, especially with John's line about them being ordinary. They are normal, ordinary, lower or middle class probably, and hence like the overwhelming majority of Britons. 

I'd point out that they are almost certainly financially comfortable now anyway, given how wealthy Mycroft is. So their clothes etc will be "nice", that doesn't tell us much. But they do buy a lottery ticket and they do travel on the coach. To me,those are things of habit.

I guess you see what you want to see here. For me.,  I am seeing a real effort to stretch our assumptions about the Holmes brothers, to make them from an ordinary background, to make us wonder what exactly happened, and I think that's pretty amazing. Best bit of the show for me :-)

Re the "other children" comment. I wondered about that too, but them being rich or not doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Even rich British kids don't have governnesses these days ;-). The ONLY explaination I can think of is that this Mycroft is not seven years olfer than Sherlock. But i don't think this works generally not least that there looks to be seven years or more between the actors. And there's the "I'll be mother" comment which makes a lot less sense in the context of them having had a loving, present mother. Unless its another classy dig at his sexual preferences...
 

shylock wrote:
But why were they not included in Sherlocks list of those he cares for and on the hit list? At least equal to if not above his landlady

I think because Sherlock doesn't count his parents as his friends, nor really Molly, either.  The hit list was to take out Sherlock's three friends--the people he was closest to.  I never got the impression he was close to his parents; in this episode, it's more like he puts up with them because he has to, just because they are his parents.  As for Molly, I think he respects he as a professional but he didn't see her as a friend.  Though maybe after she helped him in TRF, he revised his opinion.

Last edited by Sherli Bakerst (January 5, 2014 12:33 am)

I dion't think any of that was at issue, I take all of the above to be a givern.
I think it's the being kept from other children that was the stumbling block for some.
Living in the country with a home tutor, may be the only explanation!
If we take it Mycroft is 4-5 years older than Sherlock: maybe they both got put in boarding school when Mycroft was 11-12, just as he started secondary school. Sherlock would be 7-8, just going into the 'juniot' section of primary school.

Last edited by besleybean (January 5, 2014 8:23 am)

State schools are legally obliged to cater for all abilities of child.
I was thinking more if they had been classified as having some kind of sepcial need?

Last edited by besleybean (January 5, 2014 8:57 am)