BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Sherlock's Parents

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 2, 2014 2:17 pm

Do you think we'll see them again or will it just be a one off cameo apperance?

**Posted by besleybean** January 2, 2014 3:52 pm

Oh god I want them in all the time, my absolute fave part of this episode!

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 2, 2014 3:53 pm

I think it'd be a bit self-indulgent to just chuck them in for no apparent reason and then never use them or refer to them again.

I kind of want them to be kidnapped and for Sherlock & Mycroft to have to work together to find them.

**Posted by LoveIsAViciousMotivator** January 2, 2014 3:55 pm

Loved the fact that they are Benedict's real parents! They are so adorable and ordinary yet I wasn't expecting them to be this way nor the way they approached the concept of Sherlock's parents.

I mean A Study In Pink seemed to show that Sherlock and Mycroft's childhood wasn't all sunshine and roses and hints that Mommy was "upset". If it wasn't the father, then who was it?

Or do they forget that? Goodness! I hope not!

Last edited by LoveIsAViciousMotivator (January 2, 2014 3:57 pm)

**Posted by SusiGo** January 2, 2014 4:02 pm

Interesting but in the fanfic universe most writers assumed that the parents are dead. There is no obvious reason for that. Mummy is once mentioned in ASiP:

Mycroft Holmes: We have more in common than you like to believe. This petty feud between us is simply childish. People will suffer. And you know how it always upset Mummy.
Sherlock: I upset her? Me? It wasn't me that upset her, Mycroft!
Watson: No. No, wait. Mummy, who's "Mummy".

Past tense but this does not mean that she is dead. Or that a father does not exist anymore.

**Posted by Mrs.Wenceslas** January 2, 2014 4:54 pm

yes,Swanpride, it was quite obvious...I didn´t mind the scene and I believe they won´t appear any more. but for me it was just another "too funny" thing in the episode.

**Posted by NoSheetSherlock** January 2, 2014 5:07 pm

I thought the cameo twist was right in tone for the first episode of a series getting its bearings again. sly, and no harm done.
I did think they were clients at first. I recognized WandaVentham straightaway (that voice, piercing blue eyes)- thought at first "how nice, his mum gets a role as a client in 'Sherlock'."- then thought, wait, is that his dad too? ... but didn't put the Sherlock parents angle together until the end of the scene. then they moved on. I liked it.

**Posted by beekeeper** January 2, 2014 9:36 pm

I think it was really great that they were ordinary. That was a really splendid twist, because of course the assuption has tended to be that they are very rich and dead whereas in fact Sherlock does not mention them because he is ashamed of how ordinary they are. I don't even think they are especially posh, though I didn't listen closely. I do really like the suggestion that Sherlock and Mycroft are REALLY ordinary. Although they might have gone to a private school and so aquired that background, that that would be because they got scholarships, not because they come from that kind of family. That they have created themselves.

**Posted by shylock** January 2, 2014 9:39 pm

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

**Posted by SusiGo** January 2, 2014 9:44 pm

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

He does not seem to have a close relationship to them. Molly was not included in the list either although he meets her at Barts quite often and although Moriarty must have known she had a crush on Sherlock.

**Posted by beekeeper** January 2, 2014 10:24 pm

Swanpride wrote:
Would go against canon, though, in which they have quite an interesting heritage (at least the bits we know about). Plus, posh vs higher middle class is one of the running themes of the stories. I would miss something if they take this away from them. Therefore I prefer to think that his parents are actually posh, but able to relax when they are on "holiday" so to speak.

No, it doesn't go against canon. Canon is that Holmes ancestors were "county squires". Heaven knows what the modern equivalent of that is really. And that his great uncle was the French painter Vernet. Canon says nothing whatsohever about his actual parents, nor his other three grandparents. I don't see any canonical inconsistency.

I don't especially want Sherlock to be posh. I really like the idea that he isn't, and that it is an act. I do think that there are certainly hints of this in Mycroft's speech patterns, and phrases. I know that Gatiss is northern and has specific speech patterns himself but he is a writer and an actor so will be very aware of these and certainly able to write them out-he has chosen to leave them in. The idea of the Holmes brothers as such absolutely consumate actors that they can blend into the upper class is a really great one, I think and much more interesting than them just being toffs. But obviously, ymmv on this one.

I may be missing something but I am not sure I would agree that posh vs upper class is a theme of the stories, really. Do you mean the originals? if so i would say holmes is reasonably consistently on the side of the financial underdog.

Last edited by beekeeper (January 2, 2014 10:36 pm)

**Posted by sirlockofthesher** January 3, 2014 12:44 am

I think when you are Mycroft-you probably hide parents away in a countryside so that they can't be used against you.

I thought the cameo was cool-although my brother thought I was a super geek for knowing that those were sherlock and benedict's parents.

**Posted by Sherli Bakerst** January 3, 2014 5:43 am

At first, I thought they were clients but about perhaps halfway through, I guessed they were Sherlock's parents. What I didn't know ws that they were also Benedict's parents. Nice touch but, I don't think it's necessary for them to make a return appearance. Just like in Hound, all the clients sat in the room spouting their problem, likewise the parents sort of did here and, as previously, Sherlock pushed them, litterally in this case, out the door. I thought that was very funny and even funnier was John's reaction when he found out who they really were.

**Posted by the_dancing_woman** January 3, 2014 10:38 am

I immediately thought they could be his parents, because it would be quite cheeky, and it seems Gatiss and Moffat love cheeky (and besides there were some rumors about this floating through the internet before the episode aired)

I loved seeing Benedict's parents playing Sherlock's parents, I also liked the pun about them being quite ordinary people and I liked John's reaction.
I don't know if a further appearance is needed, I am quite torn there, part of me thinks it would be fun and sweet, and part of me thinks "uhm, don't you overdo it".

**Posted by Mattlocked** January 3, 2014 10:52 am

SusiGo wrote:
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
He does not seem to have a close relationship to them. Molly was not included in the list either although he meets her at Barts quite often and although Moriarty must have known she had a crush on Sherlock.

Mycroft, as brother, wasn't included.....

**Posted by Mrs.Wenceslas** January 3, 2014 12:41 pm

and I found this:

**Posted by Sherli Bakerst** January 3, 2014 4:42 pm

That's great, Mrs.Wenceslas! It could actually have happened that way, too. (Though I doubt it did.)

**Posted by beekeeper** January 3, 2014 8:30 pm

ok they came down on the coach

and were worried about losing a lottery ticket

not posh, not upper class.

Britain's coaches are not really such that people travel on them out of choice. They use them because they are cheap. When does Sherlock travel by coach?

Really like it. What I would love is if it turns out John's family is extremely posh. The absolute opposite of what I'd assume.

Last edited by beekeeper (January 3, 2014 8:33 pm)

**Posted by silverblaze** January 3, 2014 10:32 pm

Maybe they just sent their kids to a posh school. Like Benedict's parents did.

**Posted by beekeeper** January 4, 2014 2:35 pm

Yeah, most of the very posh schools will take bright kids on some kind of scholarship, including a full scholarship. I would expect that this would be what happened. You DO have to be stupidly clever but that's not going to be a problem here.

My brother actually was in that situation, of being the scholarship kid at a pubilc (ie very posh) school and it is interesting. You certainly learn to blend in and you neverthless remain an outsider. And I have always got that sense from the Holmes brothers, especialy Mycroft. (lol I did post about this before...though my money was on them being the children of circus performers which I accept now seems unlikely).