BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / What if it had a different setting?

**Posted by BrettHolmes** July 25, 2014 3:39 pm

Suppose “Sherlock” had been set in the original Victorian era, just like the Granada series adaptations with Brett and the RDJ films, instead of the 21st century? What would it be like? Would the series have been just as successful?

I think it would have. Ben and Martin would still be great in their roles even though they would certainly be younger than they are in the original stories (Martin would have to have a moustache). Moftiss could still write great stories but they would have to be even more truer to the Holmes canon. For example, I would imagine Moriarty actually to be depicted as a Professor who is rather cold and urbane as opposed to being a comical psychopath like Andrew Scott's. Some of the supporting actors in the cast overall might have been different. Considering that Victorian times was a time before the Suffragette movement there wouldn’t be much for female characters to do in the cast as women roles in society during that period were restricted.

However, I think it would be cool if the series did a fantasy scene with Sherlock and John in the classic late 1880’s/1890’s format just for fun.

Last edited by BrettHolmes (July 25, 2014 6:51 pm)

**Posted by Liberty** July 25, 2014 6:41 pm

That does sound fun. Yes, I think Ben and Martin would still be great. I like to read the stories while imagining them in the roles, and it "works". The speech doesn't sound like the modern characters, of course. I like what the modern series has done with Mycroft and LeStrade, so would like to see them developed in a similar way in a period piece. We'd still have Irene and Mary as female characters, and there are quite a few minor female characters involved in the cases.

**Posted by besleybean** July 25, 2014 6:43 pm

I think the whole point was to make something unique...and they did.

**Posted by maryagrawatson** July 25, 2014 8:44 pm

I don't think I'd be interested the series if it was set in the Victorian era. I'm a huge fan of the Canadian 'Murdoch Mysteries' series, which is about a Toronto detective at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, so I wouldn't have been interested in another show along those lines.

Plus, I had no interest in Sherlock Holmes, so it took something extraordinary to pique my interest in this show and I didn't even become a rabid Sherlock fan until the end of series 3 and a reviewing of the entire thing. So I'd say there's something about this unique interpretation that works for me, but the same formula in another context probably wouldn't.

Mary