BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Cell vs. Mobile phone

**Posted by BlinkULDHC** January 31, 2013 7:49 am

So, if Bob Franklin (the Baskerville scientist) moved from Indiana/USA to Devon like 25-30 years ago, how is it that he adopted the regional accent, yet somehow still (or, already?) calls the cell phone a "cell" and not a "mobile"??

First of all, 25 years ago (circa late 1980's), cell/mobile phones were nowhere near ubiquitous, so it's doubtful he even had one at the point that H.O.U.N.D. was running. But apparently, not only did he have one, he became SO attached to calling it a "cell" that his subsequent 20+ years in the UK did nothing to change his name for the phone (despite the fact his American accent is completely gone).

In America, I'm pretty sure that the first cell/mobile phones were still called mobile phones anyway, and this was in like 1992, long after Franklin had left the US.

It's one thing if it's an American transplant who just moved to the UK 2 months ago, or even 2 years ago -- and is still stuck with "cell." But a grown man who moved to the UK before cell phones became "cell phones," and still refers to it as such 20+ years later? Does not compute.

Hell, I'm an American, and after watching just 6 episodes of Sherlock, I've damned-near started to refer to apartments as "flats."

It sounds trivial, but it's actually a key clue for Sherlock to deduce that Franklin was an American, THE American from H.O.U.N.D. who moved over to Devon.

Last edited by BlinkULDHC (January 31, 2013 10:11 am)

**Posted by Davina** January 31, 2013 8:30 am

I agree, as a Brit, that this is a tenuous clue.

**Posted by saturnR** February 3, 2013 6:28 am

BlinkULDHC wrote:
So,
Hell, I'm an American, and after watching just 6 episodes of Sherlock, I've damned-near started to refer to apartments as "flats."

Haha we do it too in Australia (for smaller sized apartment buildings; highrisers are still called apartments).

**Posted by josabby** April 22, 2013 11:00 pm

The mid 1980s is about the time when cells/mobiles were starting to be used, but only by the richest people because they charged per minute. It would depend on how long he was in Indiana. He was back by the early 90s so he could kill Henry's father.

**Posted by Mattlocked** April 23, 2013 6:51 am

In Germany we call a mobile "handy" and at the beginning I believed that this is another word we took from the Brits.
Looong time ago I learned that this must be some kind of German thing and that it is in fact called "mobile".
But it still could happen that we meet somewhere and I'll tell you "Wait, I'm searching for my handy".
(But then I (sadly) don't live in the UK since 20 years....)

**Posted by tobeornot221b** April 23, 2013 7:03 am

This cell/mobile phone thing immediately reminded me of the scene in Agatha Christie's "Murder On The Orient Express" where Poirot deduced that Miss Debenham who said during her interrogation: "I can always call my lawyers long-distance" had lived in America because "an Englishwoman who had never lived in America would have said 'I can always make a trunk call to my solicitors.'"

**Posted by erunyauve** April 23, 2013 10:12 am

tobeornot221b wrote:
This cell/mobile phone thing immediately reminded me of the scene in Agatha Christie's "Murder On The Orient Express" where Poirot deduced that Miss Debenham who said during her interrogation: "I can always call my lawyers long-distance" had lived in America because "an Englishwoman who had never lived in America would have said 'I can always make a trunk call to my solicitors.'"

I think Sir Henry's time abroad had already been mentioned in the text, but when he says 'By thunder!' in The Hound of the Baskervilles, I immediately recognised it as an Americanism from the 1800s. Since then, I've come to truly appreciate the care ACD took to not only give his American characters an authentic dialogue, but a dialogue that is right for the region and status of the character. A Chicago thug sounds different from a young woman raised in gold camps, and Sir Henry, having made his fortune farming in the American West, sounds different again.

Last edited by erunyauve (April 24, 2013 11:12 am)

**Posted by beekeeper** April 23, 2013 10:26 am

I thought he was actually originally British but had just been working in America? Can't remember what the show actually said though. Accent-wise, a complication is that he does not have the faintest hint of an American accent but also does not have the local accent either. He sounds to be from London or thereabouts. The West Country accent is a very distinctive one and IME people living there would start to pick up twinges of it.

Totally agree about the cell phone, that made me hmmmmm. I think it was a clumsy plant by the writer that there was some American background, because in Britain not only is cell never used-two British people talking would never use the word "cell" but its one of those words that is easily identifiable to a British audience as being American in origin.

**Posted by anjaH_alias** April 24, 2013 9:40 am

Jipp, he is British and was working in the US - it is mentioned somewhen in the show. Funnywise I knew that he is the bad guy when I heard his name - "Frankland", come on...
@Mattloked: In Italy they say "footing" for "jogging", also very funny and somehow related to our German "Handy"

**Posted by butterfly grl** June 16, 2013 10:50 pm

Granted, this is a long stretch, but...
Baskerville is populated by people from all over England, and it could be that they don't pick up the regional accent because they are primarily surrounded by a polyglot of accents. (Houston Tx is like that, So many people come from so many places, that the accent, while Texan, isn't precise to where in Texas you are).

As far as the use of cell phone instead of mobile - having worked in America, he probably still has friends there, and unlike we Americans who are anglophiles, and use british terms such as flat, and rubbish, he is using American terms because it's "cool".

(bowties and fezzes are cool, I don't think cell phone is cool personally).

**Posted by sj4iy** June 17, 2013 12:30 am

I just figured that if he spent time in America back in the 70s-80s, he's probably spent a lot of time there and only came back to England to work on his experiment. IE: there's nothing saying that he came straight back to England after his work with H.O.U.N.D. was over with in the US. My thoughts on it.

Last edited by sj4iy (June 17, 2013 12:48 am)