A Study in Pink
Encyclopedia
"A Study in Pink" is the first episode of the television series Sherlock and first broadcast on BBC One
and BBC HD on 25 July 2010. It introduces the main characters and resolves a murder mystery. It is loosely based upon the first Sherlock Holmes
novel, A Study in Scarlet
.
The episode was written by Steven Moffat
, who co-created the series. It was originally filmed as a 60-minute pilot for Sherlock, directed by Coky Giedroyc
. However, the BBC decided not to transmit the pilot, but instead commissioned a series of three 90-minute episodes. The story was refilmed, this time directed by Paul McGuigan
. The British Board of Film Classification
has rated the pilot as a 12 certificate for video and online exhibition, and it is included as an additional feature on the DVD released on 30 August 2010.
, an ex-army doctor injured in the war in Afghanistan
, meets Sherlock Holmes through a mutual friend. They become flatmates, sharing rooms at 221B Baker Street
owned by landlady Mrs. Hudson.
There have been a strange series of deaths, supposed by Inspector Lestrade
to be serial suicides. Sherlock looks at the latest crime scene, which is of a woman wearing pink. Sherlock deduces that the woman is a serial adulterer with an unhappy marriage. Unlike other victims, she left a note, clawing "Rache" into the floor. Sherlock ignores the suggestion of the forensic expert, Anderson, that it is the German word for revenge and settles on "Rachel", deeming that the victim died before finishing the scrawl.
Sherlock finds splashes of mud on the woman's leg, thrown up by the wheel of a suitcase, and deduces that she is from out of town. The police found no suitcase on the premises, but Sherlock searches for it, later finding it in a nearby garbage container.
Meanwhile, John receives a call from a public phone and is taken to an empty warehouse. There, he meets a man who claims to be Sherlock's "arch-enemy". The man offers money in return for information about Sherlock's activities, but John refuses.
When John returns to 221B, Sherlock asks him to send a text message to the phone of the fourth victim. At a local restaurant, Sherlock notices a cab and gives chase, using his extensive knowledge of London's streets and alleys to outpace it on foot. However, when he and John catch up with the cab, they find that the passenger is a newly arrived American: a perfect alibi.
Suspecting that Sherlock had withheld evidence, Scotland Yard executes a drug bust on his apartment so that they can search it. Sherlock guesses that "Rachel" was the victim's mail address password and that the victim had planted her mobile phone on the murderer so that he could be traced by GPS. At the same time that John finds that the signal is coming from 221B, Mrs. Hudson tells Sherlock that there is a cabbie waiting for him downstairs.
Sherlock leaves the apartment and enters the cab. The cabbie confesses, but proclaims that he doesn't kill; instead, he speaks to his victims and they kill themselves. He challenges Sherlock to solve his puzzle. They arrive at a school building, and the cabbie pulls out a gun and two bottles. He claims that one contains a harmless pill and the other a poisonous pill. Sherlock realises that the cabbie is dying, and calls his bluff on the gun, which is actually a novelty cigarette lighter. He walks off, but the cabbie challenges him again to choose a pill and see if he can solve the puzzle.
Meanwhile, John has traced the GPS signal from the victim's phone and followed Sherlock. Through a window in the adjacent building, John sees Sherlock about to take one of the pills, and shoots the cabbie. Sherlock questions the dying cabbie, first about whether he got the pill game right, and then about his "fan" that the cabbie had mentioned. Finally, the cabbie reveals a name: "Moriarty
".
Outside, Scotland Yard has surrounded the perimeter. Sherlock starts to make some deductions about the shooter before realising it must be John. Sherlock feigns shock to cover for John, telling Lestrade to ignore everything he has just said. Sherlock and John leave the scene but run into the man who had abducted John earlier, who turns out to be Sherlock's elder brother Mycroft
. Mycroft instructs his secretary to increase their surveillance status, while Sherlock and John return to Baker Street.
and contains allusions to other works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent points out, "Fans will recognise at once that the close-reading Sherlock applies to John's mobile phone is drawn from an almost identical analysis of a pocket watch. More slyly oblique is the conversion of the lost ring that Holmes uses to lure the killer in A Study in Scarlet into a lost 'ring', a mobile phone that can be used to contact the killer directly."
John's reference in the final scene to having been shot in the shoulder (but developing a psychosomatic limp in the leg) is a clever allusion to a continuity error in the Conan Doyle stories: in the original A Study in Scarlet Watson's injury is said to be in his shoulder, but in Conan Doyle's later Holmes stories, it is said to be in his leg.
Murder victim #2's name is James Phillimore, a reference to a case Holmes failed to solve in The Problem of Thor Bridge
.
The character of Mike Stanford, who introduces John to Sherlock, is also a reference to a character A Study in Scarlet, as is Sherlock's introductory scene (where he is beating up a corpse with a riding crop).
Further alluding to A Study in Scarlet is the fact that Jennifer Wilson is said to have been killed in Lauriston Gardens, the same part of London where the inn at which Enoch Drebber is killed was located.
The final victim's smartphone is located using a fictional service called "Mephone". As the handset is visibly an iPhone, it is a nod to the real-world service MobileMe
.
When Holmes sees that the fourth victim has scratched "Rache" into the floor before dying, he immediately considers both the fact that "Rache" is the German word for revenge, and that she was trying to write "Rachel" (two possibilities considered in the novel. This one scene in the episode provides viewers the ability to see into Sherlock's mind.). In the novel, the word was "Rache", and "Rachel" was just a wild-goose chase for the police; in this episode, it is in fact reversed--one of the officers mentions the German explanation, and Holmes says "Don't be an idiot."
The text messages Holmes sends Watson are taken nearly word for word from a telegram Holmes sends Watson in The Adventure of the Creeping Man
.
. However, when the BBC commissioned a three-part series, it ordered several changes and decided not to transmit the pilot. The Sun reported an unnamed source as saying, "The crew couldn't just re-use footage because the series is now totally different. The stories are now more intricate and detailed, so they basically had to start again."
The episode was set in 2010 rather than the Victorian period and so used modern devices such as mobile phones, TX1 London cabs
and nicotine patches rather than the traditional pipe and other period props.
rating of 87.
but is indisputably Sherlock Holmes. The deduction sequences are ingenious, and the plot is classic Moffat intricacy. Purists will take umbrage, as purists always do." However, Sam Wollaston, also for The Guardian, was concerned that some elements of the story were unexplained. Tom Sutcliffe for The Independent
also suggests that Holmes was "a bit slow" to connect the attributes of the killer to a London taxicab driver, but his review is otherwise positive. He wrote, "Sherlock is a triumph, witty and knowing, without ever undercutting the flair and dazzle of the original. It understands that Holmes isn't really about plot but about charisma ... Flagrantly unfaithful to the original in some respects, Sherlock is wonderfully loyal to it in every way that matters.
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and BBC HD on 25 July 2010. It introduces the main characters and resolves a murder mystery. It is loosely based upon the first Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
novel, A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year...
.
The episode was written by Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
, who co-created the series. It was originally filmed as a 60-minute pilot for Sherlock, directed by Coky Giedroyc
Coky Giedroyc
-Personal life:The elder sister of actress, presenter and writer Mel Giedroyc, she grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. Her father is Michal Giedroyc, a historian of Polish-Lithuanian descent who came to England in 1947. She attended Bristol University, where she first began making films...
. However, the BBC decided not to transmit the pilot, but instead commissioned a series of three 90-minute episodes. The story was refilmed, this time directed by Paul McGuigan
Paul McGuigan (filmmaker)
Paul McGuigan is a film director, best known for directing films such as Lucky Number Slevin and Push. He has also directed episodes of Sherlock and Monroe.-Filmography:-Awards:...
. The British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
has rated the pilot as a 12 certificate for video and online exhibition, and it is included as an additional feature on the DVD released on 30 August 2010.
Synopsis
John WatsonJohn Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
John H. Watson, M.D. , known as Dr. Watson, is a character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson is Sherlock Holmes's friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and is the first person narrator of all but four stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.-Name:Doctor Watson's first...
, an ex-army doctor injured in the war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, meets Sherlock Holmes through a mutual friend. They become flatmates, sharing rooms at 221B Baker Street
221B Baker Street
221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within a larger, often residential building...
owned by landlady Mrs. Hudson.
There have been a strange series of deaths, supposed by Inspector Lestrade
Inspector Lestrade
Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
to be serial suicides. Sherlock looks at the latest crime scene, which is of a woman wearing pink. Sherlock deduces that the woman is a serial adulterer with an unhappy marriage. Unlike other victims, she left a note, clawing "Rache" into the floor. Sherlock ignores the suggestion of the forensic expert, Anderson, that it is the German word for revenge and settles on "Rachel", deeming that the victim died before finishing the scrawl.
Sherlock finds splashes of mud on the woman's leg, thrown up by the wheel of a suitcase, and deduces that she is from out of town. The police found no suitcase on the premises, but Sherlock searches for it, later finding it in a nearby garbage container.
Meanwhile, John receives a call from a public phone and is taken to an empty warehouse. There, he meets a man who claims to be Sherlock's "arch-enemy". The man offers money in return for information about Sherlock's activities, but John refuses.
When John returns to 221B, Sherlock asks him to send a text message to the phone of the fourth victim. At a local restaurant, Sherlock notices a cab and gives chase, using his extensive knowledge of London's streets and alleys to outpace it on foot. However, when he and John catch up with the cab, they find that the passenger is a newly arrived American: a perfect alibi.
Suspecting that Sherlock had withheld evidence, Scotland Yard executes a drug bust on his apartment so that they can search it. Sherlock guesses that "Rachel" was the victim's mail address password and that the victim had planted her mobile phone on the murderer so that he could be traced by GPS. At the same time that John finds that the signal is coming from 221B, Mrs. Hudson tells Sherlock that there is a cabbie waiting for him downstairs.
Sherlock leaves the apartment and enters the cab. The cabbie confesses, but proclaims that he doesn't kill; instead, he speaks to his victims and they kill themselves. He challenges Sherlock to solve his puzzle. They arrive at a school building, and the cabbie pulls out a gun and two bottles. He claims that one contains a harmless pill and the other a poisonous pill. Sherlock realises that the cabbie is dying, and calls his bluff on the gun, which is actually a novelty cigarette lighter. He walks off, but the cabbie challenges him again to choose a pill and see if he can solve the puzzle.
Meanwhile, John has traced the GPS signal from the victim's phone and followed Sherlock. Through a window in the adjacent building, John sees Sherlock about to take one of the pills, and shoots the cabbie. Sherlock questions the dying cabbie, first about whether he got the pill game right, and then about his "fan" that the cabbie had mentioned. Finally, the cabbie reveals a name: "Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
".
Outside, Scotland Yard has surrounded the perimeter. Sherlock starts to make some deductions about the shooter before realising it must be John. Sherlock feigns shock to cover for John, telling Lestrade to ignore everything he has just said. Sherlock and John leave the scene but run into the man who had abducted John earlier, who turns out to be Sherlock's elder brother Mycroft
Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...
. Mycroft instructs his secretary to increase their surveillance status, while Sherlock and John return to Baker Street.
Allusions
The episode is loosely based on A Study in ScarletA Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year...
and contains allusions to other works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent points out, "Fans will recognise at once that the close-reading Sherlock applies to John's mobile phone is drawn from an almost identical analysis of a pocket watch. More slyly oblique is the conversion of the lost ring that Holmes uses to lure the killer in A Study in Scarlet into a lost 'ring', a mobile phone that can be used to contact the killer directly."
John's reference in the final scene to having been shot in the shoulder (but developing a psychosomatic limp in the leg) is a clever allusion to a continuity error in the Conan Doyle stories: in the original A Study in Scarlet Watson's injury is said to be in his shoulder, but in Conan Doyle's later Holmes stories, it is said to be in his leg.
Murder victim #2's name is James Phillimore, a reference to a case Holmes failed to solve in The Problem of Thor Bridge
The Problem of Thor Bridge
"The Problem of Thor Bridge" is a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle, which appears in the collection The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes...
.
The character of Mike Stanford, who introduces John to Sherlock, is also a reference to a character A Study in Scarlet, as is Sherlock's introductory scene (where he is beating up a corpse with a riding crop).
Further alluding to A Study in Scarlet is the fact that Jennifer Wilson is said to have been killed in Lauriston Gardens, the same part of London where the inn at which Enoch Drebber is killed was located.
The final victim's smartphone is located using a fictional service called "Mephone". As the handset is visibly an iPhone, it is a nod to the real-world service MobileMe
MobileMe
MobileMe was a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription...
.
When Holmes sees that the fourth victim has scratched "Rache" into the floor before dying, he immediately considers both the fact that "Rache" is the German word for revenge, and that she was trying to write "Rachel" (two possibilities considered in the novel. This one scene in the episode provides viewers the ability to see into Sherlock's mind.). In the novel, the word was "Rache", and "Rachel" was just a wild-goose chase for the police; in this episode, it is in fact reversed--one of the officers mentions the German explanation, and Holmes says "Don't be an idiot."
The text messages Holmes sends Watson are taken nearly word for word from a telegram Holmes sends Watson in The Adventure of the Creeping Man
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
"The Adventure of the Creeping Man", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.-Synopsis:...
.
Production
The story was originally filmed as a 60-minute pilot for Sherlock, directed by Coky GiedroycCoky Giedroyc
-Personal life:The elder sister of actress, presenter and writer Mel Giedroyc, she grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. Her father is Michal Giedroyc, a historian of Polish-Lithuanian descent who came to England in 1947. She attended Bristol University, where she first began making films...
. However, when the BBC commissioned a three-part series, it ordered several changes and decided not to transmit the pilot. The Sun reported an unnamed source as saying, "The crew couldn't just re-use footage because the series is now totally different. The stories are now more intricate and detailed, so they basically had to start again."
The episode was set in 2010 rather than the Victorian period and so used modern devices such as mobile phones, TX1 London cabs
TX1
This is about the taxi in London. For the camera see Canon PowerShot TX-1. For the video game, see TX-1 .TX1 is a Hackney carriage introduced by London Taxis International in 1997 and designed to replace the aging Austin FX4...
and nicotine patches rather than the traditional pipe and other period props.
Cast
- Benedict CumberbatchBenedict CumberbatchBenedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
as Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve... - Martin FreemanMartin FreemanMartin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
as Dr. John Watson - Rupert GravesRupert GravesRupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
as DI LestradeInspector LestradeInspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade.... - Una StubbsUna StubbsUna Stubbs is an English actress and former dancer who has appeared extensively on British television and in the theatre, and less frequently in films. She is particularly known for her roles in the sitcom Till Death Us Do Part and Aunt Sally in the children's series Worzel Gummidge.-Film and...
as Mrs. Hudson - Louise Brealey as Molly Hooper
- Vinette RobinsonVinette Robinson-Background:Vinette Robinson was born in Bradford. She attended the former Intake High School and took a BTEC. She initially wanted to train as a barrister but changed her career plans at the age of 13 after performing a Charles Causley poem at a poetry festival.-Career:Robinson attended a child...
as Sgt Sally Donovan - Jonathan ArisJonathan ArisJonathan Aris is a British actor who has appeared in films, television and the theatre. Aris is also a narrator for some documentaries.- Credits :Acting credits include:* Spooks * Sherlock * Being Human * Doc Martin...
as Anderson - Phil Davis as Jeff Hope
- Mark GatissMark GatissMark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
as Mycroft HolmesMycroft HolmesMycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :... - Lisa McAllisterLisa McAllisterLisa McAllister is a Scottish model and actress.She was first a model. Her first role was in a 2000 Paul Angunawela short film called Carpet garden flowers...
as Anthea
Broadcast
The first broadcast was on BBC1 at 21:00 on 25 July 2010. Viewing figures were up to 9.23 million viewers and averaged a 28.5% share of the UK audience with a high AIAppreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
rating of 87.
Reception
The episode received critical acclaim. The Guardians Dan Martin said, "It's early days, but the first of three 90-minute movies, "A Study in Pink", is brilliantly promising. It has the finesse of SpooksSpooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
but is indisputably Sherlock Holmes. The deduction sequences are ingenious, and the plot is classic Moffat intricacy. Purists will take umbrage, as purists always do." However, Sam Wollaston, also for The Guardian, was concerned that some elements of the story were unexplained. Tom Sutcliffe for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
also suggests that Holmes was "a bit slow" to connect the attributes of the killer to a London taxicab driver, but his review is otherwise positive. He wrote, "Sherlock is a triumph, witty and knowing, without ever undercutting the flair and dazzle of the original. It understands that Holmes isn't really about plot but about charisma ... Flagrantly unfaithful to the original in some respects, Sherlock is wonderfully loyal to it in every way that matters.
External links
- Newsarama: Annotations on "A Study in Pink" - Listing the connections between the episode and the original Holmes stories, compiled by comic book historian Alan Kistler.