Sherlock Season 1 TV Series
Sherlock is a British mystery crime drama television series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson. Thirteen episodes have been produced, with four three-part series airing from 2010 to 2017 and a special episode that aired on 1 January 2016. The series is set in the present day in which it aired, while the one-off special features a Victorian period fantasy resembling the original Holmes stories. Sherlock is produced by the British network BBC, along with Hartswood Films, with Moffat, Gatiss, Sue Vertue and Rebecca Eaton serving as executive producers. The series is supported by the American station WGBH-TV Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series on PBS, where it also airs in the United States.[2][3][4] The series is primarily filmed in Cardiff, Wales, with North Gower Street in London used for exterior shots of Holmes and Watson’s 221B Baker Street residence.
Sherlock was initially praised for the quality of its writing, acting, and directing, although the reaction to the later series was more negative. It has been nominated for numerous awards including Emmys, BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, winning several awards across a variety of categories prior to its final series. The show won in three categories at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Cumberbatch, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Freeman and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Moffat. Two years later, it won Outstanding Television Movie. In addition, the show was also honoured with a Peabody Award in 2011. The third series became the UK’s most watched drama series since 2001. Sherlock has been sold to 180 territories.
All of the series have been released on DVD and Blu-ray, alongside tie-in editions of selected original Conan Doyle stories and an original soundtrack composed by David Arnold and Michael Price. In January 2014, the show launched its official mobile app called Sherlock: The Network.
Sherlock Season 1 TV Series
STORY
Episodes 1
“A Study in Pink”
The police investigate a series of deaths related to people who all appear to have committed suicide by taking a poisonous pill. They turn to their unofficial consultant, Sherlock Holmes, who deduces various elements pointing to a serial killer. Meanwhile, Holmes is introduced to John Watson, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, and the pair immediately move into a flat in Baker Street. John Watson slowly gets to know and trust Sherlock despite police officer Sally Donovan (Vinette Robinson) warning him that Holmes is a psychopath and will one day be responsible for murder. Sherlock’s brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss), at first not revealing his identity, arranges a meeting with Watson and asks whether he will spy on Sherlock for money, but John refuses. After a series of incidents, the person responsible for the deaths, a taxicab driver (Phil Davis), reveals that his victims took their own lives by playing a game of Russian roulette with two pills: one fatally poisonous, the other safe. Before Sherlock can play the cabbie’s game, John shoots the cabbie from an opposite building. Before he dies, the taxicab driver reveals that “Moriarty” was his sponsor.
Loosely based on the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet.
Episodes 2
“The Blind Banker”
Sherlock is hired by an old friend to investigate a mysterious break-in at a bank in the City. He discovers that symbols spray-painted onto an office wall are a coded message intended for an employee of the bank, who is later discovered dead in his flat. The next day, a journalist is killed and the same symbols are found nearby. Sherlock and John follow a trail of clues that link the two dead men to a Chinese smuggling ring, who are trying to retrieve a valuable item that one of the dead men stole. Sherlock eventually cracks the coded message based on Suzhou numerals and a book cipher, but not before John and his date, Sarah, are kidnapped by the criminals, who believe that John is Sherlock. Sherlock rescues them, but the leader of the gang escapes. Later, the leader of the gang is in communication with her superior, who is identified by the initial “M”. She is then shot by a sniper.
Loosely based on the short story “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”,[11] the storyline also incorporates elements from other Sherlock Holmes stories; the concept of coded messages, the markings on the feet of the Black Lotus members and the plot of escaping a secret society, then being tracked to and killed in England all feature in The Valley of Fear. A murder victim being found inside a locked room, accessible only by climbing, alludes to The Sign of the Four.[11]
Episodes 3
“The Great Game”
Sherlock is commissioned by Mycroft to investigate the suspicious death of a government employee, who was working on a top-secret defence project: the Bruce-Partington Project.[12] After rejecting the case and handing it over to John, Sherlock begins to be taunted by a criminal who puts his victims into explosive vests and sets Sherlock deadlines to solve the apparently unrelated cases, which include a twenty-year-old cold case involving the shoes of a drowned boy, the disappearance of a businessman, the death of a TV personality, and the assassination of a museum security guard by the “Golem”. As Sherlock solves the cases, he finds links between them. After clearing up the original case regarding the government employee, Sherlock tries to force his unseen adversary to reveal himself. Near the end of the episode, Sherlock and “Jim Moriarty” (Andrew Scott) reach a standoff, where Jim reveals that he is responsible for the crimes. In the final seconds, Sherlock Holmes points his gun at a bomb on the floor that had been strapped to John.
The episode’s storyline is somewhat derived from “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans” and makes references to “The Five Orange Pips” at various points (as per the five bomb victims and electronic beeps on the phone) in addition to other works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
CAST
- Benedict Cumberbatch
- Martin Freeman
- Una Stubbs
- Rupert Graves
- Louise Brealey
- Mark Gatiss
- Andrew Scott
- Amanda Abbington
- Jonathan Aris
- Vinette Robinson
- Tanya Moodie
- Lindsay Duncan
- David Nellist
RELEASE
24 October 2010
