"The Empty Hearse" | |
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Sherlock episode | |
Episode no. | Series 3 Episode 1 |
Directed by | Jeremy Lovering |
Written by | Mark Gatiss |
Based on | "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Lost Special" by Arthur Conan Doyle |
Produced by | Sue Vertue |
Featured music | |
Cinematography by | Steve Lawes |
Editing by | Charlie Phillips |
Original air date | 1 January 2014 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"The Empty Hearse" is the first episode of the third series of the BBC television series Sherlock . It was written by Mark Gatiss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Mark Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes. It also marks the first appearance of Amanda Abbington as Mary Morstan and Lars Mikkelsen as Charles Augustus Magnussen.
Inspired by "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Lost Special" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the episode follows Sherlock Holmes' return to London and reunion with John Watson, along with an underground terrorist network. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One and Channel One [1] [2] on 1 January 2014. It garnered a viewership of 12.7 million people [3] and received positive reviews.
Two years after his supposed death (depicted in The Reichenbach Fall), Sherlock Holmes has been completely absolved of the slanderous accusations against him originated by Jim Moriarty and secretly returns to London to help his brother Mycroft uncover an apparent imminent terrorist attack. An interleaved scene shows a version of how Sherlock might have faked his death: by jumping from the roof with a bungee cable, bouncing back and entering the building through a window, leaving Moriarty's body with a Sherlock mask to mislead John and other onlookers, John himself being hypnotised by Derren Brown to give the time for this to be set up. This version of events is quickly shown to be a conspiracy theory invented by Philip Anderson, who feels responsible for Sherlock's death.
John now has a girlfriend, Mary Morstan, to whom he intends to propose in a restaurant. At this point, Sherlock, disguised as a French waiter, approaches the couple but is not immediately recognised by John. When Sherlock reveals his identity, John attacks him three times in three different restaurants. When John refuses to accept his explanations, Sherlock enlists Molly to assist him in his next case, that of an underground skeleton behind a desk containing a manuscript: How I Did It by Jack the Ripper, revealed toward the end of the episode to be a fake planted by Anderson to lure Sherlock out of hiding. Later that day, Mary receives a text in a skip code (first and every three words) telling her that John has been kidnapped by unknown assailants and will die if he is not rescued in time, along with a coded location. Sherlock and Mary come to his rescue on a motorcycle and manage to drag him out of a lit bonfire on which a "guy" (Guy Fawkes effigy) was about to be burned.
Sherlock is shown a video by a London Underground employee of a mysterious vanishing of a passenger from a train between two stations near Parliament and later identifies the passenger as a member of the House of Lords, Lord Moran, whom he knows to be a foreign agent and who is also acting unusually. He notices that it is not only Moran who vanished but an entire carriage of the train and deduces that the attack will be on the Houses of Parliament, which will be holding a late-night hearing on a new anti-terrorism bill on Guy Fawkes Night, 5 November. Sherlock and John enter the abandoned station near Parliament, finding the secretly diverted carriage. It is rigged with explosives to make an enormous bomb. Sherlock manages to defuse the bomb by turning the off-switch, but not before making John believe the bomb can't be defused, leading Sherlock to apologize to John for getting him involved and saying that John would have had a future if he hadn't come back. This all had the intended effect of causing John to panic and reveal to Sherlock how much he has missed him, to John's later embarrassment.
Another cut-scene intercut with the above shows Sherlock visiting Anderson. He reveals how he faked his death as part of a scheme to convince Moriarty of his lost credibility and demise. The plan allowed the Holmes brothers to dissolve Moriarty's network successfully. Sherlock tells Anderson that he and Mycroft had anticipated thirteen possible scenarios that could happen on the roof, and that while John's view was obstructed, members of his Homeless Network rolled out an inflatable mattress and took their roles as shocked bystanders and paramedics. With the aid of a squash ball under his arm to temporarily stop his pulse, Sherlock convincingly faked his death. Anderson casts doubt on the integrity of this version of events, arguing it would be nearly impossible to ensure John remained exactly where Sherlock wanted. Anderson points out that he is "the last person" Sherlock would tell, but as he turns around, the room is empty. Anderson then begins tearing his theories from the wall, laughing hysterically, and the intercut scene ends.
Moran is ambushed by the police and arrested after leaving his hotel suite. John asks Sherlock who abducted him and why, questions for which Sherlock has no answers yet. In the final scene, a bespectacled man with blue eyes is seen observing footage of Sherlock and Mary rescuing John from the fire. [4]
The most obvious source of this episode, to which its title alludes, is "The Adventure of the Empty House", [5] in which Sherlock Holmes returns from his "Great Hiatus", having allowed everyone to believe him dead to root out the rest of Moriarty's criminal organisation. [6] In both the story and the episode, Mycroft helps Sherlock fake his demise. The villainous Moran in this episode is named after Colonel Sebastian Moran, the villain of the original story. In "The Adventure of the Empty House", Watson first encounters Holmes disguised as a heavily accented and bearded book salesman with a shop on the corner of Church Street, who offers Watson some books. In the episode, John encounters a man as his patient who owns a DVD shop at the same location; the man offers to sell him pornographic DVDs with titles almost identical to the books Watson was offered by the disguised Holmes in the short story ("Tree Worshippers", "British Birds", "Catalysts", and "Holy War"). [6] John falsely assumes it is Sherlock in disguise, with embarrassing results. It is also a reference to a scene from The Spider Woman starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Moffat and Gatiss have cited the film series as another source of inspiration when writing Sherlock. [7] The remainder of the episode's storyline is largely original.
Sherlock Holmes alludes to a "system of Japanese wrestling" as the second of thirteen scenarios that might have allowed him to survive his rooftop encounter with Moriarty. This is a reference to the fictional martial art of "baritsu" which was used by Holmes to defeat Moriarty in the original story. [8]
Apart from "The Adventure of the Empty House", the episode contains allusions to many other Conan Doyle short stories:
Many of the cast of the previous two series returned, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman playing Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson. Freeman's then real-life partner Amanda Abbington [19] joined the cast as Mary Morstan, Watson's girlfriend. Cumberbatch's parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton, had cameos as Sherlock's parents. [20]
"The Empty Hearse" was written by the series' co-creator, Mark Gatiss. He was inspired to use the London Underground as a setting by the 1968 Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear , a story which is primarily set in the Underground after London is evacuated due to the spread of a deadly web-like fungus via the Tube network. [21]
The resolution to how Holmes had faked his death at the end of "The Reichenbach Fall" was filmed in April 2013 at St Bart's Hospital in London. The filming was attended by several hundred fans, whom producer Sue Vertue begged not to leak too much information. [22] Telegraph journalist Sheryl Garratt reported that the filming was deliberately confusing to the watching fans, and the explanation of how Sherlock faked his death was blanked in the script. [22]
The London Underground train used in the episode was built from scratch by the production to look like a District line carriage, as they were unable to acquire a real train. [23] The never completed tube station called Sumatra Road is based on North End tube station. [24] Filming was carried out at Westminster and Charing Cross stations. [25]
"The Empty Hearse" was first publicly exhibited at a special screening at the BFI Southbank in London on 15 December 2013. [26] The screening was followed by a Q&A, hosted by Caitlin Moran, attended by the show's creators and key cast members. [27]
The episode was first broadcast on BBC One on 1 January 2014. According to overnight figures, the episode was viewed by 9.2 million people in the UK on BBC One, with the viewership peaking at 9.7 million in the first 5 minutes. [28] It premiered in the US on PBS as part of Masterpiece Mystery! on 19 January 2014. [29]
"The Empty Hearse" received critical acclaim upon broadcast, with The Guardian's Sam Wollaston proclaiming "...an explosive return for Cumberbatch and Freeman, full of fizz, whizz and wit." [30] Similarly, The Telegraph's Chris Harvey said, "This was the triumphant return of the most charismatic, most fun character on British television." [31]
The Mirror gave the episode a perfect five star review, with the author Josh Wilding's headline being, "Stunning explanation in The Empty Hearse for how Sherlock faked his death won't satisfy everybody, but it works." [32] whilst the author Anne-Marie Senior noted how viewers were left confused by the discontinuity showing different trains on the wrong tube lines, "Sherlock sparks Twitter fury as eagle-eyed viewers notice the lines on London Underground are WRONG." [33]
Metro also awarded the episode four out of five stars, with reviewer Tim Liew stating, "The Empty Hearse is a fast-paced yarn filled with breathtaking audacity and laugh-out-loud moments." [34] The episode also received very positive reviews from American critics, with The Hollywood Reporter 's Tim Goodman saying "The acclaimed detective, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, returns for season three as superb (and unscathed) as when he left." [35] Oliver Jia of The Punk Effect stated that the episode was "well worth the [two-year-long hiatus]" and praised it as a "well-acted, well-produced, well-written, and extremely engrossing drama." [36]
David Mather, who ran fan site Sherlockology, told BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire that he had been inundated with mixed responses from fans. [37]
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character appearing in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1893 to 1908. The elder brother of detective Sherlock Holmes, he is a government official and a founding member of the Diogenes Club. Mycroft is described as having abilities of deduction and knowledge exceeding even those of his brother, though their practical use is limited by his dislike of fieldwork.
"The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom, and McClure's in the United States, under the title "The Adventure of the Final Problem" in December 1893. It appears in book form as part of the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
"The Adventure of the Empty House", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Collier's in the United States on 26 September 1903, and in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in October 1903.
Colonel Sebastian Moran is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. An enemy of Sherlock Holmes, he first appears in the 1903 short story "The Adventure of the Empty House". Holmes once described him as "the second most dangerous man in London", the most dangerous being Professor Moriarty, Moran's employer.
Sherlock Holmes has long been a popular character for pastiche, Holmes-related work by authors and creators other than Arthur Conan Doyle. Their works can be grouped into four broad categories:
Many writers make references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary creation, the detective Sherlock Holmes, and these often become embedded within popular culture. While Holmes exists predominantly in the context of Victorian-era London, he has been mentioned in such outre contexts as the 22nd century or hunting aliens or supernatural enemies. These references are in addition to the innumerable passing references to Sherlock Holmes made in many literary and cinematic works, such as the labeling of a person as a "Sherlock", whether in reference to their intelligence.
The Spider Woman is a 1943 mystery film starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, the seventh of fourteen such films the pair were involved in. As with all of the Universal Studios films in the series, the film is set in then-present day as opposed to the Victorian setting of the original stories. This film incorporates elements from the 1890 novel The Sign of the Four, as well as the short stories "The Final Problem", "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and makes explicit reference to "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot".
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, the show 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. The one-off special features a Victorian-period fantasy resembling the original Holmes stories.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is a 1980 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is the second film in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson film series directed by Igor Maslennikov.
This article describes minor characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works. The list excludes the titular character as well as Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, Colonel Moran, the Baker Street Irregulars, and characters not significant enough to mention.
"The Great Game" is the third and final episode of the first series of the television series Sherlock. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 8 August 2010. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Paul McGuigan.
"A Scandal in Belgravia" is the first episode of the second series of the BBC crime drama series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and was first broadcast by BBC One on 1 January 2012. It was written by co-creator Steven Moffat, and directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode was based on "A Scandal in Bohemia", a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
"The Hounds of Baskerville" is the second episode of the second series of the BBC crime drama series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and was first broadcast by BBC One on 8 January 2012. It was written by co-creator Mark Gatiss, who also portrays Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother in the series, and was directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode is a contemporary adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works.
"The Reichenbach Fall" is the third and final episode of the second series of the BBC television series Sherlock. It was written by Stephen Thompson and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty. The episode deals with Moriarty's attempt to undermine the public's view of Sherlock and drive him to suicide. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD on 15 January 2012. It attracted 9.78 million viewers, and critical reaction to the episode was positive. After the episode was aired, there was also much online and media speculation, which focused on Sherlock's death.
"The Sign of Three" is the second episode of the third series of the BBC television series Sherlock. It was written by Stephen Thompson, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson. The episode's title is inspired by The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is set six months after the series opener "The Empty Hearse" and is primarily centred on the day of Watson's wedding to Mary Morstan. It garnered a viewership of 11.37 million, and received mostly positive reviews.
"His Last Vow" is the third and final episode of the third series of the BBC Television series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode was first broadcast on 12 January 2014, on BBC One and Channel One. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Nick Hurran with music composed by Michael Price and David Arnold. The episode is a contemporary adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton".
"The Abominable Bride" is a special episode of the British television programme Sherlock. The episode was broadcast on BBC One, PBS and Channel One on 1 January 2016. It depicts the characters of the show in an alternative timeline: the Victorian London setting of the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. The title is based on the quote "Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife" from "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" (1893), which refers to a case mentioned by Holmes. The story also draws on elements of original Conan Doyle stories of Holmes such as "The Five Orange Pips" (1891) and "The Final Problem" (1893).
"The Six Thatchers" is the first episode of the fourth series of the British television programme Sherlock, and the eleventh episode overall. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One, BBC First, PBS and Channel One on 1 January 2017.
For example, how did you deduce that this man was intellectual? For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brain must have something in it."