Radio Times’ epic dissection of newest ‘Sherlock’ pic
When the most recent picture was released last week show a flooded out 221b Baker Street, the Internets hair was set on fire with thoughts of will this be the end of the most famous address with the exception of 10 Downing Street and 165 Eaton Place.
This conclusion was ‘elementary’, to say the least, but if you know series co-creators/writers, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, they were just getting started with the misdirection that is getting ready to occur between now and New Years Day. Thankfully, Radio Times‘ Paul Jones donned his deerstalker, opened up Photoshop and put forth an effort that would make the world’s most famous consulting detective very proud to discover a few Easter eggs left by the mind palaces of Moffat and Gatiss.
Thanks to Jones’ mastery of Photoshop, here are a few clues (complete with accompanying close up pics) that might tell us a bit more about what’s in store for us and who we might see during the forthcoming fourth series.
Moriarty’s return?
- 221B Baker Street wouldn’t be complete without Sherlock’s violin and the sheet music (#1) that accompanies it, but look a bit closer and you’ll see that this particular composition is called Miss Me?
- The bone china cup bobbing around in the water (#3) is also a reminder of Moriarty – as you’ll remember the time he sat down to tea with Sherlock in this very room? Ok, this is a stretch, but it makes great copy for endless internet discussion.
Tom Hiddleston as the 3rd Holmes brother?
- Ever since Holmes’ older brother, Mycroft, reminded Sherlock “what happened to the other one” back in series three, fans have been clamouring for Tom Hiddleston to be cast as the third Holmes brother. They’ve even named him: Sherrinford. Aside from this being the clue word used to reference the third episode by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, pic #2 above shows a worn leather book floating in the water. Upon closer inspection, it’s a copy of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. Tom Hiddleston starred as Henry in BBC2’s Shakespeare series The Hollow Crown, the same series that saw Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, as Richard III.
A nod to a Doctor Who character
- The author of this book on the shelf (#5) is Lavinia Smith, a woman who longtime classic Doctor Who fans will recognize as the loving aunt of one of the most-loved companions, Sarah Jane Smith, whom she brought up after her parents were killed in a car crash.
Clues to the final episode, perhaps?
- Of note is the knife plunged through a stack of papers on Sherlock’s mantelpiece. Holmes’ his habit of doing just that with his letters is detailed in one of the original Sherlock Holmes stories,”The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual”, in which Dr Watson recalls he would often see Holmes’s “…unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece“.
This is where Radio Times’ Paul Jones definitely earns his salary.
- In the same passage, Watson notes that his friend “…kept his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper“. It should come as no surprise to you when you see #6 above and realize its a Persian slipper floating inside 221B.
While Jones notes that “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” is among his most favorite Arthur Conan Doyle stories, it’s also considered to be one of Mark Gatiss’ favorites and centers around an ancient family riddle that leads to buried treasure.
Since both Moffat and Gatiss have remained very tight-lipped with regards to the third and final episode in series 4, (remember, we don’t yet have a title or any details of the third and final episode of Sherlock series four yet), Jones begs the question as to would it be too much to think that these could be hints that this might be the clue we’ve been waiting for for the last episode?
Sherlock S4 begins on New Year’s Day, 1st January 2017, on PBS and BBC1
In: Mystery
