"A Study in Pink," (Matches some of Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" & other stories)
This episode won the Peabody Award
w. Steven Moffat     d. Paul McGuigan
The Internet Movie Database has a Complete List of Cast and Crew
Originally Broadcast on BBC One: July 25, 2010
According to the The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson, he met Sherlock Holmes on January 29, saw the flat on January 30 and the two went to see the body of the lady in pink then Sherlock solves the crime all before John's blog post on January 31 (2010)
Newsday's reviewer said of this episode, "Cumberbatch's Holmes is brittle and brilliant - a walking, talking Wikipedia who mentally Googles his way through cases while endearing himself to no one....except that Cumberbatch has also deftly located a human heart beneath the circuitry. And most pleasingly, he's located the humor."
See information on the scenes cut from the PBS Broadcast
What specific things relate to the original Doyle Canon?
  • Stamford (who introduced the two) tells Watson of Holmes "beating the bodies in the dissecting rooms with a stick.... to verify how far bruises may be produced after death." The modern day Sherlock uses a riding crop and a body in the morgue but for the same purpose and we see him do it..
  • "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." Our modern version had to assume that the same deduction could lead to the conclusion that it was Iraq so he asks, "Afghanistan or Iraq?"
  • Someone wrote "Rache" at the murder scene. In the original, the word was written in blood by the murderer and Lestrade concludes that someone was writing 'Rachel" but didn't finish. But Holmes tells him, "'Rache,' is the German for 'revenge'; so don't lose your time looking for Miss Rachel." (in the Sherlock version, Anderson says it is the German word for revenge and Sherlock says the victim was trying to write 'Rachel')
  • The texts Sherlock sends John relate to a telegram Holmes sent Watson at the beginning of "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" : "Come at once if convenient - if inconvenient come all the same - S.H."
  • The murderer was a cab driver.
  • The murderer offered his victim a choice between two pills one of which was deadly and whichever the victim didn't take, the cab driver would take.
  • Deducing Watson's family relations from his cell. In "The Sign of Four" it is a watch but the deductions match fairly well.
Check out this list scene by scene of how "A Study in Pink" relates to "A Study in Scarlet": The Science of Adaptation: how BBC Sherlock relates to canon.
BBC Promo


Pilot scenes


"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done."
"You invaded Afghanistan."
"That wasn't just me."
Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman)
Slightly different Promos (one where Sherlock calls John an idiot
and one where John calls him the same



John Watson Meets Sherlock's Brother Mycroft (video from BBC Worldwide)
See some scenes cut from PBS broadcast.
Annotations to "A Study in Pink"


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