The Empty Hearse

"The Empty Hearse"
Sherlock episode
Episode no. Series 3
Episode 1
Directed by Jeremy Lovering
Written by Mark Gatiss
Produced by Sue Vertue
Featured music David Arnold
Michael Price
Cinematography by Steve Lawes
Editing by Charlie Phillips
Original air date 1 January 2014
Running time 86 minutes
Guest actors

"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" 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 BBC One HD on 1 January 2014. It garnered a viewership of 12.7 million people[1] and received positive reviews.

Plot

Two years after his supposed death, Sherlock Holmes has been completely exonerated of the slanderous accusations against him originated by James Moriarty and secretly returns to London to help his brother Mycroft uncover an apparent imminent and huge 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 later shown to be a conspiracy theory invented by Philip Anderson, who feels responsible for Sherlock's death.

John now has a girlfriend, Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington), 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 Watson believe the bomb can't be defused, leading him to say that John would have had a future if he hadn't come back and apologizes to John for dying with him, causing him to panic and reveal to Sherlock how much he has missed him, to his later embarrassment.

Another cut-scene intercut with the above shows Sherlock visiting Anderson and revealing to him how he faked his death as part of a plan to persuade Moriarty of his lost credibility and death, allowing him to successfully dissolve Moriarty's network. 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 own death. Anderson casts doubt on the veracity of this version of events, arguing it would be nigh impossible to ensure John remained exactly where Sherlock wanted. Anderson points out that he is "the last person" Sherlock would tell, but when 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 as he leaves his hotel suite. John asks Sherlock who abducted him and why, questions to 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.[2]

Sources

The Adventure of the Empty House

The most obvious source of this episode, to which its title alludes, is "The Adventure of the Empty House",[3] 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.[4] 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", and "Holy War").[4] 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.[5] The remainder of the episode's storyline is largely original.

Sherlock also mentions a sort of "Japanese wrestling" in passing in the episode, a reference to the fictional martial art of "baritsu" mentioned by Conan Doyle in the original story.[6]

Other Conan Doyle short stories

Apart from "The Adventure of the Empty House", the episode contains allusions to many other Conan Doyle short stories:

Production

Casting

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 real-life partner Amanda Abbington[17] joined the cast as Mary Morstan, Watson's girlfriend. Cumberbatch's parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton, had cameos as Sherlock's parents.[18]

Writing

"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.[19]

Filming

Principal photography on the episode began in March 2013. Tabloid newspaper Daily Mail reported that Benedict Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington filmed the bonfire scene in Portland Square in Bristol.[20]

The resolution to how Holmes had faked his death was filmed in April 2013 at St Bart's Hospital

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.[21] 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.[21]

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.[22] The never completed tube station called Sumatra Road is based on North End tube station.[23] Filming was carried out at Westminster[24] and Charing Cross stations.[25]

Broadcast and reception

"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]

Some commentators noted how the episode had a lighter tone compared to the previous episodes. David Mather, who runs fan site Sherlockology, told BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire that he had been inundated with mixed responses from fans.[37]

References

  1. "2014 - Top 10 programmes - TV since 1981 - BARB". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  2. Jones, Ellen E (1 January 2014). "Sherlock 'The Empty Hearse' review: So, how did the great detective fake his own death?". The Independent. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  3. Wolfson, Sam (1 January 2014). "Sherlock recap: series three, episode one – The Empty Hearse". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  4. 1 2 Doyle, Arthur Conan (1905). "The Adventure of the Empty House". The Return of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  5. Rackl, Lori (19 January 2014). "Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat answers your Sherlock questions Voices". Voices. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  6. 1 2 Britt, Ryan (2 January 2014). "7 Classic References to Watch for in Sherlock's "The Empty Hearse"". The Mindhut. Sparknotes. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  7. 1 2 Jones, Ross (2 January 2014). "Sherlock facts: 21 things you didn't know". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  8. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1894). "The Adventure of the Reigate Squire". The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  9. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1905). "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". The Return of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  10. 1 2 Doyle, Arthur Conan (1894). "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter". The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  11. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1892). "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes. 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."
  12. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1890). "6. Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration". The Sign of the Four. London: Spencer Blackett.
  13. "Sherlock: The Empty Hearse". 2 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  14. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1894). "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott". The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  15. Doyle, Arthur Conan (1892). "A Case of Identity". The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes.
  16. Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Lost Special." London: 1898. "...which would enable them to say for certain what had become of the missing train."
  17. Jones, Paul (27 March 2013). "Martin Freeman's partner Amanda Abbington joins the cast of Sherlock". Radio Times. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  18. Jones, Paul (1 January 2014). "Benedict Cumberbatch's parents make Sherlock cameo". Radio Times. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  19. Jeffery, Morgan (11 October 2013). "'Doctor Who' missing episodes inspired 'Sherlock', says Mark Gatiss". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  20. Sheridan, Emily (26 March 2013). "Sherlock is back from the dead as series 3 begins filming... with Martin Freeman's girlfriend Amanda Abbington joining the cast". Daily Mail.
  21. 1 2 Garratt, Sheryl (1 January 2014). "Sherlock: filming the way Holmes faked his death for The Empty Hearse". The Telegraph.
  22. "Sherlock facts: 21 things you didn't know". telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  23. [The real truth behind http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/the_real_truth_behind_sherlock_s_abandoned_sumatra_road_tube_station_it_s_under_hampstead_heath_1_3177453 "Sherlock's abandoned 'Sumatra Road' tube station? It's under Hampstead Heath"] Check |url= value (help). hamhigh.co.uk. Hampstead & Highgate Express. 5 January 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  24. "Jubilee tube from St James' Park? Sherlock fans confused by London Underground trains pulling into different stations on different lines". dailymail.co.uk. Daily Mail. 2 January 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  25. "The London Underground according to 'Sherlock'". timeout.com. Timeout. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  26. Dibdin, Emma (5 November 2013). "'Sherlock' series 3 premiere 'The Empty Hearse' for BFI screening". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  27. Bushby, Helen (1 January 2014). "Final countdown for Sherlock's return". BBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  28. "Sherlock return watched by 9.2m". BBC News. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  29. Jeffery, Morgan (23 October 2013). "'Sherlock' series 3 to air in January in the US". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  30. Wollaston, Sam (2 January 2014). "Sherlock – TV review". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  31. Harvey, Chris (1 January 2014). "Sherlock: The Empty Hearse, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  32. Wilding, Josh (1 January 2014). "Review – The Empty Hearse – Sherlock". The Mirror. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  33. Senior, Anne-Marie (2 January 2014). "Sherlock sparks Twitter fury as eagle-eyed viewers notice the lines on London Underground are WRONG". The Mirror. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  34. Liew, Tim (1 January 2014). "TV review: Sherlock's exhilarating return put character before plot". Metro. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  35. Goodman, Tim. "Sherlock: TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  36. Jia, Oliver. "Foxhounder Films: Sherlock Season 3: "The Empty Hearse" Review". The Punk Effect. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  37. "Sherlock Holmes' return met by mixed reaction from fans". BBC News. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.

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