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From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Sherlock and Daughter "The Challenge" "The Common Thread
 4/16/2025 4/23/2025 (spoilers)
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2025 17:24:59 -0000 (UTC)
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Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>On 2025-04-27 12:47 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>> s
>> p
>> o
>> i
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>> r
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>> s
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>> e
 
>>. . . 

>>The size of the house bothers the hell out of me. It's a great house,
>>and I guess we're supposed to think Belgravia except the house facades
>>being used in Dublin are from a century earlier, 1760s. The whole thing
>>is illusion. The real street is much narrower. She's crossing a 60 foot
>>wide earthen street on tv, then in a separate shot, we see the facade of
>>the houses, so I assume there's an outdoor set with the muddy street.

>>Sherlock was comfortable (he certainly didn't overspend on lodging) but not
>>wealthy, and could not possibly afford the lease on such a house. 

>I wouldn't be so sure about that. I *know* I've read passages in novels 
>about people from very humble backgrounds who received an inheritance 
>that seems impossibly small to us - like five pounds - who were able to 
>lease property in Belgravia as a result and still have money left over 
>for food, servants and the like.

Belgravia (according to that tv series) was a popular community among
newly rich families. There were cheaper parts of London, but not the
brand new areas.

>We've had so much inflation in the intervening years that it's 
>practically impossible to imagine 5 pounds going that far but apparently 
>it did. (Or maybe the novels were not accurate on that detail.)

>I wish I could remember the novel(s) where I read that....

Mycroft was, what, in two short stories, none of the novels. He was
rich. The only time I recall the father being wealthy (I recall no
references to the family in the stories) is the Elementary tv series
with Sherlock living in a house his father owned and the father paying
Joan Watson's salary.

>>Sherlock
>>never had servants. Since when do servants question their employer? And
>>the kidnapped Mrs. Hudson is also a servant?

>You have to remember that servants were dirt cheap in those days. I 
>remember reading that censuses from around 1900 defined working class as 
>having only two or fewer servants, with the middle class beginning at 3 
>servants. Of course almost everyone was agricultural in those days so 
>the two servants would have been the hired man and his wife (if he were 
>married).

Agreed. If I could accept that he was wealthy enough to lease the house,
then I've already suspended disbelief that he can also afford that many
servants.

>. . .