Sherlock exhibition: Thousands of fans turn up to get a glimpse of star of hit show Benedict Cumberbatch

MIRROR
22:49, 27 April 2015
By Rod McPhee




The crowd surges, there’s an explosion of camera flashes and teenage girls scream their idol’s name.

Not Harry, or Zayn, or even Justin. The man they’re all here to see is Benedict Cumberbatch , star of BBC1’s cult hit Sherlock .

This is Sherlocked, the world’s first convention for fans of the show – which promises them a chance to meet their idol.

For the uninitiated, this level of hysteria for a 38-year-old actor may seem a mystery worthy of Holmes himself.

For the 6,000 self-styled Cumberbitches and Cumberboys who have turned up here, however, it’s elementary.



Many are dressed as their favourite cast member and are happy to shell out up to £45 for a photo with Sherlock himself.

Some cough up almost £3,000 for a VIP pass and think nothing of paying £30 for a scrap of wallpaper from the show’s set.

Others happily spend £500 for a pair of signed Sherlock and John Watson action figures and see nothing wrong with forking out £15 for a tea towel.

But since many have journeyed from one of the 200 countries where Sherlock is now broadcast, money is no object.

They simply want to submerge themselves in Cumberworld – and, as Benedict takes to the stage to address the convention, he seems ­genuinely thrilled to be joining them.

“Though I’ve got a microphone and I’m speaking to however many people, THIS is normal,” he beams, almost reassuring the crowd which is 80% female and 100% delirious.

“I’m not self-consciously walking through a shopping centre or an art gallery knowing that people are noticing me. I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to that.

“But being able to feel comfortable enough to speak to you now, to talk directly and honestly, it makes me feel like I’m the same person I was when all this began.”

His easy charisma seduces the audience during a question-and-answer session that is the highlight of the event.

As he delivers a couple of impressions – one of his dragon voice from The Hobbit movie, the other Chewbacca from Star Wars – even a couple of stray F-bombs can’t make Benedict’s devotees love him less.

But he may have upset a few audience members when he noted one special reason why Mr Cumberbatch and Mr Holmes are, in fact, two different people.

He says: “I don’t have the abilities that he does, I don’t have the same black curly hair he does, I don’t play the violin and I have a family on the way.”

Benedict, who wed theatre director Sophie Hunter, 37, in February, even teases his fans with a mention of his baby on the way later this year.

“I’m very excited,” he says, extracting a communal sigh from the audience. “I’m a bit busy at home at the moment, though not as busy as my wife, if you know what I mean.”

After the Q&A, besotted fans spend hours queuing just to get into another queue to get into yet another queue to have their photo taken with him.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/sherlock-exhibition-thousands-fans-turn-5594414

Benedict Cumberbatch made my heart stop

TELEGRAPH
By Gillian Reynolds
6:45AM BST 22 Apr 2015



Everyone loves Benedict Cumberbatch now but radio listeners loved him first, mostly for playing the Captain in John Finnemore’s Cabin Pressure, a wonderful Radio 4 comedy about a tiny airline played by a sterling ensemble (Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole, Cumberbatch and Finnemore), elegantly directed by David Tyler of independents Pozzitive. It began in 2008, ran four seasons with a two-part finale to round it off last Christmas, recorded on a night when Cumberbatch fans blocked the street outside the studio because, by that time, he was TV’s blockbusting Sherlock and a film star too.

He was an interesting choice for My Dear Bessie (Radio 4, Monday) because this role wasn’t heroic or comic but the voice of a real life soldier, Chris Barker, writing from Libya in 1943 to a girl, Bessie Moore (Louise Brealey), whom he knew but not well. She was a Morse code operator at the Foreign Office who was surprised to get his first letter, but glad. They’d both just been through broken romances and, surprisingly quickly, the words they exchanged began to smoulder on the page.

It takes sensitivity to bring such a relationship to believable life, to capture in voice alone the physicality of their responses to each other’s words. Cumberbatch’s slightly Cockney Chris and Brealey’s shy but sharp Bessie did it beautifully. When he proposed, by letter, and she replied that they hadn’t even met since the letters began, my heart stopped. But not for long. Because they did get married, if kept apart by the war just a bit longer, and stayed married for 58 years. Bessie died in 2004, Chris the next year. Their granddaughter opened the blue box that held their letters in 2008. Simon Garfield compiled them into a dialogue, Sara Davies adapted it for radio and Gemma Jenkins, the producer, found the perfect cast. I can still hear their voices.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11553503/Benedict-Cumberbatch-My-Dear-Bessie-review.html

Ripper Street: Season Three Starts April 29th on BBC America

TV SERIES FINALE
March 26, 2015

As you may recall, BBC cancelled Ripper Street after two seasons. The series was later revived thanks to a deal between BBC and Amazon. Late last year, the new season of eight episodes was offered exclusively in the UK on Prime Instant Video. Now, BBC America has announced the premiere of season three in the States for Wednesday, April 29th.

Here are the details:

BBC AMERICA’S “RIPPER STREET” RETURNS FOR SEASON THREE ON APRIL 29, 10:00PM ET

The robbery of a goods train leads to a cataclysmic locomotive disaster on Leman Street, reuniting the men and their resentments to seek its cause

New York – March 26, 2015 – BBC AMERICA’s critically-acclaimed and BAFTA nominated original British drama Ripper Street returns in April. Picking up in 1894, four years after the culmination of season two, the new season reveals a vivid and sensual descent into the lives of the men and women who must live on the violent streets of Whitechapel in late Victorian London. Ripper Street premieres Wednesday, April 29, 10:00pm ET on BBC AMERICA.



Matthew Macfadyen returns as Detective Inspector Reid, Jerome Flynn as the newly promoted Detective Inspector Bennet Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as Captain Homer Jackson. MyAnna Buring also returns as Long Susan in the eight-part season.

Four years have passed since Reid bayed for Drake to end the life of Jedediah Shine. Four years that have seen the crime-fighting axis of Reid, Drake and Jackson split and isolated from one another. Drake has left London for Manchester to become the policeman – and man – he felt he could no longer be in Whitechapel. He is an Inspector himself now. Jackson has reverted to the man Reid plucked out of the Tenter Street brothel, a two-penny, sawbones, clap-doctor. And Reid has succumbed to his own shame and isolation, policing Whitechapel with a level of forensic detail and dedication that leads Chief Inspector Fred Abberline to fear for his old friend’s mental well-being.

Meanwhile, Long Susan has made good on her threats to both Captain Jackson and the dying Silas Dugan – she has separated from her husband, taken command of Duggan’s criminal empire and turned it into a legitimate property empire of huge philanthropic ambition. But such aspirations are costly, as her loyal but scheming solicitor Ronald Capshaw knows only too well.

All these resentments, fears and ambitions are soon forgotten, however, when two trains collide on the newly constructed bridge above Leman Street. It is a catastrophe which falls into Reid’s world and demands explanation. His pursuit reunites him with Drake and Jackson and sets him on his own collision course with his past and with the secret crimes of Long Susan and Ronald Capshaw.


READ MORE HERE: http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/ripper-street-season-three-starts-april-29th-on-bbc-america-36010/

Video: Watch Benedict Cumberbatch read one of Alan Turing’s letters

NOW.HERE.THIS
Posted at 1:00 pm, March 19, 2015 in Arts & Entertainment

As we announced earlier this week, Benedict Cumberbatch will be one of the performers at ‘Letters Live’, a week of shows in which celebrities will read out fascinating letters written by famous people, from Virginia Woolf to Mahatma Gandhi.



As well as reading – with ‘Sherlock’ co-star Louise Brealy – from love letters collection ‘Dear Bessie’, the ‘Batch will be reading a couple of epistles by Alan Turning, who he played in ‘The Imitation Game’.

READ MORE HERE: http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2015/03/19/video-watch-benedict-cumberbatch-read-one-of-alan-turings-letters/

Book now: Benedict Cumberbatch returns to the stage with ‘Letters Live’

NOW.HERE.THIS
Posted at 12:00 pm, March 17, 2015 in Arts & Entertainment



Didn’t get tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch’s Barbican ‘Hamlet’? You’re not the only one, alas. But the ‘Sherlock’ star has just been announced for a stage project that’s happening at the end of this month – one in which you’ll finally get to see him hook up with Molly, aka Louise Brealey.

‘Letters Live’ is a sort of stage equivalent to the ‘Letters of Note’ anthology, and each night of its stint at the beautiful art deco Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden will feature a mix of celebrity performers reading out interesting letters from history, from Gandhi’s missive to Hitler to Virginia Woolf’s suicide note.

Dropping in and out of the five-night run will be the likes of Sally Hawkins and the musician Tom Odell. But guaranteed every night is Cumberbatch himself, and Louise Brealey: in addition to letters they’ll be reading individually – including those written by a certain famous mathematician – the pair will be reading from ‘My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letter’. It’s an anthology of letters from the Second World War, a correspondence between North Africa-posted RAF man Chris Barker and Bessie Moore, a former colleague of his who he began writing to in order to pass the time, and ended up falling for via the medium of letter. As you’d expect, the ‘Batch will read a selection of Barker’s letters, while Brealey will read Moore’s.


READ MORE HERE: http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2015/03/17/book-now-benedict-cumberbatch-returns-to-the-stage-with-letters-live/

VIDEO: He sings, plays piano and wears dodgy trunks - Our top 9 Benedict Cumberbatch clips

SUNDAY EXPRESS
Stefan Kyriazis
March 15, 2015



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Enjoy a much deserved treat of Benedict Cumberbatch's best moments on screen from Sherlock to The Imitation Game, Atonement to Starter For Ten

Since becoming a household name with his star-making turn as the iconic Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch has notched up an astoundingly impressive resume of film and TV roles.



Considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, he’s demonstrated a remarkable range, and gained a hugely loyal fan-base in the process.

Often cited for having a startling aptitude for playing geniuses, his latest character is no exception, as he takes on the role of war hero Alan Turing.

To celebrate the home entertainment release of The Imitation Game on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download we take a look back at some of his most memorable roles.

August: Osage County (2013)

Based on the play by Tracy Letts, this darkly comic look at a family in turmoil boasts a star-studded cast, including Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Meryl Street, Julia Roberts, Ewan Macgregor and Margo Martindale.

Cumberbatch plays the shy, awkward Little Charles, summoned home by his grandmother (Streep) after his grandfather (Sam Shepard) goes missing.

As the ensuing crisis unearths long-buried secrets and resentments the poor lad is struggling with his own secret love.

This gorgeous clip of Little Charles wooing Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) is even more heart-breaking if you know how this tragic love story ultimately unfolds.

Starter for Ten (2006)

Based on the novel by David Nicholls, this British comedy follows the trials and tribulations of student Brian Jackson (James McAvoy), a working class student in 1985 who finds himself navigating the campus of Bristol University.

He attempts to impress the object of his affections, Alice (Alice Eve), while finally succeeding in his lifelong ambition to win University Challenge.

Cumberbatch steals every scene he’s in, demonstrating a brilliant knack for comedy as the socially inept and uptight captain of the team, Patrick Watts.

Sherlock (2010-2016)

Widely considered to be his breakout role, this BBC series created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss catapulted Cumberbatch into the mainstream, winning him legions of fans and launching him into the A-list.

Taking on the titular role, he’s joined by an equally brilliant Martin Freeman as the consulting detective’s best friend and colleague, Dr John Watson, with supporting turns from Una Stubbs, Rupert Graves, Louise Brealey and Andrew Scott.

Critically acclaimed and adored, Cumberbatch has won countless praise for his unique, fresh and pitch-perfect portrayal of the beloved literary character, and the show picked up three Emmys in 2014: leading actor for Cumberbatch, supporting actor for Freeman and writing for a miniseries for Moffat.

It's impossible to pick simply one clip, so we have found a wonderful compilation of Sherlock's most withering insults.


SEE ALL THE REST HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/563301/Benedict-Cumberbatch-funniest-and-best-scenes-Imitation-Game

Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey for Letters Live 2015

DIGITAL SPY
By Bea MitchellSaturday, Mar 7 2015, 8:49pm EST



Benedict Cumberbatch and his Sherlock co-star Louise Brealey will take part in the new series of Letters Live, celebrating literary correspondence over the centuries.

Inspired by the books Letters of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher, and To the Letter by Simon Garfield, Letters Live returns to London from March 31 until April 4.

Cumberbatch said: "Letters Live makes us pause and imagine the lives behind the letters read and the circumstances of their origin.

"It's a privilege to read this most ancient of communications live to an audience."

Brealey and Cumberbatch will be reading letters alongside various other performers from the stage, screen, music, art and literary worlds.

"Standing up there and speaking words written during the Second World War by Bessie Moore - words that were not meant to be spoken aloud even to her lover - is an electrifying privilege," said Brealey.

The letters include Gandhi's appeal to Hitler for calm on the eve of World War II and Virginia Woolf's suicide letter.


Read more: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/celebrity/news/a633891/benedict-cumberbatch-and-louise-brealey-for-letters-live-2015.html#ixzz3TpQ5o7Pt 
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Louise Brealey on kissing Cumberbatch

RADIO TIMES
Claire Webb
4:32 PM, 30 June 2014



Do you mind if I ask you about… “The Kiss?” Louise Brealey interrupts, before bursting out laughing. Clearly it’s a question she’s been asked before.

Brealey is best known as Molly Hooper in TV’s Sherlock, the timid pathologist hopelessly besotted with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Baker Street detective, as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The drama is a global phenomenon, its leading man a sex symbol and that kiss – when Molly’s dreams momentarily came true – a YouTube sensation.

In fact, there were four kisses. “I milked it!” she admits. “Afterwards, Ben and I watched it back on the monitor.” She adopts a Hollywood drawl. “‘Yup, that’s pretty hot.’ And of course it went completely crackers when the show came out. I got 7,000 Twitter followers within five minutes of that kiss airing. It had doubled by the time the episode ended.”

While the odd tweet seethed with jealousy, most were a virtual pat on the back. Brealey believes that’s because “Cumberbitches” – as members 
of the Cumberbatch appreciation society like to call themselves – can identify with Molly. “She’s unthreatening.

She’s an ordinary woman experiencing the agony of unrequited love, and most of us have been there.”

Sherlockco-creator Steven 
Moffat never intended Molly 
to be a permanent fixture, but 
Brealey’s performance persuaded him otherwise. Molly has also become a central character in fan fiction, with thousands of stories posted online. Brealey has only read one. “I just thought I was reading your average story and it turned into straddling and nipple-piercing!”

Growing up in Northampton, she was an academic child, the only one of her siblings that her parents could afford to send to “posh school”. So, while they left the local comprehensive at 16, she read history at Cambridge – a late applicant, it turns out. “When my dad found out I hadn’t applied, he hit the roof. I tried to explain to him I didn’t want to be an Oxbridge reject, but he said: ‘Tough s**t!’ And quite rightly, as it goes.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-06-30/delicious-star-louise-brealey-on-kissing-cumberbatch-body-image-and-taking-mental-health-seriously

‘Sherlock’s Louise Brealey Joins ‘Ripper Street’

ANGLOPHENIA
By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on June 20th, 2014

Louise Brealey, who plays the put-upon pathologist Molly Hooper in Sherlock, has been cast in the third season of Ripper Street as Dr. Amelia Frayn, who takes her place in a very specific moment in the advancement of medical science:

She told Radio Times: “I’m playing one of the first women doctors. I’m really excited because I did history at university and I love a bit of research. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson blazed the trail in the 1870s and in the intervening decade or so a few extremely intrepid and unusual women started learning to be doctors themselves.”



Her character runs a clinic in Whitechapel, which means her costume is very different to that of her female co-stars: “I’m dressed very soberly and the other girls are all so ravishing. I’m like a little Jenny Wren. Literally, where are my pretty feathers?!”

She also revealed a particular bond with her co-star, Matthew Macfadyen. “He’s so nice. Just lovely, funny and very kind. His family is from Northamptonshire, which is where I’m from, so we’ve had a Rose of the Shires bond.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/06/sherlocks-louise-brealey-joins-ripper-street/

10 Moments When Sherlock Was A Complete Jerk

WHAT CULTURE
by Mark White



He’s the most fascinating presence on television: he’s a mercurial man with an otherworldly aura, a fiery turn of wit and an answer for everything. He’s so many people’s hero, and so many are in love with him. But my god, can Sherlock Holmes be a total ass sometimes.

When Sherlock claimed that he just because he was on the side of the angels, it didn’t mean he was a nice bloke, he wasn’t joking; Sherlock’s a liar and a manipulator, and that’s just to the people he calls friends. A lot of the time, John’s only part of the case to apologise for his friend; Sherlock doesn’t exactly make himself likeable, does he?

Nobody’s saying he’s an insufferable character, though. We love Sherlock: he’s a great man. But he’s certainly not a good one. Here are ten embarrassing, funny and just plain badass examples of the great detective being a complete jerk in the show.

10. Missing The Emotional Context Behind Cases

It helps Sherlock to keep a calm head if he distances himself from cases. It’s advantageous to be detached, and as he so rightly points out, there are so many people dying in St. Bart’s hospital alone; it’s no good to cry over the bedside of a victim. But does he have to be quite so cold? We’re shown that Sherlock loves a mystery in ‘A Study In Pink’, when he actually engages in a murderer’s game of wits, but ‘The Great Game’ shows quick-paced plots that he openly revels in. Is it not just the little bit inappropriate to get so excited over a murder? Sure, he might not be able to help it – as he keeps telling us, he’s sociopathic – but he has to be told not to smile at a crime scene where children have been kidnapped, and he asks the woman in charge of criminal welfare, “What are you? An idiot, a drunk or a criminal?”

With just a bit more tact, maybe Lestrade’s division might not hate him so much; telling a child that her granddad had been “taken to a special room and burned” isn’t utterly necessary. We love him for complete lack of self-awareness, but nobody in the show does.


9. Investigating The Hound By Terrorising John

When Henry came to Sherlock telling him about a gigantic hound wandering around Dartmoor, he was hooked on the case. He realised someway in the story that this hound was in actual fact a hallucination, and so John went into the lab, alone, armed only with a torch, to hallucinate and feed back to Sherlock what he was seeing.

Except Sherlock told none of this to John: he couldn’t. He merely locked him in a lab, scared for his life, and phoned him, asking to describe what he thought was about to brutally murder him. There might not have been another way to solve the case, but do you think your best friend would forgive you for doing a thing like that to them?

When Sherlock found John, he was understandably furious. “It’s okay,” Sherlock comforted, as John shouted, “Nooo, it’s NOT!” It’s not okay!” It was another hilariously tactless move from Sherlock, and one that left John questioning their friendship.

 8. Humiliating Sally Donovan In Front Of Her Colleagues

A lot of Sherlock fans hate Sally Donovan, mainly because she calls Sherlock, “freak”. They see her as an often bitchy, snide member of Lestrade’s division, and when Sherlock gave her a dressing down at a crime scene, it seemed like revenge. See things from Donovan’s point of view though; this is a man who waltzed into her office, assumed authority over her, and started doing her job for her, working close with her boss – she’s implied to be Lestrade’s deputy – and putting pay to any chance of her getting a promotion.

On top of this, he constantly ridicules her lover, Anderson. What reason does she have to like him, exactly? Taking everything into account, it was pretty nasty of Sherlock to expose their affair and make reference to the things that they’d been doing. They might have had it coming by being nasty to him, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t horrible back.  

7. Telling John He Doesn’t Have Friends



John and Sherlock have been through a lot together, even by the halfway point of Series 2. And though John vehemently denies that the pair of them are gay, they’re no strangers to fighting like a married couple.

One of the most marriage-like rows that the pair endure happens when Sherlock’s frightened of the hound and questioning everything he believes to be true. John offers a hand to calm him down, but Sherlock refuses his help. “Now why would you listen to me. I’m just your friend,” John snorts. ”I don’t have friends!”
Sherlock says, haughtily. It’s a totally avoidable argument, and one where that Sherlock’s clearly in the wrong; taking a step back for a second to remember all the danger John gets himself into, just for his mate, would certainly cool proceedings down.

They later make up when Sherlock tells him that he just has the one friend: good save. Still, there was no need be such an ass to John, was there? Sherlock would go on to lock him in the lab that episode; it was a tempestuous time for their friendship.

Read more (Molly, Irene, Janene, allowing John to think they'd die, plus the #1 awful Sherlock moment) at http://whatculture.com/tv/10-moments-sherlock-complete-jerk.php/4#tGqbvoiEmQuGdgHh.99

'Sherlock' Season 4 Spoilers: Mrs. Hudson, Molly, Moriarty Characters More of Romance and Friendship In The BBC Series?

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
By Vanessa Francisco | February 24, 2014 7:32 PM EST



BBC's popular show "Sherlock" Season 3 has just finished and many have already started speculating about the upcoming season 4. For viewers who can no longer wait until the next season premiere to know what really is in store for the show, here are some teasers about Sherlock's adventures, potential romantic life and friendships.

It was recently announced that "Sherlock" is having its own 25 million GBP theme park in Portsmouth to focus on the detective's quests in Baker Street, London. "We are talking about world class, Sherlock Holmes experience," Steve Pitt of Portsmouth Cultural Partnership said. "It would be interactive and of high quality. There are many tie-ins around the Sherlock Holmes legacy being born in Portsmouth."

In an interview, it was also suggested that Moriarty (Andrew Scott) could be a major character in season 4. The third season concluded with a surprising twist of Moriarty's return. The season finale also featured Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) shooting Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen).

According to executive producer Steven Moffat, the viewers will also see more of Molly in the next season. "I think she will become an important part of the show. One difficulty in adapting Sherlock Holmes is that there are no women in the original stories. You really do not have the female perspective on them and they are a little flat when they show up. Yet, every time a woman appears in Sherlock, it works hugely well," Moffat explained.

Moffat continued to discuss why women are important for Sherlock the show and the character himself. "A female perspective in the friendship and on the man is incredible illuminating and telling. We have majorly expanded the part of Mrs. Hudson, played by Una Stubbs, because she did not speak in the original story. We brought Molly in," he said.

READ MORE HERE: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/540273/20140224/sherlock-season-4-spoilers-news-benedict-cumberbatch.htm#.UwtUCfldVls

'Sherlock' Season 4 Spoilers: Romance or Friendship in store for Sherlock?

BREATHE CAST
By Clare Morris, BREATHEcast News Reporter
Feb 19, 2014 03:30 PM EST


http://giphy.com/gifs/yr6mgdF0b9arC

With season three of popular BBC show "Sherlock" wrapped, many are wondering what is in store for the upcoming fourth season. For fans who cannot wait until the next season premieres to find out what's in store for the show read on.  Executive producer Steven Moffat has recently provided some spoilers.

Steven Moffat spoke with TV Guide in an interview, where he revealed some teasers about Sherlock's potential friendships romantic life.

Moffat said Molly will have an increased role next season. "I think she's become quite an important part of the show. One of the difficulties in adapting Sherlock Holmes... [is that] there are no women in Sherlock Holmes, the original stories. You really don't have the female perspective on them. And they're slightly flat when they turn up. And yet, every time we bring a woman into Sherlock, it works hugely well," he said.


READ MORE HEREhttp://www.breathecast.com/articles/sherlock-season-4-spoilers-romance-or-friendship-in-store-for-sherlock-14114/: 

Benedict Cumberbatch: Oh God, The Sherlock/Molly Feelings

HOLLYWOOD
By: Sage Young
Jan 07, 2014 | 3:00pm EST



The Sherlock series 3 premiere episode "The Empty Hearse" was a kitchen sink homage to every corner of that show's fandom. From Mycroft and Sherlock bickering over a game of Operation to Moriarty and Sherlock sharing a fan fiction-inspired intimate moment on the roof of St. Barts, there was a "squee" moment for everyone.

But extra special attention was paid to fans of the Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper pairing — Sherlolly, for short — and boy, do we have feelings about this episode.

The opening sequence showed a resolution to Sherlock's Reichenbach fake-out that would have made James Bond hang up his tuxedo. After leaping off the building attached to a giant bungee cord, Sherlock snaps back up, crashes through a window, and sweeps Molly off her feet with an epic, tow-curling kiss.



Related: that moment where Benedict Cumberbatch shook out his coat, ruffled that glorious hair, and stalked towards Louise Brealey was probably gif-ed faster than Tumblr has ever gif-ed anything before. The sequence is soon revealed to be a product of the now insane Philip Anderson's imagination. But, when Sherlock visits him to share the "real," slightly less dramatic story, Anderson writes it off because he knows that he would be the very last person to whom Sherlock would tell the whole truth. So that means we can accept the first scenario as canon, right? Right.

READ MORE HERE:http://www.hollywood.com/news/tv/56731771/sherlock-molly-the-empty-hearse-benedict-cumberbatch

Sherlock’s Molly Hooper: The Woman That Counts

WHAT CULTURE
August 14, 2013 Jaime Grover

Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) is the adorable, kind hearted and often overlooked pathologist in the BBC television show, Sherlock. Originally written as a one-off for the pilot, she managed to win over the hearts of  the show’s viewers and over the course of the first two series has now become a fan favourite.

Molly is hopelessly (and blatantly) in love with the lead character, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and yet is often left feeling as though he is unaware of her very existence. She is always there to assist him with any experiments for the cases he’s working on and allows him complete access to the lab or the morgue as necessary. Many people believed her to be a bit of a pushover throughout the first series – however – I believe that over the course of the show (series 2 in particular, though) Molly Hooper has become an extraordinary female role model for girls and women around the world to relate and look up to.

Having strong female characters has become extremely vital in film and television in this day and age. Feminism has been working some of its magic in the media and this is a truly brilliant development. Move over, damsel-in-distress! Make way for confident, powerful heroines! Characters such as these are ones to look up to, certainly, but can most of us truly say “Yes! That’s me!” whilst watching the clever, sexy, confident Irene Adler kick some butt in A Scandal In Belgravia? Perhaps some of us could (which is excellent), but many might find the powerhouse female archetype difficult to relate to.

This is not to say that it isn’t fantastic having these strong female role models – it still proves that women are not always the victims and there are plenty of women out there who can hold their own and take care of themselves. Extremely refreshing. However, a character like Molly Hooper is just what we need. As previously stated, viewers of the show thought of her as a pushover and utterly incapable of standing up for herself throughout the first series. Although she does not have an incredible amount of screen-time, her character has developed tremendously since A Study In Pink due to the excellent writing and also Louise Brealey’s phenomenal portrayal of the character.

The situation that Molly is in (unrequited love) and her overall personality represents one of the most believable and relatable characters I’ve ever witnessed on television. She genuinely cares for people and about what they say down to the last detail. She has relatively low self esteem and doesn’t carry herself with much confidence – and yet she smiles even when we know she’s upset. She knows that Sherlock doesn’t reciprocate her feelings and yet she is willing to stick around and be there as a friend if that’s what he would prefer. That is unbelievable strength and something that many women can relate to or aspire to be.

The first time that Molly really proved her inner strength to the viewers was after being completely embarrassed by Sherlock at the Christmas party in A Scandal In Belgravia. Rather than staying silent – or the other extreme of slapping him in the face – she simply expressed her disappointment in his actions. She is the only character on the show that has actually gotten Sherlock to apologize and honestly mean it. Molly deserves so much respect for how she handled this situation – not too many others would have done the same.


Read more at http://whatculture.com/tv/sherlocks-molly-hooper-the-woman-that-counts.php#Mj2aYgr5ZGEgAGlI.99 Read more at http://whatculture.com/tv/sherlocks-molly-hooper-the-woman-that-counts.php#Mj2aYgr5ZGEgAGlI.99 

Sherlock stars - exclusive picture gallery Martin Freeman and Louise Brealey, and the show's co-creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, got together at this year's Radio Times covers party (RADIO TIMES)

Radio Times staff
1:37 PM, 01 February 2013

It's not often you get a Hollywood actor like Martin Freeman, his Sherlock co-star Louise Brealey and Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat – the showrunners of two of the biggest properties in British TV – in the same room together at the same time. But Radio Times managed it, at our annual covers party earlier this week.

It provided a great photo opportunity, as you can see in the exclusive gallery below, and also a chance to chat to some of the stars.

SEE MORE PICTURES: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-02-01/sherlock-stars---exclusive-picture-gallery

Sherlock's Molly: the original Cumberbitch (LONDON EVENING STANDARD)

As the shy Molly mooning over Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, she cuts a lonely figure, but Rosamund Urwin finds that in real life Louise Brealey is no shrinking wallflower

Louise Brealey is the queen of the longing look. As Molly Hooper in BBC1’s Sherlock (not so much a series now as a phenomenon, thanks to its huge international success), the actress has perfected a similar expression to the one that appears on the faces of women across the world whenever Benedict Cumberbatch’s sexy otter face and swishy coat arrive on screen.

So if dominatrix Irene Adler was the show’s femme fatale, pathologist Molly is its everywoman. “On a basic level, women can relate to Molly if they fancy Benedict Cumberbatch. She’s them,” says Brealey. “He is unobtainable: both as Sherlock and Benedict. A double-whammy. But Molly makes a twat out of herself not because she’s stupid but because she loves him.”

In one particularly brutal scene, Sherlock accidentally humiliates Molly at their Christmas party by assuming she has dressed up and bought a present for a new boyfriend, only to discover her efforts were for him. Only the steel-hearted wouldn’t have been moved by Brealey’s crumpled face. “Most people I know have been in love with someone who doesn’t love them back. It feels f***ing horrible. It aches and it aches, and what can you do? It’s not a stretch to play something like that, because I’ve been there.”

But in the series two finale, Molly was elevated from lovelorn sidekick to heroine, after she helped Sherlock to fake his own death. “The first text I received at the end of the episode said, ‘Thank you for saving Sherlock!’ Molly’s so overlooked by everyone but in the end she’s the one he can turn to.”

Cumberbatch, she says, is “absolutely committed as an actor. There’s never a moment when he’s not Sherlock. And as a person, he is a delight.”

READ MORE: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/sherlocks-molly-the-original-cumberbitch-8293476.html

Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey at Cheltenham Festival - adorable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_n5njWQiKE&feature=plcp

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