Sherlock Holmes: My Hero

I recently started watching the British crime drama “Sherlock,” a contemporary take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. In this incarnation, Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, behaves in many ways similar to Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) on “The Big Bang Theory:” He’s very literal, and to a word snob like me, he’s awesome.

Following is a dialog Holmes has with a prisoner, Bewick, in the third episode of the first season, “The Great Game,” written by Mark Gatiss (also my hero):

Holmes: Just tell me what happened from the beginning.

Bewick: We’d been to a bar, nice place, and I got chatting with one of the waitresses, and Karen weren’t happy about that, so when we get back to the hotel, we end up having a bit of a ding-dong, don’t we?

Holmes: (annoyed sigh)

Bewick: She was always getting at me, saying I weren’t a real man.

Holmes: Wasn’t a real man.

Bewick: What?

Holmes: It’s not weren’t. It’s wasn’t.

Bewick: Oh.

Holmes: Go on.

Bewick: Well, then I don’t know how it happened but suddenly there’s a knife in my hands. You know, my old man was a butcher so I know how to handle knives. He learned us how to cut up a beast.

Holmes: Taught.

Bewick: What?

Holmes: Taught you how to cut up a beast.

Bewick: Yeah, well then I done it.

Holmes: Did it.

Bewick:  (annoyed) Did it! Stabbed her over and over and over, and I looked down, and she weren’t …

Holmes: (annoyed sigh)

Bewick: Wasn’t moving no more — any more. God help me, I don’t know how it happened, but it was an accident, I swear.

(Holmes gets up and starts to walk away)

Bewick: Hey, you’ve got to help me, Mr. Holmes. Everyone says you’re the best. Without you, I’ll get hung for this.

Holmes: No, no, no, Mr. Bewick, not at all. Hanged, yes.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com

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