List of Sherlock characters

The series is a contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

William Sherlock Scott Holmes[1] (Benedict Cumberbatch) describes himself initially as "a consulting detective, the only one in the world",[2] helping out Scotland Yard when they are out of their depth with cases (usually homicides).

When Irene is believed to be dead, Sherlock is visibly affected, with John saying "he's writing sad music; doesn't eat; barely talks" even suggesting he may be "heartbroken".

[3] In the following series, Sherlock briefly has a mental image of her in his Mind Palace when thinking of who would know John's middle name, but quickly retorts "Out of my head, I'm busy".

At the end of series three, seeing no other choice, he shoots and kills Charles Augustus Magnussen, a corrupt and unethical newspaper owner who is threatening to release incriminating material he has on Mary Watson.

In solving cases, Sherlock uses a technique known as the Method of Loci, which he calls his "mind palace", which enables him to efficiently store and retrieve information for deductions.

Sherlock explains that this is why John chose to put his trust in him, a sociopath who solves dangerous cases as an alternative to getting high, and fell in love with Mary, a former secret agent and assassin.

The only member of John's family who has been alluded to thus far is his sister, Harriet (aka Harry), with whom he has an estranged relationship due to her being a heavy drinker and the separation of her and her ex-wife, Clara.

Despite his impatience at her concern for him, Sherlock has shown to have a great deal of affection for Mrs. Hudson; for example while he often tells her to shut up when he considers her input an annoyance, he is quick to reprimand his brother Mycroft for attempting to do the same.

In the hallucinations of "The Abominable Bride", Mrs. Hudson is shown upset that she has no speaking role in Watson's stories and Sherlock suggests he "give her some lines" as she "is perfectly capable of starving us".

Mycroft Holmes (played by the show's executive producer, co-creator, and writer Mark Gatiss) is first introduced when he abducts John and offers to pay him to spy on Sherlock.

Main series 2–) Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) is a 31-year-old specialist registrar[6] working in the morgue at St Bartholomew's Hospital with an apparent crush on Sherlock.

Sherlock only finds out how deeply infatuated she is with him during "A Scandal in Belgravia", when he acidly deduces that the Christmas present at the top of her bag is better wrapped than the others, and must be for someone she loves, and then discovers it is for him; she received a very uncharacteristic kiss on the cheek and apology for this.

She had another boyfriend prior to John, but is now good friends with him (from her perspective); unknown to Mary, her ex retained an unhealthy attraction to her, forcing Sherlock to intimidate him before the wedding by describing himself as "a high-functioning sociopath... with your number".

During the show, Mary is shown to have an unusually excellent memory and the ability to understand a skip code; clues which help Sherlock realize that all is not as it seems with Mrs. Watson.

(a freelance special forces unit) attempts to track her down, blaming her for betraying their squad during a failed mission in Tbilisi, Georgia which resulted in his capture and torture.

At the conclusion of the third episode "The Final Problem", John receives another posthumous DVD from Mary, in which she notes that the two of them are, effectively, junkies: one who solves crime to get high and the other a doctor who never came back from the war, but that what truly matters is that the two of them maintain the "last refuge for the desperate" at 221B Baker Street.

He is an excellent actor, frequently shown to have convinced others that he is someone else – indeed his first appearance occurs as a gay man whom Molly is seeing, and Sherlock does not realise his identity at the time.

Moriarty features extensively in the second series finale "The Reichenbach Fall", where he simultaneously breaks into the Tower of London, HMP Pentonville and the Bank of England, using some sort of master key code.

He then pretends to be an actor named Richard Brook and manipulates journalist Kitty Riley as well as the general populace into thinking he has been forced by Sherlock into portraying Jim Moriarty.

Having taken a picture of the information for "Bond Air", she was targeted by Americans, who were working with the British government to trick terrorists into thinking that their bomb would blow up a plane and take the lives of hundreds.

Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), who is shown briefly in "The Empty Hearse" and appears prominently in "His Last Vow", is a powerful businessman who controls a media empire.

In "The Six Thatchers", Mycroft arranges for the video footage of Magnussen's death to be doctored so it would appear that he was shot by "some overeager squaddie with an itchy trigger finger", clearing Sherlock of his murder.Culverton Smith (Toby Jones), is featured in "The Lying Detective".

In "The Final Problem", Mycroft explains that Eurus is their estranged younger sister, and the youngest child of Mr and Mrs Holmes, who possesses a transcendent intellect greater than even that of Isaac Newton.

Despite the dangers she posed, Eurus was occasionally consulted for her amazing intellect, predicting the dates of three major attempted terrorist attacks on Britain after an hour of browsing on Twitter, in exchange for 'treats' (including five minutes of unsupervised conversation with Moriarty).

Having taken control of the Sherrinford staff through her manipulative and intellectual prowess, Eurus traps Sherlock, Dr Watson, and Mycroft in the ward, and forces them to play "games" that exploit their senses of morality under high-stakes and high-pressure.

During their final encounter, Janine admits that she has made a lot of money since then by going on talk shows about her relationship with the famous detective, and had bought herself a nice cottage in Sussex.

They are introduced in "The Empty Hearse" when John comes into the flat at Baker Street to find an older couple seated in the sitting room, speaking to Sherlock.

She first appears in "His Last Vow" (although under the first name of Elizabeth), where she leads an inquiry onto the activities of media magnate Charles Augustus Magnussen, though he eventually blackmailed her into ceasing the investigation via her husband's sexual letters to an underage girl.

In the meeting, she reveals that footage of him executing Magnussen has been digitally altered to make a police sniper appear to be the shooter instead, effectively letting him "off the hook", rather than officially pardoning him.