Did you feel intimidated to take on such a classic source material and reinvent it in such a unique way? Did it feel like a natural direction to go, or were you wary about how carefully you needed to handle the material, especially given it’s popularity and past incarnations?

yorkiepug:

bakerstreetcrow:

221b-investigates:

We were just excited that we got to have go. And we approached it in the spirit of Doyle, and his famous telegram to one of his first adapters, William Gillette. ‘You may marry, murder, or do what you like with him.“

Oh lets TALK ABOUT THAT.

There is a quote that is often used which says much, but the story
behind the telegram and how the quote came about is also quite telling.

“You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him”*

*Telegram Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sent to William Gillette.

While
this line is often quoted as showing how Sir Arthur did not care about
how Sherlock Holmes was portrayed, it should be noted that this quote only came after William Gillette pressed Sir. Arthur on the matter. 

Initially Arthur Conan Doyle stipulated that Sherlock Holmes should not be portrayed as being romantically interested in a woman.
 He did not give Sherlock Holmes a female love interest and preferred
that it remained so (reminder that Irene Norton/Adler was in love with and
married someone else (Godfrey Norton). She was not romantically interested in Holmes, or he in her).

“Gillette read Conan Doyle’s script and asked permission to revise it. The author agreed, stipulating only that there be no love interest.”

-via the Shakespeare Festival of Utah University

Keep
in mind that at the time that the telegram was written it was
inconceivable that Holmes would even have the opportunity to ever marry a
man.  

The possibility of Holmes having a male love interest is
not something that would have -ever- been written about,  spoken of, or
suggested because of the anti-lgbt culture ingrained throughout society
at the time (it was against the law).  The co-dependant partnership of Holmes and Watson was the closest that could be achieved when it came to M/M ‘Love’ interest.  

A
male male relationship would NOT be referred to as a ‘love interest’.
Dr. Watson could only ever be referred to as Holmes’ ‘partner’ and
‘friend’.  Any reference to ‘love interests’ dealt with women by
default.  Sir Arthur was stating his disapproval of Holmes having a
relationship with a woman.

This point is significant as it is
further evidence regarding how it is adaptations that try to show Holmes
as being straight and interested in a woman that have to bend/rewrite the
stories to do so, NOT the ones that show Holmes as having other
inclinations.  It is the -straight- adaptations that are deviating more
from the canon stories and have to break canon when they try to push
heteronormativity.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written about
having a preference that Holmes remained single and alone or living with
Dr. John Watson then being romantically interested in a women.