HerlockSholmes

I’m not certain how they get to be either although I believe that it’s by nomination. The person has to be a local councillor (minor official) The title comes from an Anglo-Saxon word ‘ealdorman.’ I saw a documentary a few months ago but I’ve forgotten some of the details. The title Sheriff comes from Shire Reeve. Reeve being a title and Shire being...well you’ve read The Lord Of The Rings.🙂 Im 55 and when I talk to someone in their 20’s or 30’s it makes me feel a bit older. Just think how the English feel when we tell an American that The Worshipful Order Of Fishmongers got their Royal Charter in 1272.😮 And even then it was in existence in some form probably 100 years before that. I bet you can imagine me sitting here covered in cobwebs.😃 Our joke candidates are entirely independent. We also have Independent non-joke candidates some of whom formerly represented a party but have decided to strike out on their own for whatever reasons. Maybe they fell out with their party over some policy? Some campaign on ‘issues’ like Lawrence Fox does. The Independents have far less chance of success because they tend to struggle for financial backing for promotion and advertising and they rarely get asked on tv or radio for Interviews. Fox has a slight advantage of course because a) he’s known, and b) I believe that he’s getting some financial backing from someone (I believe it’s someone that donates to the Conservative Party.) He’s also campaigning about things that a lot of people are concerned about like the rise of Political Correctness so he has an ‘audience.’ He still has no chance of winning though. To be fair most Independents are fully aware that they have no chance of winning but they use the campaign to get issues that are important onto the agenda so that the Parties in power (Conservative and Labour mainly) can’t ignore them.

The Livery companies are just ceremonial they due stuff like promote the industry that they represent, regulate it, promote training of apprentices and such. Im unsure who pays for the Mansion House and staff but I assume that it’s the City Of London. Very few people actually live in the Square Mile these days. They work and go home to Greater London. If you walk through the Square Mile on a Sunday morning it’s a bit like a ghost town. Whenever we have elections we always have joke candidates. The most famous being The Monster Raving Loony Party mentioned by Besleybean and Count BinFace. You had Donald Trump of course.😃

On the subject of the Livery Companies/Trade Guilds here are a few sayings that we use that came from them (maybe🙂) http://cityandlivery.co.uk/the-city-explained/sayings-associated-with-the.html

It looks like there are 20 candidates although I’d suggest that Count Binface hasn’t much chance of success (although he’d get my vote.)😀 Jeremy Corbyn’s older brother is apparently running. Sadie Khan appears to be strong favourite to be re-elected as you say Besley bean.

The Lord Mayor has to be a city Alderman and has to have served as City Sheriff (a largely ceremonial role with only minimal duties) He’s elected by show of hands by members of the various Livery Companies (which are the 110 ancient trade guilds - The Guild Of Fishmongers for example.) He’s paid over £150,000 per year but a tour guide once told me that he has to pay for all of his (extensive) travel and for any functions at the Mansion House ( certainly far from cheap!) So basically the elected Lord Mayor has to have plenty of £ in the bank.

It’s because there is The City Of London, known as the Square Mile which is the financial district at the centre of London and Greater London which is the rest. The Mayor of London is a political appointment voted into office by Londoners. Current incumbent is Sadie Khan who is a Labour politician. He took over after Boris. This is the job that Lawrence Fox is after but won’t get. The Lord Mayor Of London represents the City Of London only. The current incumbent is William Russell who is, believe it or not, the 692nd Lord Mayor. His role is basically to promote business (mainly finance) Every year on November 9th there’s a Lord Mayor’s Parade. He gets to live in the Mansion House. Lots of tradition attached to this as you would expect. If the Queen enters the City Of London there’s a ceremony where the Lord Mayor hands over a sword signifying that he’s showing the Queen that she’s the Boss.

Fox is a controversial figure over here but, as besleybean said, he’s got no chance of becoming Mayor. London has 2 Mayor’s of course and he’s only eligible to try to become one. I agree with some of the things that he says (mainly about the spread of political correctness and the suggestion that we should all walk around ‘hanging our heads in shame’ for events in our history) but he’s also of the group that are outraged that masks and restrictions are insufferable infringements on our freedom. And so while many will agree with some of the things that he says I don’t think that he’ll escape being tarred with the ‘looney’ brush. Plus, some people just aren’t keen on posh boys.😃

Thanks Hikari. I’ve heard of Dexter but I’ve never seen it.

I have to admit to being momentarily excited. Was this an episode of House that I hadn’t seen? The beginning of a series 9? No😪 http://jeromewetzeltv.blogspot.com/2012/10/house-born-again-season-9-premiere.html

Ahh so that’s the reason for Kutner’s completely out of the blue suicide. That’s one mystery answered. 👍 Now tell me why Cuddy didn’t make an appearance in the final episode?😃

That’s a good point about Amber. When House was interviewing (torturing?) potential replacements for Foreman, Chase and Cameron I expected Amber to be one of those chosen as House would have admired the qualities that led him to name her Cutthroat Bitch. A willingness to do whatever was needed including lying and rule-breaking. It was the reason that he went on to fire Masters and why he clashed so often with Cameron. Another surprise was that she went on to become Wilson’s girlfriend. She seemed an odd choice for the nice guy who was basically House’s ‘conscience.’ Like Mary Morstan she died but there was another twist of course in that Wilson blamed House for her death (at least for a time.) That Lisa Edelstein is an attractive woman. You’ll get no argument from me on that score but she did tend to dress like Marilyn Monroe, drawing countless comments from House who loved to push the boundaries of ‘acceptability.’ Although Holmes was no respecter of authority and rank he was certainly courteous to women. No one was immune from House’s barbs. Look what Foreman had to put up with. After I’ve gone through the next Sherlock to look for Canon references I though that I might try and list the references in House. I can’t watch the whole series again though. Not yet.😀

If I had to name a ‘the woman’ it would have to be Cuddy. It was an ongoing ‘will they’ ‘wont they’ relationship but, like Irene Adler, she was also an adversary constantly trying to get him to do the parts of his job that he saw as boring and lacking in challenge. Two other missing Holmes characters were a Moriarty and a Mycroft. Early on I thought that Vogler might have been his Moriarty but he didn’t last (and it was actually Cuddy that got rid of him) There was also no Mycroft figure. House was always cleverer than everyone else. He did bring in the detective character of course who might be seen as his ‘Irregular?’ Obviously there was no Mrs Hudson character either of course.

Hi Arcadia, He certainly wasn’t the easiest character to like but there were moments where we saw glimpses of the more human side of House. He consciously tried suppressing this though as, like Holmes, he saw himself as a brain; a solver of puzzles. I always thought that it was strange when I heard people say “I’m hooked on Game Of Thrones,” or Breaking Bad or anything but I certainly got hooked on House so that I was genuinely sad (not heartbroken, couldn’t eat or sleep sad of course) when I got to the end. I said in an earlier post that I don’t think that I’d like to see House return as Wilson is now dead. But then again..... “Everybody lies.” 😃👍

It was possibly some simple explanation like that Carol. It just seemed a huge omission for me. Maybe only for me?

I’ve never ‘binge-watched’ anything in my life but it’s the only way that I can describe the way I’ve watched House. I’ve just watched the final episode - number 177 Everybody Dies and I have to say that I’m already feeling that there’s a House-shaped hole in my life.🙁 I don’t usually get absorbed in TV shows or movies ( unless it’s you-know-who of course) but I became totally absorbed in House. I pretty much loved everything about it; especially the characters. House is a complex figure and one that you can easily imagine yourself wanting to strangle if you actually knew him in real life but I still found myself having sympathy for him and even really liking him. The similarities to Holmes are very obvious of course - he’s a genius, he’s an addict, he gets bored easily, he sees people/patients as problems to solve. He’s a loner who hates anything that he can’t explain (or have at least a measure of control over) He’s totally unimpressed by status or authority; he’s incapable of diplomacy he’s unconventional and he likes to shock. And he’s sarcastic and funny. What’s not to like? The other characters are great too. Especially his Watson (Wilson) As Hikari said the characters change over the years but I still found something in all of them. Whether it was Masters, Cuttler, Taub, Thirteen or Amber (or Cutthroat Bitch as House charmingly named her) Usually when something like this ends I tend to hope that it will be revisited at some point in the future but I don’t think that I would want to see House without Wilson but viewers are left with a massive question. What would happen to House and how would he cope when the time came that he lost his only friend? We will never know. This is one of the best things ive ever watched. No doubt I’ll ‘revisit’ at some point in the future. Even last night after the final episode ended I watched the first few minutes of the first episode again which was like watching an old family video. Can you become nostalgic that quickly? I’d recommend House to anyone who hasn’t seen it. One question ...... there was one huge gap in the last episode where we had lots of old characters making an appearance alongside all of the important characters in House’s life.....Cuddy. Why didn’t she make some kind of appearance? Her absence was an issue for me. Was there some kind of falling out with Lisa Edelstein?

I just looked it up Carol and it started as the British Film Academy in 1947 founded by Alexander Korda, Charles Laughton, David Lean, Carol Reed, Roger Manuel and others. The ‘television’ part was added in 1976. BAFTA hand out the usual awards like Best Film, Best Actor etc but they also give 2 special awards. One is a BAFTA Fellowship first awarded in 1971 to Hitchcock. Other winners have been David Lean, Charlie Chaplin, Lawrence Olivier, Richard Attenburgh, Stephen Spielberg, Frederico Fellini, Michael Caine, John Thaw and most recently Siobhan Reddy (who I’ve never heard of,) Also theres the Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema Award won by names like The Monty Python team, Kenneth Branagh, The Harry Potter Film Series and Andy Serkis. The most recent winner being Noel Clarke who I’d never heard of but clicking on his name I found that he’s the actor that played Mickey (Billie Piper’s boyfriend) in David Tennant’s Dr Who.

I like the title👍 The Honours system has come in for a lot of criticism over the years with accusations that they are often used as a reward for services to a particular political party. Make a large donation and some kind of honour will come your way which devalues the process for those that genuinely deserve recognition. When lists are produced you can almost hear the cries of “why?” I notice that in the 2020 list Craig David got an MBE but I don’t know anything about him or why it was felt that he deserved one? Toby Jones got an OBE and Sheila Hancock became a Dame for her services to drama and charity (John Thaw got a CBE in 1994) Peter Cushing got an OBE in 1989. Christopher Lee got a knighthood then a CBE along with a lot of military awards which were sadly all auctioned off in 2017. I don’t know why Brett was overlooked but I know that there is a petition here (which I’ve signed) to get him a posthumous BAFTA. https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/jbbafta

Hi Carol, Marquess is pronounces Mar Kwus. Thanks for clarifying about John Lennon. I couldn’t recall the details. On the refusal of honours. I didn’t know but I’ve looked it up and found that over the last 10 years it goes from 1.25% to 2.7%. The lowest umber of honours offered was 1,987 in 2011. The highest being 2,504 in 2020. If we averaged the out over the last 10 years I’m guessing that it would be 2.200-2,300 offered per year with around 2% being rejected. My Knighthood must have been lost in the Post.🙁

I just noticed that Carol had already answered the Honours List question.👍 On the refusal of honours, many have refused. I seem to recall John Lennon turning one down (or am I imagining it?) We also have the Peerage system of course. In order of importance these are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron (with Duchess, Baroness etc of course) After the war Churchill was offered the Dukedom Of London but turned it down as it would have meant that he couldn’t have sat in the House Of Commons but would have had to have sat in The House Of Lords. The Commons is where the elected MP’s sit (government and opposition) so this would have meant Churchill giving up the Leadership of the Conservative Party and therefore all hope of ever being PM again (which he eventually was of course) It used to be impossible to relinquish a title until a Socialist Labour politician called Anthony Wedgwood Benn came along. When his father died he inherited a title (Viscount Stansgate) which meant that he was no longer allowed to sit in the Commons. He fought this and it led to The Peerage Reform Act 1963. He renounced his title (even shortening his name to the less posh Tony Benn.)

No, Brett never received any recognition apart from people saying that he was the finest Holmes ever. It’s good that there are people pushing for recognition for him. It would be a case of better late than never. He was also universally well liked too of course.

Hi Arcadia, Its simply a list announced every New Year (they also make awards on the Queen’s birthday) of people who have been given awards such as Knighthoods KBE (where you become Sir something) or, if you’re a woman you become a Dame DBE (like Judy Dench) Then there are awards like OBE (The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire - they haven’t noticed that the Empire has gone yet😃) The MBE (Member Of The Order Of The British Empire) or the CBE (Commander Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire) They’re based on the old heraldic orders of chivalry. Knight and Dame are the highest. The CBE, then OBE then MBE. CBE - The CBE is awarded to individuals for having a prominent role at national level, or a leading role at regional level. CBEs are also awarded for distinguished and innovative contribution to any area OBE - The OBE is awarded to individuals who have made major contributions at a local level, or whose work has gained a national profile MBE - The MBE is awarded for an outstanding achievement or service to the community which has had a long-term, significant impact. Thats without going into Baron’s, Esrl’s, Viscount’s etc. It’s pretty complicated (even for us) That’s 2000 + years of history for you.🙂

I may have asked this before but does anyone know if there was any reason given that Donovan didn’t endure as a character? To be honest I’ve only re-watched A Study In Pink so I can’t recall how many episodes she was actually in?

I’m wondering if the shock ending of The Last Sherlock Holmes Story was echoed by DC Donovan when she warned John about what might eventually happen if he continues his association with Sherlock?🤔

I did have a look Arcadia but only a very brief one. I’ll try again.👍

Oops. My apologies Carol, I didn’t consider the ‘spoiler alert’ aspect of my post.