"Sherlock" scripts and other info sources

[Carol the Dabbler]

Note:  There are a couple of older threads (Sherlock Scripts and Sherlockology & Other Resources) with much of this same information; I was just wanting to get everything into a more usable format, with all the goodies up front for easy reference.

First off, let's define some terms:

A script is what the director and actors use when they film the movie or  program (though they may deviate from it here and there, and some scenes may be removed, shortened, or rearranged in editing).  The script generally goes through several revisions, drafts, or versions (whatever you want to call them); the final one, used in filming, is called the shooting script, and is generally considered to be an official source of information about the production.

A transcript, on the other hand, is written down by someone viewing the finished movie or program, and represents (to the best of that viewer's ability) what actually made it to the screen.  It is generally created by fans and is rarely considered any sort of official source.  A good transcript can be remarkably accurate, however, and is therefore often very useful.

A screencap is a single frame from a movie or program (essentially a high-resolution photograph), which can often be a useful source of specific information.

If additional terms need to be defined, please post that information on this thread, and one of the staff members can add it to this post.

[Carol the Dabbler]

As far as I am aware, there are currently no Sherlock scripts available in print form, though a limited printing of "A Study in Pink" was briefly available, and individual autographed copies of shooting scripts for "Hounds of Baskerville" and "His Last Vow" have been given as prizes.

Several episode scripts are, however, currently available online as PDF downloads.  Since websites do change over time, I would advise downloading any you're interested in and saving them on your computer.  Please post links to any additional episode scripts in this thread.

 

S1E0, One-hour "Study in Pink" (unaired pilot): ???

S1E1, "A Study in Pink": Shooting Script, Green Amended

S1E2, "The Blind Banker": Shooting (Draft 8) Green

S1E3, "The Great Game": Draft not specified

 

S2E1: "A Scandal in Belgravia": Shooting Script, 19/07/2011 *

S2E2: "The Hounds of Baskerville": Draft not specified *

S2E3: "The Reichenbach Fall": Draft 4, 16th April 2011 *

 

S3E0: mini-ep "Many Happy Returns": ???

S3E1: "The Empty Hearse":  Draft not specified *

S3E2: "The Sign of Three": Draft 5, March 25th 2013 *

S3E3: "His Last Vow": Final Shooting Script 9.9.13

 

S4E0: Special "The Abominable Bride": ???

S4E1: "The Six Thatchers": ???

S4E2: "The Lying Detective":  Draft not specified *

S4E3: "The Final Problem": ???

 

* Marks scripts apparently available only here.  These seem to be from an unofficial source (possibly someone who failed to "dispose of in a secure bin").  This is also an alternate source for most other scripts.

 

As for transcripts, Ariane DeVere's transcripts are a truly awesome resource.  Note however that Ms. DeVere has no access to the official scripts.  She works from the aired episodes, and meticulously writes down everything she sees and hears -- but, being only human like us, she may occasionally mis-hear a line of dialog or misinterpret a character's actions.  Nor can she speak to the writers' intentions.

 

My current favorite source for screencaps is "Kiss Them Goodbye."  If you know of other good sources, please post them in this thread.

 

And for everything else, there's Sherlockology.  They have addresses of filming sites, cast and crew info, sources for items like those used in the show, etc.  Check 'em out!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sorry to delete your actual post, J.P., but I'd like to keep all the basic info in the first couple of posts (where it's easy to find), with addenda in the subsequent posts.
 

And here is another link to the newly surfaced scripts
https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/

[J.P.]

Ah, okay, I was too quick :D

[Carol the Dabbler]

No problem -- I just assumed I could sneak in a couple posts before anyone noticed the new thread. Shoulda done it on a weekend!

[Arcadia]

Nothing gets past JP....

[Arcadia]

I've updated the list of downloadable scripts (see second post) to include Scandal in Belgravia.

[Carol the Dabbler]

21 hours ago, J.P. said:

A complete list of S1-3 + TLD
http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Sherlock/

 

Thanks, J.P.!   

I have updated the master list in post #2 accordingly.

[joanneta1]

What an amazing and invaluable resource! Thank you Carol for all your hard work. 

In the meantime, having to pass an obligatory GMC set of courses, I have discovered that if they wanted to do a mini episode, just to keep us hungry hyenas from their door, the Moftisses could focus on all Dr John H Watson's transgressions as a locum and a GP. Of course, there would be no Benedict around, just Mr Freeman in his role up against a GMC inquiry into why he shouldn't lose his licence or be suspended pending further inquiry. 

Even forgetting all his physical abuse of Sherlock, he is indictable under the Vulnerable adults code of conduct, when in TEH he physically attacks his patient, the bookseller. He admits to neglect of his daughter in TLD. He neglects to check up on Sherlock in TLD after being told about this wonderful new drug, before the morgue scene: he does have an Internet-enabled phone, he should look it up! 

Speaking of DI Lestrade, he is in gross negligence of duty not only in TRF when he warns Dr Watson about the oncoming catastrophe, he is also in TLD, when his clear and legal duty is to arrest Dr Watson after the incident, especially since it is being recorded! Another suspension pending an inquiry would be in order. Poetic license is one thing, actual rules and regulations of the country in which the series is being filmed should not be flouted for  the sake of the narrative. 

[CGRaines]

Does anyone know why Sherlockology is down? Been so for some time, sure miss it! Had lots of good stuff on it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Before I forget to mention it, the discussion of the scene between Mycroft and Lady Smallwood in "The Lying Detective" has been moved to that episode's thread, beginning here.  It's interesting, and I plan to join in as soon as I get a chance.

And before I try to tackle your question, welcome to Sherlock forum, CGRaines!    Thanks for jumping right in and posting.

As for Sherlockology, I can't seem to raise their website right now either, and I seem to recall noting at some point that it was no longer very active.  The last newsfeed we got from them was in February of 2018, but that's about the same time this forum switched to different software, so perhaps we simply stopped accepting their feed then.  HOWEVER!!!  Their Twitter account is alive and well, so you might want to check that out.

 

[DistantView]

Has anyone else seen the Twitter account posting the scripts line-by-line? 

I think they're on the second round of the series now, and there is some recent speculation about who the account belongs to (starting August 19). Personally, I think it's Gatiss... 

It's quite entertaining,  even for those of us who steadfastly refuse to join social media. 

 

Eta. I tried to post the link, but it's giving me the cyber-go-around.

@sherlockscript

 

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, DistantView said:

I tried to post the link, but it's giving me the cyber-go-around.

I see what you mean.       Well, at least searching on @sherlockscript works just fine.

1 hour ago, DistantView said:

there is some recent speculation about who the account belongs to (starting August 19). Personally, I think it's Gatiss... 

 

Could be.  I certainly wouldn't rule him out.  Or could really be anyone with access to either a script or a transcript.  Which would be -- just about anybody with internet access.

What puzzles me even more is Why?  And why are they including the stage directions but not saying whose line it is?  And are they actually posting lines every 20 minutes, round the clock, or do they take breaks -- and if the former, I'm guessing it's a bot -- which raises the further question, who set up the bot?  Which takes me back to Why?

 

[Undead Medic]

16 hours ago, DistantView said:

Has anyone else seen the Twitter account posting the scripts line-by-line? 

I think they're on the second round of the series now, and there is some recent speculation about who the account belongs to (starting August 19). Personally, I think it's Gatiss... 

It's quite entertaining,  even for those of us who steadfastly refuse to join social media. 

 

Eta. I tried to post the link, but it's giving me the cyber-go-around.

@sherlockscript

 

 

 

 

There appear to be two visually similarly named @sherlockscript accounts, one spelled “sher (lowercase L) ockscript” and the other, more recent and popular “sher (capital i) ockscript”

This could be what causes the links to misbehave! 
@SherIockScript  <- This is the link to the more recent, and more popular one.

[DistantView]

1 hour ago, Undead Medic said:

This could be what causes the links to misbehave! 

Elementary, Undead Medic! 👍

 

15 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

What puzzles me even more is Why?  And why are they including the stage directions but not saying whose line it is?  And are they actually posting lines every 20 minutes, round the clock, or do they take breaks -- and if the former, I'm guessing it's a bot -- which raises the further question, who set up the bot?  Which takes me back to Why?

Yes, it most certainly could be anyone... anyone with access to the scripts, as you said. I think it is someone using a bot, however there have been times the "admin" has gone M.I.A. for a few days; you'd think a programmed bot would keep going.

Why and how? Good questions, but it's still entertaining, mainly because of some of the comments from the followers.

[J.P.]

17 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Personally, I think it's Gatiss.

Don't think so. He has other projects to concentrate on. On the other hands, the scripts and a whole bunch of transcripts are available online.

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, DistantView said:

there have been times the "admin" has gone M.I.A. for a few days

Does this tend to happen when a script is finished?  Or just any old place?

If the former, then the bot is presumably loaded with just one script at a time, presumably from one of the online sources.  If the latter -- hmm, maybe the human caretaker doesn't keep a really close eye on the bot, and therefore doesn't notice that it's stopped working (perhaps after a brief power failure).

 

[DistantView]

15 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Does this tend to happen when a script is finished?  Or just any old place?

If the former, then the bot is presumably loaded with just one script at a time, presumably from one of the online sources.  If the latter -- hmm, maybe the human caretaker doesn't keep a really close eye on the bot, and therefore doesn't notice that it's stopped working (perhaps after a brief power failure).

 

Any old place... went missing for a couple of days during Scandal in Belgravia, I think ~ 30% into the script for that ep.

[Carol the Dabbler]

5 hours ago, DistantView said:

went missing for a couple of days during Scandal in Belgravia, I think ~ 30% into the script for that ep.

Well, if it's a bot, it's a simple-minded and/or unreliable bot!

 

[DistantView]

Now that I've gone and flapped my gums about reading the comments on the @sherlockscript feed without an account Twitter has gone and blocked that from view. Suckers.  Big brother watching I guess...

[DistantView]

And now that entire account is gone... Twitter is weird.  Guess we'll never know who was posting, not that it matters in the grand scheme and all.

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, DistantView said:

And now that entire account is gone...

Maybe we were all just imagining it?   

 

 

[J.P.]

The library of all Sherlock scripts is now complete.
I still wish they would put the Pilot online too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/tv-drama/sherlock/

[Carol the Dabbler]

  

On 11/18/2022 at 1:04 PM, J.P. said:

The library of all Sherlock scripts is now complete.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/tv-drama/sherlock/

Thanks, J.P. -- I'd better download the rest of those to my computer files!

  

On 11/18/2022 at 1:04 PM, J.P. said:

I still wish they would put the Pilot online too.

Me too!  I wonder if there's someplace we could write to with that suggestion?

 

[J.P.]

I wrote to Sue on Twitter. Need to look up, if I wrote to Mark and Steven too.