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ebaeschnbliah · 5 years

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PAIRS … TWINS … DOUBLE OHs

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Twins? … It’s never twins! … But there's always two of us! Two of us against the rest of the world!

There is something about the number 2 in Sherlock BBC, which is impossible not to see after the course of thirteen episodes. And a lot has already been written about it by various people. ‘Two’ and several names which are also meant to express a number of ‘two’ - like double, couple, pair, twins - turn up time and again throughout the whole story.

A summary and some musings on the topic below the cut ...

The two beginnings

First of all, Sherlock BBC is a story with two starting episodes, which in itself isn’t unusual. And yet, if one takes a closer look, there are some things - just minor details - that seem to be a little bit strange after all. The two points of beginning are:

THE UNAIRED PILOT - a 60 min episode called ‘A study in pink’

A STUDY IN PINK - the 90 min official first episode of S1

An extension of 30 min naturally leads to differences, as does a change in directing. The unaired PILOT was directed by Mary Rose Helen Giedroyc, Lady Bowyer-Smyth, known as Coky Giedroyc. The BBC decided not to broadcast the episode because they wished to change the length to 90 minutes. The PILOT was released on the DVD of the first series, and it proved to be slightly different from the final 90 min version, directed by Paul McGuigan.

However … there are certain changes between PILOT and ASIP which seem … odd. Most of all though, some seem quite unnecessary.

Angelo went to prison for car-jacking in PILOT ... for house-breaking in ASIP.

Sherlock can identify (by looking at the hands) a retired plumber in PILOT … an airline pilot in ASIP. (plumber/water, pilot/air … an interesting change)

Northumberland Terrace in PILOT changes into Northumberland Street in ASIP.

The barking dog can be first heard at the end of PILOT and at the beginning of ASIP.

Sherlock and John meet at 221b for the first time on January 14th in PILOT … on January 29th in ASIP (according to John’s blog). The victim prior to the lady in pink dies on January 27th (stated on screen).

The visual appearance changes from natural, vivid colours in PILOT ... to pale and cold colours in ASIP. Especially Sherlock looks like a marble statue in some scenes.

The attraction between Sherlock and John is a much stronger one in PILOT than in ASIP. The PILOT episode isn’t called ‘gay pilot’ for nothing.

Virtually all the scenes from PILOT which have been taken over to ASIP are shot mirrored. The brilliant video Mirror Mirror Mirror by @kateis-cakeis shows this in detail.

If anyone is interested, @callie-ariane did a wonderful script comparison of PILOT and ASIP, side by side, on a download PDF here. This comparison reveals that the biggest parts that have been changed for ASIP are:

the addition of a fifth victim

a short description of the victims

the visual introduction of Mycroft

the (very early) intoduction of Jim Moriarty compared to canon

the transfer of the showdown between Sherlock and Jeff Hope, from the Baker Street 221b living room to the Roland-Kerr Further Education College

All of these are understandable decisions. Even the different visual appearance can be easily explained by the work of another director …. though regarding Sherlock BBC, an amendment like this would largely depend on the creators themselves, I guess.

What’s really odd though are all those little, seemingly unnecessary changes listed above. What makes the difference between car-jacking and house-breaking … between terrace and street … between plumber and pilot … between January 14th and 29th? And the mirrored shooting of almost all the reused scenes. Doesn’t this need a rewriting of all the shooting scripts in question? This seems to be a load of unnecessary extra work for an extension of 30 min .. Anyway, be it coincidence or purpose, there are a lot more ‘2s’ interwoven in this story.

Playing with contrasts happens regularly … red&blue, fire&water, burning&drowning, high above&deep down, no-one&anyone, big&small, consulting criminal&consulting detective ...

Playing with the meaning and double meaning of names and words is also quite common in Sherlock BBC … John/Hamish, sister/nun, brother/monk, beech/beach, rooster/cock, cock/penis, game/game, Underground/underground ...

A choice between two possibilities happens several times …. good bottle or bad bottle, saint or sinner, James or John, forwards or backwards ...

Two twin-houses

Roland-Kerr Further Education College is the place where Jeff Hope takes Sherlock for his ‘good bottle-bad bottle’ game near the end of ASIP. The Cardiff Univerity main-building had been used as film-set and for this scene the building was altered and mirrored to give the appearance of two identical buildings. (Cardiff University (x) (x) (x)

Twenty-three and twenty-four Leinster Gardens ... the empty houses ... appear in HLV. They are Sherlock’s property and Mary’s face is projected on them when Sherlock compaires her to a facade. Originally, there was only one ‘empty house’ in canon, situated opposite 221b Baker Street. Strangely, the place from which John shoots Hope in PILOT would conform to the empty house from canon. (Empty houses The impossible house)

Two high security facilities … with several levels below ground, are visited by Sherlock

Baskerville, the military compound where the fear inducing HOUND aerosol is created. Skulls and crossed bones are displayed on the danger signs.

Sherrinford, the special prison where Eurus, the sister turned into a ghost story, is locked up behind elephant glass. Two ‘pirates’ enter the island.

Two landladies rent a flat to a male couple

Mrs Hudson rents a flat to Sherlock and John and asks them if they will be needing two bedrooms.

Mrs Turner, next door, rents a flat to a married couple. Mrs Turner appears in ACDs story ‘Scandal in Bohemia’ as landlady of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.

Two skulls reside in the 221b livingroom. The inflexible bone skull on the mantlepiece next to the statue of the ancient Chinese bowman and the changeable blue skull painting on the wall behind the sofa next to the equally changeable yellow smiley.

Two palaces with partly similar looking interior …. Buckingham Palace and Sherlock’s mind palace (x)

The secret code in TBB is written in ancient cyphers which always come in pairs. The numbers are references to specific pages of a book and to specific words on those pages.

Two neat plans and two rehearsals

The flight of the dead - code 007 Bond Air from ASIB & the similar project of the plane crash in Dusseldorf prior.

The attempted murder of Major Sholto - room number 207 from TSOT & the rehearsal of it involving Private Bainbridge prior.

Two '00′ (double oh) can be heard related to the ‘neat’ plans (x)

In ASIB the number ‘double oh seven’ uttered by Mycroft, refers to the plane he intends to use for the ‘flight of the dead’.

In TSOT the number on Sholto’s door reads 207 - ‘two oh seven' - Mary calls it.

Doppelganger bodies appear conveniently and seemingly out of nowhere to cover up the fake deaths of Sherlock, Irene and Emelia.

Janus Cars … is the car hire company; assiciated with Jim Moriarty, who helpes clients to fake their death. In ancient Rome Janus was the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He usually is depicted with two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.

And there is also the not very subtle sexual double meaning hiding in plain sight behind the name of this car hire company ... J-anus C-ars … which basically are two different names for roughly the same area. :)

Two explosions hit 221 Baker Street. The first one, in TGG, comes from the outside. The second one, in TFP, comes from the inside.

Two countdowns from 10 to 1 happen ere someone is in danger to die.

The first one happens in TGG related to the fake Vermeer painting and the kidnapped child who wears a vest full of explosives. It’s he fourth cold case Sherlock has to solve.

The second one happens in TFP when Sherlock aims a gun at himself. It’s the fourth task Eurus has set up for him in Sherrinford in which he should choose between Mycroft and John.

Two ‘falls’ from great heigth come to pass in two episodes:

In TRF Sherlock throws himself down from Bart’s roof - to save his friends - after Jim Moriarty shot himself in the head.

In TAB Sherlock throws himself down a waterfall - without being forced - and follows Jim Moriarty into the abyss, flying and smiling.

Two reddish balloons represent ‘quite the guy’ John Watson in two episodes - TEH and TST.

Two roosters/cocks appear in two episodes which also contain two serial killers with certain similarities. In ASIP the cock is linked to John Watson. In TLD the cock is linked to Culverton Smith. (x)

Felines and canines appear in two different versions. One is harmless, like cats and dogs. One is dangerous, like lion and monster hound. (x)

Two pet animals of two children are taken away by a family member. Sherlock misses his dog Redbeard. Kirsty misses her rabbit Bluebell. (x)

Redbeard and Yellowbeard are the names little Victor and little Sherlock invented for themselves when they played pirates.

Two occurrences define Sherlock’s personality - Carl Powers and Victor Trevor:

‘It’s where I began’ … that’s how Sherlock describes the Carl Powers case about a drowned boy and his missing shoes.

‘Every choice you ever made; every path you’ve ever taken – the man you are today ... is your memory of Eurus’ … that’s how Mycroft descirbes the Eurus case about a drowned boy and a missing dog.

Two serial killers appear, who deem themselves nice. They like to talk to their victims and have quite noticeable teeth. Jefferson Hope in ASIP & Culverton Smith in TLD.

Two stillborn children play a role …. Rachel Wilson, her first name turns out to be the password of the pink ladies pink phone and Mary Morstan, whose identity was stolen by the woman who later becomes John’ s wife.

AMO & AMMO ... two almost identical words for love and explosives

Codename ‘AMO’ … is used by two different characters. Legally by Lady Smallwood & illegally by Vivian Norbury.

Two times Rosamund Mary …. the same name for mother and daughter

Two times Charles

Carl Powers, from TGG, is the boy who had a fit in the water and drowned.

Charlie Welsborough, from TST, is the boy who had a fit in a car and burned.

Two times Faith … Culverton Smith’s daughter, mirror for John, is envisiond by Sherlock as two different persons. (x)

Two variations of the name James … Jim (short for James) Moriarty & John Hamish (Scotish for James) Watson.

Musgrave and Trevor … Reginald Musgrave and Victor Trevor are original characters who appear in two canon stories (Musgrave Ritual & Gloria Scott) which are the only ones linked to Sherlock’s time at university. TFP combines those stories and connects them to a trauma Sherlock might have experienced in his childhood..

Two problematic sisters

John and Sherlock, each ot the two men has a ‘problematic’ sister. John’s sister Harry is an alcoholic and Sherlock’s sister Eurus is locked up since childhood in a high security facility because she is a dangerous genius.

Eurus is revealed on screen only by the end of the (for now) penultimate episode. Harry has still no visual appearance at all.

There is hardly any contact between the siblings during the majority of the story. They ‘don’t get on’ with each other or are completely forgotten at all.

Harry is listed as potential pressure point for John by Magnussen, while Eurus is a potential pressure point for Sherlock, used by Mycroft.

Both sisters are called by male names

Both sisters are mistaken for brothers by Sherlock as well as John, when they are first mentioned in their presence.

These are enough similarities between those mysterious sisters to call it quite strange, I think. Mycroft’s advice for Sherlock comes to mind:

SHERLOCK: For one person to be in both groups ... could be a coincidence. MYCROFT: Oh, Sherlock. What do we say about coincidence? SHERLOCK: The universe is rarely so lazy.

As much as Harry and Eurus seem to have in common, there’s one big difference. While Eurus lives her lonely life mostly behind elephant glass, Harry had been married with Clara for some time. But three months before John and Sherlock meet, the women split up and got a divorce.

A Catherine hiding in plain sight

As @shylockgnomes pointed out in her post about the 'High incidence of Katherines’ in Sherlock BBC, the name Clara basically has the same meaning as Catherine … bright, clear, clean, pure. Clara seems to be a Catherine hiding in plain sight, one might say.

Catherine is of Greek origin and became later, in the early Christian era, associated with the Greek ‘katharos’ … meaning ‘pure’. Earlier derivations list as possible roots for Catherine the name of the goddess Hekate and the Greek name Hekaterine ... meaning ‘each of the two’.

And this is the point where especially one possible meaning behind the name Catherine ... ‘each of the two’ … becomes highly interesting for a story packed full of pairs, couples, double ohs and twins.

Each of the two - what might this mean?

Does it refer to two autonomous characters like Sherlock and John or does it refer to two different versions of one and the same character. What if we are dealing with two John’s in this story (alongside with two Sherlock’s)? Two of a kind for each of the two ... but not twins.

John Watson seems to be the character everything else circles around inside Sherlock’s mind palace. But there is a great difference between the John Watson of the PILOT and the one in ASIP. While PILOT-John seems to have not much problems to show his romantic interrest in Sherlock, the same character is much more restrained in ASIP. This attitude grows constantly over the course of the story, until it reaches an absolute low point in TLD. John claims again and again, in almost each episode, that he’s not gay. He downgrades Sherlock’s introduction of him from ‘friend’ to ‘colleague’. He tries to teach Sherlock the appropriate interaction with other people and the correct social behaviour … even when it is quite clear that Sherlock doesn’t like it. He jokes about some of Sherlock’s special characteristics with mutual friends and even tells him to ‘be not himself’ and demands that Sherlock should ‘hold himself to a higher standard’ because of the people who read the stories. And alongside those repeated verbal rebukes there’s also a constant increase of physical violence.

For more than a century the friendship and love between Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson is known to be among the most famous in literature. It hardly ever happens that the one appears without the other. Not one of the many adaptations I ever watched, depicts the ‘good doctor’ as someone who behaves like John Watson in Sherlock BBC. This John Watson becomes more and more out of character as the story runs along. Sometimes it’s almost as if this man isn’t THE John Watson at all.

‘When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains must be the truth’ … that’s a main principle of Sherlock Holmes. If this John Watson is so very much OOC, perhaps this is so, because he isn’t THE John Watson?

Viewing all the characters on Sherlock’s mind stage as aspects, as certain opinions he has on various matters, and not as autonomous real-life people, it could be entirely possible that Sherlock tries to analyze his attitude towards a romantic/sexual relationship by creating different ‘editions’ of John Watson. The special attempt of a genius brain to fathom out his own feelings, desires and fears. If so, are there any indications in this story that more than one John Watson is present?

Two times John?

As mentioned in this post, there exists a scene in PILOT in which John appears twice in one single shot. It happens during the taxi ride to the crime scene of the pink lady, when Sherlock explains his first deductions about John to John. In one of the flashbacks John can be seen entering the lab while he is already inside, offering Sherlock his phone.

Recently I discovered that a similar shot exists in ASIP as well. It’s also in one of the flashbacks during the taxi ride to the crime scene of the pink lady, when Sherlock explains his first deductions about John to John. ‘Wounded in action, suntan – Afghanistan or Iraq’ … that’s the exact point when it happens. This time though the appearance of the ‘second John’ is rather colourful. One might even say … rainbowy. :)

Hope and Faith

The Lying Detecive is the (for now) penultimate episode of the story and very closely connected to A Study in Pink. Each of the two episodes is about a serial killer who deems himself 'verging on nice’, loves to talk to his victims and displays quite noticeable teeth.

Jeff Hope from ASIP has two bottles to offer, good pills and bad pills full of ‘chemistry’, from which Sherlock is expected to choose one.

Culverton Smith from TLD has a daughter called Faith. With her bad leg and the cane, she’s very obviously a mirror for John. The included flashback to John limping away from the pink lady’s crime scene and also the scene in which Faith’s gun gets thrown into the Thames (like John’s in PILOT), underpins the mirroring even more. Faith is displayed as two similar looking but entirely different persons.

As it turns out later, one of the two Faith’s is actually Eurus, Sherlock’s 'other one’, his sister who gets mistaken for a brother (like John’s sister Harry). Eurus represents Sherlock’s emotional side … especially with regards to his feelings for John … hence Faith’s display as John’s mirror with cane and limp.

TBB and the theory of two John’s

The Blind Banker has proven again and again that this episode is the user manual for Sherlock BBC. If there are indeed two different John’s - respectively Sherlock’s - put into this story, TBB should confirm this theory. Are there two John’s/Sherlock’s included in TBB? Yes, surprisinly, there are.

In this episode John as well as Sherlock are presented as double mirrors. Due to several random and minor incidents, General Shan mistakes John for Sherlock.

Debit card, name of S. Holmes.

A cheque for five thousand pounds made out in the name of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Tickets from the theatre, collected by you, name of Holmes.

We heard it from your own mouth. “I am Sherlock Holmes and I always work alone …”

And so, in General Shan’s view, John becomes Sherlock and Sarah - the ‘pretty doctor companion’ - turns into John. Basically, in every scene in which those three characters interact with each other, there are indeed two John’s and two Sherlock’s present ‘on stage’. It seems the theory that both main characters are represented in two slightly different versions is not that farfetched after all.

That’s not the John Watson I know

There’s this short dialogue from ASIP, the first official episode of Sherlock BBC, (it doesn’t show up in PILOT) ... could it be another piece of evidence that there’s more than one John Watson in this story. Is this a classical case of ‘we told you, but did you listen’?

Two Johns? Two differnt aspects represented by the same character? One positive, one negative? Like Jeff Hope’s good and bad bottles? And also two Sherlock’s?

The concept of an inflexible, unchangeable relationship between ‘eternal’ just-friends, the same as it has been for over a century. A version that will slowly kill Sherlock internally until he ends in the solitude of the Sussex Downs all alone with his bees? Again ...

And the other concept … a finally changed 'new’ friend, a different John, who falls in love with Sherlock Holmes at first sight and never leaves him again? And a Sherlock Holmes who gives in to the softer emotions and his neglected ‘transport’. A man who finally drops his facade to accept love, romance and sex in his life?

The detective and his doctor who, at long last, leave their crime scene and have dinner with each other (fulfill their desire) at a lovely Chinese (emotional) restaurant. :)))

More about pairs: Things coming in pairs Couples & Pairs Double oh 7 - Bond Air is go

I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

December, 2019

#pairs Twins double ohs #pairs #twins #double ohs #sign of two #couples #metaphorical reading #sherlock bbc #two concepts #two versions

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conniewg · 4 years

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Returning to research into traditional banners

Before trade unions there were trade societies, till 1825 it was illegal to be part of a trade society. They were created to protect “interests of skilled artisans”.

“Highly ritualised secret meetings were held in pub rooms where … textiles demonstrated the trade's ancient and respectable past.”

Making process has always been a very important ritual, an event and key to the final banner. Shows journey of how did it starts and then grows - “The plumbers' reform banner probably started as a small wall hanging before being sewn onto a larger fabric with the addition of a painted slogan”.

“One of the few surviving textiles from this period is that of the Loyal United Free Mechanics. It contains elements that became standard in thousands of trade union banners later in the century: Old Testament scenes and Masonic symbols, but also the linked hands of friendship and unity.”

Community is integral - banner is to be held together in procession and to show aims of a group or movement. To show identity. Almost like a choir singing, or protest chant, in written form.

“Historians can 'read' banners for evidence in much the same way as documents.”

“We know of 28 surviving election banners … elaborate constructions, mostly painted on silk and confirm the view that large sums were spent on electioneering.”

There is one surviving banner from the Peterloo Massacre

“The 1889 Great Dock Strike brought about a surge in union membership from unskilled workers and a great demand for banners.”

“Some were made by union members or sign-writers, but unions which could afford to do so turned to the firm of George Tutill.”

“Brotherhood, unity and justice.”

“The banners easily perished, from being battered on marches or being stored in damp, cramped conditions”

Use of banners peaked after ww1, use mirrored ups and downs of labour movement. Peaked again in 1945 with the post-war Labour government but then declined further. There was a resurgence in the 1980s with anti-Conservative government activity.

Banners are paraded at the annual miners' picnic in Northumberland and the miners' gala in Durham.

“These were political and family festivals where banners were proudly displayed, but as pits began to close from the 1960s the numbers of banners began to dwindle.”

A celebration of bonds, collective power and struggle. A way not to just outwardly communicate, but connect within groups. Earlier banners were often used to reflect different areas and villages , and help people to identify each other and not get lost on marches.

Second half of 21st cent., some banners used traditional imagery (Tutill), some artist made and some home made - fabric, paint and glue were cheaper and more available. There was more variety with materials.

National identity - both radical and proud of country, determined for change within it. Use of Union Jack symbolism.

Appearance

“Suffrage banners were embroidered, stencilled or appliquéd and were created from within the movement.” - different from trade unions. “Women's traditional needlework skills were employed in a collective and creative endeavour.” - often smaller and simpler designs

Double sided silk

“Tutill started making banners in 1837 and developed the technique of oil painted, double-sided silk banners which dominated designs for one and a half centuries.”

Scrap material

21st cent. - using “some of the imagery of the socialist artist, Walter Crane”. “A classical female figure beckoning them to a golden future of emancipation”

“The standard trade union banner in the 1930s looked much the same as it did in the 1890s.”

Fabric, paint and glue

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/banners_01.shtml

https://www.durhambannermakers.co.uk

http://num.org.uk/banners/

https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/banners

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/banner-tales-material-culture-and-the-making-of-solidarity/

Banner collection at Glasgow Museums

https://www.gla.ac.uk/connect/publicengagement/projectsandevents/bannertales/

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emergencyservices1 · 5 years

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thatsonemorbidcorvid · 5 years

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“Back in 2002, Steven Appleby inadvertently outed himself in a comic strip about a cross-dressing superhero saving fashion victims from pinstripes and overalls. The strip, published in the Guardian, brought “Dragman” swooping down to earth in a mauve ballgown and yellow wig. Although Appleby had been out for several years to his close friends and family, he realises now that the new character embodied an urge to go further. “I’d had enough of leading a double life. Cross-dressing in secret once or twice a week felt dishonest and stifling,” recalls the 64-year-old artist. “I’d learned to be comfortable with being a transvestite and now I was desperate to live as one.”

Eighteen years later, Dragman is back as the star of his own book. His adventures take him from the tip of the Shard to a fetish club deep beneath London’s railway arches, on the trail of a serial killer who specialises in murdering transvestites. But before he can solve the crimes he has first to overcome the enmity of a superhero community that is not only transphobic but has banned any rescue that is not strictly covered by insurance. By instinctively saving a young girl as she plummets off a rooftop, Dragman has outlawed himself.

Appleby created the book at his studio on a busy south London street, where he opens the door to a colourful gathering. His wife, Nicola Sherring – to whom he remains married though they separated many years ago “as a biblical couple” – is sharing a sandwich with Charlie, a scarlet cockatoo, who sits on her shoulder, watched jealously by Una, an accident-prone one-eyed pug (named from Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies – “U is for Una who slipped down a drain”). Sherring is responsible for colouring the book while Charlie plays a bit part in it, swooping around a conservatory. “He wasn’t meant to be in it at all, but Nicola sneaked him in, says Appleby, “so I had to redraw a whole spread.”

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The relationship between fiction and autobiography is seldom as delicately nuanced as it is in Appleby’s protagonists. Like Dragman’s alter ego August, he discovered his transvestism after trying on a woman’s stocking that he found down the back of a sofa at the age of 19. Like August’s long-suffering wife Mary, Sherring was a carpenter when the couple met. “She came to make bookshelves for my flat and we just got on so well that I kept finding more jobs for her to do, and then we fell in love.”

While August keeps his secret locked up in boxes in the attic, Appleby was honest with Sherring from the start – even though he admits that their marriage involved a certain amount of denial. “I assumed my other issues would fade into the background or even go away, because I certainly hadn’t fallen in love ever before. And so I thought, wow this is amazing, maybe it’s the antidote.”

Sherring already had two sons and they had two more together. When their younger boys were nearring the end of primary school, Appleby felt he had to tell them. “I was feeling increasingly itchy about it – not depressed, but just kind of incomplete,” he says. “I wanted to be a joined-up person and I also didn’t want to have this secret from the family and particularly from my boys.” With a couple of friends, he and Sherring went off to a wig shop. “I wanted something short, so people wouldn’t notice a change, but then I put on this style (he pats his trademark black bob), and all of them said, ‘that’s the one’.”

Back home, his sons “didn’t bat an eyelid. They were probably watching TV or playing computer games.” On a car journey to their Northumberland holiday cottage a while later, a school friend started moaning about how embarrassing her parents were. “I said to them ‘What must I be like?’ And they replied ‘Oh no, Dad, you’re not embarrassing at all. You don’t wear lace dresses to school like you do at night.’”

The cottage, which used to belong to Appleby’s mother, provides a link to his childhood, which was spent in a leaky old vicarage near the Scottish border. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the oldest of four children. His mother was Canadian and his father worked for his family’s quarrying firm, which was slowly going bust. After a local Church of England primary school, where he won prizes for plasticine modelling, he boarded at a Quaker school from the age of 11. “I loathed it to begin with, but in the end I wouldn’t wish it away,” he says. “It’s that mixed thing, because I have huge respect for the Quakers and I still have friends from school.”

He hung out in the art room and got involved in a band, going on to do art and design at Manchester Polytechnic, “mainly because I found art fun, and because my academic subjects weren’t brilliant”. The experience delivered an existential shock. “Suddenly I found lots of people could draw much better than me.” He dropped out for a while to join a band, before returning to do graphic design at Newcastle Polytechnic, followed by illustration at the Royal College of Art, where he was tutored by Quentin Blake. “He taught me that you didn’t have to be a brilliant drawer if your drawings have personality. You can draw a car really badly, as long as it has the spirit of a car.” He flips the book open on a sweetly wonky green Mini, in which Dragman tootles around when he is being August.

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This revelation didn’t entirely cure his sense of inadequacy, and he took a job at a design firm, Assorted iMaGes, founded by a college friend, Malcolm Garrett. Together they ran high-profile campaigns for bands such as Buzzcocks and Duran Duran. “Malcolm would design the album covers and I’d do the other things like playing cards or bubblegum cards. It was fun, but after a few years I got frustrated, because you’re doing it for other people.”

One of the first characters he created was Captain Star, an obsolete astronaut stranded on a distant planet with an outsized ego, who was invented for a strip in New Musical Express and went on to become the star of a TV animation series voiced by Richard E Grant and Adrian Edmondson. Commissions from Punch, the Guardian and the Times followed. He collected his work into a series of books that make him appear to be a self-help guru: Normal Sex was followed by Men: The Truth and The Truth About Love. His Loomus cartoons about a small boy and his dysfunctional parents, which ran for 11 years in the Guardian Family section, were published as Steven Appleby’s Guide to Life.

It’s all a question of curation, he says. “So for Normal Sex, I collected everything I’d ever done about sex and divided it into sections.” Published in black and white in 1993, its opening pages are a characteristic mix of awkward truths and absurdist humour: “Some individuals are attracted only to themselves. Other confused people believe they may belong to a hitherto undiscovered sex. Of course creepie-crawlies have sexual worries too. Worms have trouble deciding which end is which …”

Dragman is his first venture into sustained narrative, and it has already been optioned for a live action TV adaptation. In some ways, he says, it’s a strange choice of subject because “I’m not crazy about superheroes at all, but I loved the Batman series that I watched in the 1960s and, looking back, I probably wanted to be Catwoman.” He read the Dandy and the Beano alongside his sister’s comics, Bunty and Diana. “I did move on to superhero comics a bit, but not all that much. Then I got into science fiction. I loved Philip K Dick, particularly, because nothing in his books was ever quite what it appeared to be, and that seemed to be reality to me. Maybe it reflected the secret life that I had.”

Which brings us back to the question of gender. Unlike Dragman, Appleby doesn’t have a transvestite alias, though he lives full-time in woman’s clothes. He briefly investigated gender reassignment but decided against it, citing his encounter with “Colin the mouse man” – a pest-controller – as an example of both the challenges and rewards. “Colin arrived at the door and I opened it and said, ‘Hi. I’m Stephen. I changed my image a few years ago,’ and he laughed, and we had this whole conversation. On his second visit he brought me a couple of leopard print screwdrivers, with little fluffy bits, and said ‘I was given these for Christmas. I thought you might like them.’”

He now lives partly in his studio and partly back at the family home with Sherring and her partner, a son and his girlfriend, a nephew, and, of course, Charlie and Una. Friendship is important to him, cropping up time and again in his professional life. When he wanted to try out the ideas in Dragman, it was to a member of his old school band that he turned.

The book is full of Appleby’s unique brand of punning fun. If it has a message, it’s that it pays to be honest, and capitalism isn’t honest: it steals souls. Its warning is knitted into a plot that is indebted to hard-boiled detective fiction and soap opera, as well as to his own experience of the cross-dressing scene.

“I would know people as Deirdre or Susan and have no idea what their male name is, or whether they’re a plumber or a lawyer,” he says. “I just feel so lucky that the world allows me to be myself. ””

Check out this cool man who wears whatever clothes he wants, without feeling the need to chemically alter his appearance or pretend it affects anything other than his dress sense!

#radfems do interact #radfems please interact

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diamonddrillingservice · 7 years

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The post Diamond Drilling Waren Mill Northumberland appeared first on Just Drill.

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insurepair · 7 years

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Property Repair | North East England Branch InsuranceBuildersNewcastle.co.uk ✅ Operating from Regional Offices in the North East covering NE, DH, SR, TS and CA postcode areas, Property Repair are a Newcastle upon Tyne postcode area Approved Insurance Reinstatement Contractor. Privately owned, We directly employ Insurance Surveyors, Electricians, Joiners, Plasterers, Plumbers, Painters and Decorators, Tilers, Floor Layers and Roofers in Newcastle, Durham and Northumberland. Whether it’s fire, flood, or storm damage, you know that Property Repair will work with you to help you achieve your goals. Since Property Repair works predominantly on insurance related claims we understand your needs and the sensitivities of policyholders at what is a stressful time for them. We can help you quickly recover homes from a range of damage including; Regional flooding incidents • Escapes of water from domestic appliances, toilets, burst pipes, header tanks and any other water leaks • Fires including those caused by chip pans, grills and ovens and electrical appliances To achieve your goals you need to be backed by an organisation with experience of fire and flood claims and an infrastructure to deliver the same quality of service throughout Edinburgh and Surrounding Areas. Property Repair already achieves this working to fixed Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) for a number of customers Typical service you can expect: • Telephone call to policyholder within one hour of instruction • On-site attendance within 3 hours of emergency calls • Non emergency attendance within 24 hours • Written report within 24 hours of instruction • Excess collection before commencement of work • All Jobs are Project Managed from inception to completion • Dedicated customer care and all trades service Insurance Repairs North East | Property Repair Property Repair Ltd. North East Branch (NE) Shakespeare House, 18 Shakespeare Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 6AQ Office: 0191 300 8430 Email Address: [email protected] Web Address: http://propertyrepairuk.com/north-east-england www.PropertyRepairNE.com ✅ | Which? Trusted Traders (at Newcastle City Centre)

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remarkablelivesuk · 8 years

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Joyce 83 (1/5) No school today, possibly ever: “I was born in London on January 9th, 1934. It was my 83rd birthday yesterday.

My earliest memory is being walked to my aunt’s house in the dark because my mother had gone into hospital to have my sister, so I was 3. That was in Ealing where my mother ran the post office and my father was a plumber. My family wasn’t from London. My parents had come down from Northumberland with others at a time when there was no work. They thought you could do better in London. It was before Ellen Wilkinson and the Jarrow March, but their move was part of that general migration south.

Then of course the war came so we had to get out of London. We went to live in Plymouth for a couple of years where my father worked on the Mulberry Harbours for D-Day. Plymouth was thought to be quite safe as they hadn’t had any bombs. But the first night we arrived, they had their first air raid! It’s was as if we’d brought the bombs with us. One morning, I set off with my mother for school, but when I got there the school had gone! Completely destroyed by bombs, reduced to a huge heap of rubble. I was quite pleased - no school today!”

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ebaeschnbliah · 5 years

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T H E D O O R

________________________________________________________________

The comments and additions on this post about the famous Baker Street door with the number 221b, got me started on a little research regarding that topic.

One of the most striking differences lies in the glossiness of the door. In Series One the door appeares to be painted in matt-black (pic above). A big scratch mark next to the B can be easily seen.

This changes with ASIB, where the surface of the same door suddenly shines in a brilliant, bright black (pic below). Not the slightest trace of a scratch mark can be detected.

But that’s not the only difference. More doors below the cut …..

The unaired PILOT

In this episode the door looks more brownish than black. Maybe this different appearance is indeed due to the special colour used for the filming of PILOT … who knows. BUT there is definitely no scratch mark next to the B.

Another little but very important detail �� the letterbox on the door:

A Study in Pink

Same letterbox on the matt-black door as in PILOT and there’s a big scratch mark next to the B.

The Blind Banker

Same matt-black door, same letterbox. Couldn’t find a useful pic of the house number and the scratch mark.

The Great Game

Same door, same letterbox. Though just barely, the scratch mark can be seen on the enlarged pic.

A Scandal in Belgravia

The door has become glossy and shiny and the scratch mark is gone. Maybe Mrs. Hudson felt the need for a new paint after the big explosion opposite? And also for a new letterbox, as it seems ….

The Hounds of Baskerville

Very glossy, definitely no scratch mark next to the B and a plain rectangular letterbox.

The Reichenbach Fall

Those are the best shots of the door I was able to find. Not much to go on.

The Empty Hearse

Same door design for Season Three … glossy, no scratch mark, rectngular letterbox.

The Sign of Three

Glad I was able to find at least one barely useful pic of the door.

His Last Vow

Glossy, no scratch mark, rectngular letterbox.

The Abominable Bride

Surprisingly … while whole of London, as well as the interior of Baker Street 221 B, has charmingly turned into the Victorian era for great parts of this episode, the famous door hasn’t much. Only the doorbell is different and the original lock has been removed (compare to THOB pics above).

I would have expected also a subtle change of the house number but most of all … of the letterbox. But this one seems to be still the same plain, rectangular design as used for S2 and S3.

Found this pic in an old folder for TAB setlock stuff. Sadly the source is missing.

Series Four

Not much camera appearance for the door in the whole of S4. Only The Lying Detective provides one blury shot of it. The letterbox - as fas as it can be seen (or guessed) - looks very much plain and rectngular. That’s all I can safely say.

Some door pics from the Baker Street Set at Upper Boat Studios 2013 (source)

On 21 March, Jean Upton and Roger Johnson, who were in Cardiff to take part in the TV quiz show 'Only Connect', were invited to visit the 'Sherlock' set at Upper Boat Studios. Not knowing that filming had begun on 'The Empty Hearse', they were surprised and delighted to find Benedict Cumberbatch and Una Stubbs there, as well as Sue Vertue and Mark Gatiss. Sue and Mark showed them over the set and allowed them to take photographs, on condition that certain features were not shared until after Series 3 had been broadcast.

At North Gower Steet 2016 (source)

The letterbox 2016 (source)

The original door in North Gower Street (Pics from a friend, taken on 13. April 2014. TEH had aired in January of the same year.)

Not very black and not very glossy. But the letterbox on the original door looks very much the same as the one for the Baker Street door in S2 - S4.

This leaves the question why the creators decided to change the design of the door after Series One. The big scratch mark is only visible in ASIP, TBB and TGG (not in the PILOT).

The colour of the door goes from matt-black to very glossy-black. The shiny surface of the door creates not just shadows but almost reflections of People standing in front. Just like on the Instagram pic below, posted by @gosherlocked on 30. June 2019. If the time specification in the pink header is correct, this pic should be from the Baker Street set for Series Four in 2016.

The changable letterbox

This is even more curious than the change in paint. There are a lot of little, seamingly unnecessary changes from PILOT to ASIP:

Sherlock’s and John’s meeting date - from 14. January to 29. January

Angelo’s alabi from car-jacking to house-breaking

the ‘retired plumber’ into an ‘airline pilot’

Northumberland Terrace to Northumberland Street

the sound of the barking dog moved from the end to the beginning of the episode

changed (mirrored) positions of the characters in almost all the scenes (X)

The letterbox of the famous Baker Street door though, stays the same from PILOT to TGG..

Then, from ASIB onwards, it is replaced by this plain rectangular one.

Some thoughts going through my mind:

This isn’t just a random door in London. It’s the famous door which leads to the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Because of this it’s very hard to assume the reason for the sudden changes after TGG should be just some sort of coincidence or even carelessness. After all, the same people are responsible for them who also created this beautiful door for TAB.

For the creation of Sherlock BBC both, the original door in North Gower Street is used as well as an identical studio door.

The original house number on the North Gower Street door gets replaced with the well known ‘221B’ for filming. What about the letterbox though? Additional to the real door there is also the studio door. This means: change one - change both. Which should rule out a coincidence or a mistake.

When I noticed the change in painting … from matt to glossy … I first assumed this will happen most likely between TRF and TEH. It could be a reference to Sherlock’s long hiatus. In the time span of three years the chances are high that a door is ready for a new surface. I was surprised to find the point of change actually after TGG. Sure, there are the effects of the explosion opposite, at the beginning of the episode, but later in that ep the door looks cleaned up again. Only the fanlight is covered by a black foil to indicate the damage. Presumed, responsible for the glossy new painting of the door, after TGG, is indeed meant to be the exlosion opposite …. why change the letterbox as well?

Maybe another little mystery to solve. :) I leave you to your own deductions.

July, 2019

@gosherlocked @sherlockshadow @sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @raggedyblue @thepersianslipper @the-signs-of-two

#the door #baker street #221b #changes #differences #comparison

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ebaeschnbliah · 6 years

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A DOG BARKS IN THE NIGHT - AGAIN

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It’s more than a year ago when I posted the discovery of the barking dog in this scene of ASIP. (X)

It happened again. While taking pics for ‘A Study in Pink and Green’ I stumbled once more across the sound of a barking dog. This time in PILOT.

Of course, one might say that this is nothing out of the ordinary. ASIP is the redone, prolonged and slightly altered version of PILOT after all. Someone had the idea to put a barking dog in PILOT and this idea had then been adopted for ASIP as well. End of story.

Not quite. The really interesting point is …. that the sound of the barking dog has been moved to a completely different scene.

In ASIP the barking starts right after John wakes from his nightmare, at the very beginning, in the intro of the episode.

In PILOT the barking of a dog can be heard almost at the end of the episode

Serial killer Jeff Hope just got shot. Sherlock stares down on the dead man. DI Lestrade arrives and joins the police force that is alredy in the street below, shouting repeatedly ‘Who is firing?’ and ‘Clear the area!’. Sherlock looks out the window and deduces that the gunshot must have come from the slightly open window of a brightly lit room across the street.

The scene changes. DI Lestrade walks up to the ambulance where Sherlock is treated. That’s the moment when the dog starts barking …. loud and clearly …

The barking stops the moment before Sherlock asks DI Lestrade ‘Why have I got this blanket?’

Later ... when Sherlock finally deduces that John had been the one who shot the cabbie, he interrupts his conversation wit Lestrade, makes a quick excuse and starts walking towards John. The DI stops him with a question:

LESTRADE: Sherlock … Were you right? SHERLOCK: I’m sorry? LESTRADE: Did you choose the right pill? SHERLOCK: I dunno. In all the confusion, I lost track. I don’t know which I chose. LESTRADE: Maybe he beat you. SHERLOCK: Maybe. But he’s dead.

Sherlock turns away and walks over to John. Lestrade sniggers softly and lets him go. And a dog starts barking again ….

The barking can be heard even through the first part of Sherock’s and John’s dialogue. It vanishes with the sentence ‘What did you do with the gun?’

What an interesting change. What might have been the reason behind it? Why move the sound of the barking dog from the end of the PILOT episode to the beginning of ASIP? Those two scenes aren’t connected in any way. The barking of that dog isn’t necessary for the storyline. Then … why choose a totally different scene for it?

Well, maybe those things just changed because the creators of the show love to be .... changable? They changed other things of seemingly no importance for the plot as well:

You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and a retired plumber by his left hand. PILOT

You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and an airline pilot by his left thumb. ASIP

or this:

Three years ago I successfully proved to Inspector Lestrade that at the time of a particularly vicious triple murder, Angelo was in a completely different part of town, car-jacking. PILOT

Three years ago I successfully proved to Lestrade at the time of a particularly vicious triple murder that Angelo was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking. ASIP

Or the date of Sherlock’s and John’s first meeting … with undeniable, visible evidence too …. from 14.January to 29.January. Why? What does it matter?

Or this:

“Twenty-two Northumberland Terrace. Please come.” (PILOT)

“Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Please come.” (ASIP)

And gain with visable effidence. A shot of the relevant sign has extra been included.

And the barking dog has moved as well …. from the end to the beginning. From two mostly Sherlock-centered scenes to one that focuses solely on John. Strange.

I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

July, 2018

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow @raggedyblue @possiblyimbiassed @sagestreet @tjlcisthenewsexy @devoursjohnlock @sherlock-overflow-error

#a dog barks in the night #again #pilot #barking #plot changes #little changes

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