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Mike Stamford
Mike Stamford
Played By: David Nellist
An old friend of John's, who is also one of the only people who can stand Sherlock for any length of time. He's the one who sets them up as flatmates.
- Apathetic Teacher: He teaches medicine at Barts, but claims to hate his students.
- Big Fun: Portly with a jolly disposition
- Odd Friendship: Well more like acquaintanceship, but he and Sherlock are on a first name basis with each other, and Mike brushes off Sherlock's eccentricites with "he's always like that". It says a fair amount about him that Sherlock is willing to put up with him even that much, considering his anti-social tendencies at that point.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot:Mike: I heard you were abroad somewhere, getting shot at, what happened?John: I got shot.
- Nice Guy: He doesn't seem to be particularly annoyed by Sherlock unlike most people. He also offer suggestions to John on how to find better living quarters in London.
- Put on a Bus: Hasn't been seen since A Study in Pink, although he's a frequent commentator on the blogs, a Sherlock Scan in A Scandal in Belgravia reveals John spent a night out with him, and he sends a telegram to John's wedding apologizing he couldn't make it.
- Social Circle Filler: His only role in the plot is to be a mutual friend to John and Sherlock, so as to introduce them to each other and set them both up as flatmates. His relevance to the plot evaporates after that.
Sarah Sawyer
Sarah Sawyer
Played By: Zoe Telford
One of John's girlfriends.
- Action Girl: Took on Chinese gangsters with a wooden stick.
- Alliterative Name: Presumably as a Shout-Out to Mary Morstan.
- Bound and Gagged: In "The Blind Banker".
- Damsel in Distress: When she was kidnapped by the Chinese gangsters. She handles herself relatively well, though.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Disappears from the narrative when she and John break up some time after "The Great Game".
Harry Watson
Harriet "Harry" Watson
Played By: N/A
John's sister, whom he has an abrasive relationship with due to her alcoholism.
- The Alcoholic: Harry's a known alcoholic, but has tried to quit various times according to John's website, with limited success.
- Big Sister Instinct: Is very protective of John on the forums of his website.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Solved this by giving her phone, a present from her wife, to John.
- Gender Flip: In Conan Doyle's stories Watson had a brother, not a sister.
- The Ghost: While mentioned in the show, Harry has never actually shown up. She is, however, a frequent poster on John's blog.
- The Lad-ette / Butch Lesbian: Implied. She's a heavy drinker with a Tomboyish Name who is constantly having to delete her profanity laced tirades from John's blog. She also happens to be gay.
- Precision F-Strike: Whenever someone insults John, judging by all the deleted comments on his blog.
- Samus Is a Girl: Invoked by Sherlock, while deducting who John's phone belongs to, he assumes that Harry is a boy; turns out that it's Harriet, but she does happen to be a lesbian.
- Spared By Adaptation: In the books, Watson's sibling dies just before the events of "The Sign of the Four", here Harry is alive and well.
- Tomboyish Name: During his investigation of Watson's phone, Sherlock notices the name "Harry" on it. Turns out it's Watson's sister, Harriet.
Kitty Riley
Kitty Riley
Played By: Katherine Parkinson
A reporter who is both smarter and stupider than she appears. She affects a "loony fan" persona to get close to Sherlock (which he sees right through), but it turns out she's actually being played by someone far more dangerous than him.
- Evil Is Petty: Downplayed as she's more of a Jerkass Smug Snake, but one of her motivations for ruining Sherlock's reputation is because he rudely turned down an interview with her.
- Immoral Journalist: She's convinced Sherlock is a fraud, and is looking for any dirt she can get on him to make her career. While it doesn't really redeem her, we eventually learn she was being manipulated by Moriarty.
- Intrepid Reporter: Tries to be this but Sherlock calls her out for being a Stalker with a Crush trying too hard to impress people.
- Meaningful Echo: "You repel me".
- Offscreen Karma: Her story that ruins Sherlock's reputation is proven to be false in between Series 2 and 3, essentially ruining her reputation instead.
- Shadow Archetype: To Molly. Molly is a Dogged Nice Girl, Kitty is a Stalker with a Crush. And both of them prove to be rather important in "The Reichenbach Fall", as Moriarty sold his "story" to Kitty after Sherlock tore her down, helping to spread the belief that Sherlock is a fraud. Molly, meanwhile, despite being treated badly by Sherlock, still seems to step up to help him behind the scenes of "Reichenbach". Also, they both display admirable loyalty to Sherlock and Moriarty, respectively.
- Smug Snake: She reeks of desperation and uses every tactic in the book to wring a story out of Sherlock. It doesn't work, as he finds her repellent.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Moriarty.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Clearly thinks she's an Intrepid Reporter who has uncovered the truth that Sherlock is a fraud and responsible for the crimes he's solved, while Moriarty is merely an actor suffering a crisis of conscience. Alas, no.
Janine
Janine
Played By: Yasmine Akram
Mary's bridesmaid at her wedding, she quickly forms an Odd Friendship with Sherlock and uses his super-analytical skills to weed out one-night stands she'll regret.
- Foreign People Are Sexy: She's Irish and gorgeous, to the point Sherlock specifically notes her beauty in his wedding toast.
- Nice Girl: From what we see of her she's very pleasant and outgoing.
- The Pawn: A particularly unlucky example. Not only did Sherlock pretend to fall for her to use her to get access to Magnussen, it turns out Mary independently cultivated a close friendship with her for the same reason. Mercifully Janine never found out about that aspect.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Only 'villainous' at all in the fact that she works for Magnussen as his PA; there is no indication that she is involved in anything unethical herself or knows the extent of Magnussen's criminality. Magnussen himself mentions he enjoys jabbing her the eye, the implication being that she only worked with him because he had found one of her pressure points.
- Sexy Secretary: To Magnussen, though technically she is a PA. She hates him and only sticks around because of blackmail. It's implied he took sadistic pleasure in abusing her.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sherlock, in "His Last Vow" after she finds out he used her to get to Magnussen.
- What the Hell, Hero?: To Sherlock, in "His Last Vow" after finding out how he used her. She tells him, clearly more hurt than angry, that he needn't have manipulated her and if he'd just trusted her they could have been friends.
- Woman Scorned: Downplayed. While she does sell increasingly outrageous stories to the papers out of anger at Sherlock (and messes around with his morphine drip), she clearly doesn't hold a major grudge and even kisses him on the forehead before leaving. Sherlock conversely acknowledges he deserves it and congratulates her on at least making some cash for her troubles.
Mr. & Mrs. Holmes
Mr. & Mrs. Holmes
Played By: Timothy Carlton & Wanda Ventham
A perfectly ordinary married couple that somehow managed to produce both Mycroft and Sherlock. And Eurus.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Subverted. Sherlock and Mycroft are both highly embarrassed by them... because they're so ordinary. It's their lack of genius - or madness, either would be acceptable - that makes them 'highly embarrassing' to their child prodigies.
- Blue Blood: The Holmeses are actually an old aristocratic family. Eurus burned down the old ancestral manor, so they downsized to a small cottage. They don't seem to mind.
- Decomposite Character: Mrs. Holmes seems to have been given all the leftover character traits of Moriarty of all people. While Jim Moriarty inherited his book counterpart's criminal tendencies and status as Holmes's arch-enemy, Mrs Holmes got his age, his mathematician career and his having written a textbook on dynamics (although hers is "The Dynamics of Combustion" whereas Moriarty's was "The Dynamics of an Asteroid").
- Family Versus Career: Mrs. Holmes was a career mathematician, even having a published textbook. But she gave it all up for her children.
- Happily Married: To the extent that Sherlock brings the Watsons down to their house when they have a bit of marriage trouble.
- Good Parents: They certainly seem to be. They love their sons despite their... quirks, and take no notice when Sherlock steps onto the couch between them while they are telling him a story and pushes them out the door when John arrives.
- They also love Eurus despite what she is.
- In the Blood: Mrs. Holmes was a mathematician, so it's obvious Mycroft and Sherlock and Eurus got their intelligence from her.
- Iron Lady: Mrs. Holmes definitely gives off this vibe; even Mycroft is afraid of upsetting her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Like her sons, Mrs. Holmes seems a bit cool on the exterior, but is a caring mother, going as far as to do Christmas dinner for the whole family, plus the Watsons (and even Billy Wiggins, although she freely admits to him that she's not quite sure why he's there), as Sherlock is suffering from a bullet wound and she wants to make sure he's okay.
- Last-Name Basis: Mrs. Holmes's math textbook shows her initials, "M.L.," but that's about it - we don't know the first name of either parent.
- Locked Out of the Loop: They had no idea that Eurus was still alive and locked up in Sherrinford As far as they know she died in a fire she started at an institution. When they find out the truth they are livid, especially Mrs. Holmes.
- Mama Bear:
- "Somebody's put a bullet in my boy and if I ever find out who, I shall turn absolutely monstrous." Somewhat played for laughs (depending on your perspective) given that the woman who shot Sherlock is sitting in the room as she says this, clearly uncomfortable.
- Mrs. Holmes is furious when she finds out that Mycroft was aware that Eurus was alive and never told the truth to anyone else in the family.
- Nice Guy: Mr. Holmes is very pleasant and outgoing. He's even concerned about the Watsons' marriage.
- No Name Given: We never find out their first names, but Siger and Violet are popular fan nicknames.
- Odd Couple: Mrs. Holmes was a mathematician, Mr. Holmes is by his own admission "something of a moron", at least by comparison.
- Opposites Attract: From what we see of them. Mrs. Holmes is a bit temperamental, stubborn and headstrong, whereas Mr. Holmes is much more laid-back, calm and passive. Many have noted they seem very similar to a time-shifted, partially-gender-flipped Sherlock and John.
- Only Sane Man: Mr. Holmes is the normal one in the family. In His Last Vow, Mary even lampshades this trope to him in their conversation.
- Parents as People: Despite being loving parents, it's implied they weren't perfect since they really didn't know how to raise three prodigy children - apparently they tried introducing Sherlock and Mycroft to other children so they could make friends and it didn't work. They also struggled to control Eurus until they had to send her to an institution when she burned down the old house and left Sherlock's best friend to die.Mrs. Hudson: Your mother has a lot to answer for.Sherlock: I know, I have a list. Mycroft has a file.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Both of them, but especially Mrs Holmes, are furious that Mycroft never told them that Eurus was still alive, and really give him a piece of their minds at the end of "The Final Problem".
Bill Wiggins
Bill Wiggins
Played By: Tom Brooke
A seemingly harmless drug-addict.
- Baker Street Regular: He's a drug addict Sherlock befriends while undercover in a crackhouse. Sherlock then uses him to communicate with Mary.
- Composite Character: His first name, Billy comes from the page boy of 221B who first appeared in William Gillette's play, and than migrated into the stories as a relatively minor character. His last name Wiggins, comes from the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars in Conan Doyle's first two novels, "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four".
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's more Crouching Wimp, Hidden Genius - which is why Sherlock takes a shine to him. He's also apparently an excellent chemist, capable of creating non-lethal drugs to knock out people without damaging their bodies.
- Including a pregnant woman with the explicit assurance that the knockout drug won't harm the baby. As the baby's born without ill effect, it's not just a Badass Boast on his part.
- Erudite Stoner: He might be a heroin addict but he also has deductive skills similar to Sherlock's.
- Hidden Depths: He's a lot smarter than he looks.
- Sherlock Scan: Pulls it on Watson, recognizing his shirt wrinkles imply he folds all his shirts in that manner because it makes them easier to pack, thus he dresses at the office once he's showered there. Holmes is impressed by this, so Billy tries to show off some more but gets it wrong on account of not knowing Watson personally.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Tried to pull it off by claiming to have a codename amongst the druggies as "The Wig." Sherlock doesn't buy it.
