Upcoming Solo Irene Adventures!
This weekend I’ll be working the scripts for solo Irene stories! The character of Irene Adler only appeared once in the Sherlock canon, in the short story entitled A Scandal in Bohemia. In modern adaptations, she has sometimes been depicted as an enigmatic woman who shares a mutual attraction with Sherlock, something that absolutely was not a part of the original short story.
The original story is worth reading so if you don’t want spoilers with this over 100 year old short story, you can skip this paragraph. If you proceed, it is at your own discretion. There it is, well if you’ve stayed you know that in the original short story, Irene Adler is a former lover of the Grand Duke (who will one day be King of Bohemia) In the past the Grand Duke had a relationship with Irene, and “indiscreet letters” were sent and a photograph of the two was taken and the photos is in her possession. The Grand Duke claims she will release the incriminating evidence to his fiance’s family. She won’t be bought. She can’t be threatened. The Duke has hired thugs in the past to steal the property but they were unsuccessful. So he turns to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes enters Irene Adler’s home under false pretenses, he has Watson throw a smoke rocket into the house so that she will reveal the location of the photograph. From a certain perspective and reading of the facts here, Holmes and Watson are villains. Irene is betrothed to a Godfrey Norton, a lawyer, and Holmes, under a disguise, was the witness to their wedding. So Irene does not want anything to do with the Grand Duke and is holding the photo as protection from him, not as a weapon against him. She evades Holmes and leaves London but leaves the Duke a different photograph that is just her portrait. As she is no longer going to “scandalize” the Grand Duke, he finds this a successful ending and offers Holmes a jewel in payment. Holmes accepts only the portrait photo of Irene and considers her “the woman”. As you can see there is no relationship between Holmes and Irene. He admires her and her ability to see through his disguises and evade his investigation. But there was no romance between the two, she married someone else in this story.
In our stories, Irene is back in London. She is not married. We addressed A Scandal in Bohemia in the second episode of the first season of Barnaby but what occurred before and after those events are stories that have yet to be told.
In subsequent adventures, those stories will unfold as an even larger mystery surfaces.
Stay tuned for the exciting Irene Adler solo adventures chronicled in Barnaby Druthers!
