One of the issues which I decided to investigate and research was the problems that were raised in one of the BBC Sherlock episodes. The episode was called 'A Scandal In Belgravia' and was broadcast on the 1st of January, 2012, at 8:10pm. The show had Lara Pulver as a special guest and she played Irene Adler. This character turned out to be a dominatrix, one of the reasons why the program caused so much controversy. People thought that, as it was before the watershed (which is anything aired before 9pm) that this kind of career should not be spoken about, as young children watch the program with their parents and families and parents do not want their children asking what a dominatrix is.
Another topic in the episode which people have found offensive is the fact that Lara Pulver was also naked for a full 8 minutes within the episode. Although you did not see anything that could be classed as really bad, parents did not think it was right to see a naked woman strolling around on the screen and saying things which could be classed as sexual.
There is a point, within the first opening seconds of Lara being introduced with no clothes on, straddling Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the detective Sherlock Holmes.
The main areas of concern were that children were watching before the watershed because parents did not expect anything that was not suitable to be shown. They then knew that if they decided to let their children continue to watch the program after 9pm, then anything that was shown that contained any strong language or sexual references or violence, it was in their own hands and no one could be blamed but themselves.
There was only one newspaper which picked up on the nudity and decided to make a big deal out of it by writing it as their main story for the 2nd of January , 2012. They said that the explicit scenes within Sherlock were 'Shocking' and 'Outrageous'. However, as many people have pointed out, people who didn't really think that the nudity was a big deal, have said that The Daily Mail have contradicted themselves in the article. They have used the pictures of the naked woman in their paper, one of the main issues of the article. The title of a blog called The Media Briefing was, 'Daily Mail illustrates Sherlock nudity outrage...with nudity'.
A BBC spokesman said: "We're delighted with the critical and audience response to the first episode which has been extremely positive. From an average audience of 8.8m, there have been just 59 complaints."
"We had lots of conversations about it and I think we were right in thinking it's a bit of a cheeky show and that just because you're on pre-watershed doesn't mean you have to be dull," Stephenson said.
Lara Pulver has been seen before in the BBC program Spooks. In it she played a masculine MI5 agent , much unlike the role she played in Sherlock. In Spooks she was professional and dedicated to her job, whereas in Sherlock she takes her job as something that she does for fun and to meet people like Sherlock Holmes. She also does favors for people, such as policemen, so that she can ask for favors in return, such as faking her own death.
Another issue that was raised was that the main story line for the episode was that Irene Adler (Lara Pulver) had footage and images of herself whipping another woman. Many hints are given as to who this person is and it didn't take a genius to work out that they were of Kate Middleton, the newest member to the Royal family.
The primary research that I did was to ask people their views and opinions on the episode that was shown and the issues that have arisen from it. I asked members of my family and also the twitter fans of Sherlock, all of whom were more than willing to have their say.
Pulver told The Radio Times: "They give you a self-adhesive bra that sticks to you and ... imagine a sanitary towel made of tan Lycra, but with wire through it so it cups the underneath of you. And Louboutin shoes.
"Paul McGuigan (the director) very sweetly said to me, ’OK, the choice is we spend hours shooting it to avoid seeing straps or we take all that off and shoot it quickly.’
"I thought I couldn’t put myself through being there all day, practically naked anyway, so I might as well get completely naked and get it done in a few hours."
All of the quotes above were from when I was doing my secondary research and looking at websites with existing articles about the nudity issues with Sherlock. I also looked at the Daily Mail article which was printed and distributed for people all over the UK to read.
