Sherlock
The Blind Banker
TV Flash files “The Blind Banker” as hour 2 of 12 in the TV Flash guide — Sherlock (2010–2017) on BBC/PBS, season 1, episode 2, aired 2010-08-01, 90 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E02: listed hour 2 of 12 in the Sherlock guide, hour 2 of 3 in season 1. It aired 2010-08-01 (90 min). The listed hour before it is “A Study in Pink” (S01E01). Next is “The Great Game” (S01E03).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A mysterious cipher is being scrawled on the walls around London. The first person to see the cipher is dead within hours of reading it. Sherlock plunges into a world of codes and symbols, consulting with London's best graffiti artists. He soon learns that the city is in the grip a gang of international smugglers, a secret society called the Black Lotus.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Blind Banker sit in the Sherlock guide?
S01E02 is listed hour 2 of 12 — hour 2 of 3 in season 1, season 1 episode 2.
When did Sherlock S01E02 air?
The Blind Banker aired 2010-08-01 and is listed at 90 minutes.
Is it set in Victorian London?
No. Contemporary update: smartphones, blogs, text overlays. Doyle's characters and cases, Gatiss/Moffat's London now.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Holmes in texting-era London: Cumberbatch and Freeman as a global double act, mind palaces, on-screen texts, Moriarty as fandom sport. Gatiss and Moffat's movie-length BBC/PBS events made hiatuses feel like hostage situations. Modern Doyle for the GIF age — appointment mystery with waits that became part of the phenomenon.
The coat first. Benedict Cumberbatch's consulting detective in texting-era London, silhouette as a brand, Victorian arrogance cut against smartphone flair. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's BBC One series — *Masterpiece* in the U.S. — premiered July 25, 2010 as a contemporary Doyle update. Martin Freeman's John Watson blogs beside him. Episodes run like movies. Andrew Scott's Moriarty, Una Stubbs's Hudson, Rupert Graves's Lestrade, mind-palace overlays: detective television dressed as a global double act. **This…
Filed against
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
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- Martin Freeman as John Watson
Martin Freeman’s Lester Nygaard is Fargo’s first-season ordinary man stepping into a snowdrift of crime — politeness as a trap, Midwestern manners until they are not. Noah Hawley’s FX anthology inherited the Coens’ moral geometry; Freeman…
- Una Stubbs as Mrs. Hudson
Una Stubbs’s Mrs. Hudson kept Sherlock’s Baker Street human while Cumberbatch and Freeman turned texting-era London into a global double act. Mind palaces, on-screen texts, Moriarty as fandom sport, Gatiss and Moffat’s movie-length…
- Rupert Graves as Greg Lestrade
Rupert Graves's Greg Lestrade kept Sherlock's texting-era London honest — Cumberbatch and Freeman as a global double act, mind palaces, on-screen texts, Moriarty as fandom sport. Gatiss and Moffat's movie-length BBC/PBS events. TV Flash…
- Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty
Andrew Scott’s “hot priest” on Fleabag detonated fourth-wall confession into global discourse — faith, desire, and a cigarette that still starts fights. Short-run perfection needed his ache. TV Flash still looks at the lens when he walks…
- Amanda Abbington as Mary Watson
Amanda Abbington’s Mary Watson walked Sherlock’s texting-era London as the partner the GIF-age double act could not treat as furniture. Cumberbatch and Freeman, mind palaces, movie-length BBC events, hiatuses like hostage situations. TV…