#graidlockdc 2015

Welcome to this celebration of all things Stamford, the one person who knew both John and Sherlock before they met each other.  There are three Stamfords to be aware of in the BBC universe:  the one Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, the one played by Davey Nellist in the unaired pilot, and Davey Nellist’s Stamford from “A Study in Pink.”

Doyle’s Stamford is just an acquaintance, a plot device rather than a full character.  In A Study in Scarlet, Watson’s narration says, “I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barts. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm…”

The original Stamford is characterized mainly by his wariness about introducing Watson to Holmes because he’s so eccentric, though “a decent fellow enough.” Here are some of his disclaimers:

"You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet; […] perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion."

"You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him; […] I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible."

"I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness."

The unaired pilot version of Stamford has a few major differences from the final version of Stamford whom we see in “A Study in Pink.”  The opening shot of the Stamford sequence shows the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus, signaling both that the scene is set near the Criterion in Piccadilly and that a match is fated to occur.  His necktie here is more generic, though handsome, but his Geordie accent stands out.  He’s framed in some of the shots to have about as much agency as canon Stamford:  he’s portrayed as an onlooker, standing slightly behind John, further from the viewer and smaller, looking at Sherlock from the same perspective and reacting to the same astonishing deductions, but his reactions are less important than John’s.  I find that his presence doesn’t add as much perspective as I’d wish to the impact of those scenes and the actor has to tone it down so he doesn’t distract from John’s reactions.

This Stamford seems close in intention to canon Stamford, though he doesn’t go so far as to warn John about Sherlock.  There’s no indication that he knows John or Sherlock very well; he just happened to hear of two acquaintances needing flatmates on the same day.  Their compatibility is happenstance, which makes this version less satisfying for me.

Stamford’s lines in “A Study in Pink” are almost the same, but the role has been reimagined.  The accent is now Received Pronunciation rather than Geordie, more generic, so a broader audience is meant to identify with him as an observer.  But the necktie is now loudly striped, idiosyncratic, confident and amused; we’re meant to see his personality.  This Stamford knew John well enough to ask, “Couldn’t Harry help?”  Apparently, he’s not an idiot, since Sherlock found him tolerable.  In other words, he’s a character, not a plot device.  And the filming choices show that he has agency:  far from warning John against Sherlock or disavowing responsibility, he brings the two together with full intention, and lets us thrill to their instant compatibility along with him, one knowing reaction smile at a time.  This is magic; we’ve found our Stamford.

For this version of the Stamford-engineered meeting, there’s no opening shot of the Eros statue.  That was a practical matter:  they couldn’t book the Criterion for the reshoot, so the scene isn’t in Piccadilly Circus anymore.  But on a symbolic level, we don’t need that shot, because this AU fuses the Cupid function directly into Doyle’s device of a chance encounter with an acquaintance to create what I find the most satisfying Stamford.