‘Sherlock’ meets ‘The Woman’ on PBS’ ‘Masterpiece Mystery!’

By Kate O’Hare © Zap2it

Since the late 19th century, the sexual proclivities — or apparent lack thereof — of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes have been the subject of everything from literary debate to armchair psychoanalysis.

When the second season of PBS’ 21st-century version of “Sherlock” — starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, with Martin Freeman as war veteran Dr. John Watson — premieres Sunday, May 6, on “Masterpiece Mystery!” expect the conversation to start again in earnest.

Devotees of the consulting detective know the only woman (aside from his housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson) in Holmes’ life — indeed, she is “The Woman” — is Irene Adler. In Doyle’s original, she is a beautiful, brilliant opera singer with an adventurous romantic past who gets embroiled in a royal scandal.

In “A Scandal in Belgravia,” the first of three new episodes, Irene (Lara Pulver) is now a dominatrix. She’s still involved in a royal brouhaha, but now it’s with a distaff member of the ruling clan.

Of course, she crosses swords with Sherlock, but to foil his ability to read clues from what people are wearing, she chooses to meet with him wearing almost nothing whatsoever.

“She’s asked to meet with him,” says Pulver, munching on nuts in a hotel alcove during a press event in January 2012, “knowing that he’s turned up pretending to be an Irish vicar. The game starts from the outset. She pulls out the trump card. She goes, ‘OK, if you want to play this game... .’ It’s onenil to Irene Adler by the end of that scene.

“She throws him off his game instantly. What’s brilliant is that, within seconds, you realize it has nothing to do with being naked, with sexuality or anything, because they’re both locked into each other’s minds, and they’re off and running — in Louboutins, yes.”

In Louboutin heels for Irene, that is — and Pulver ditched them as soon as she could.

“They were painful!” she says, revealing herself to be no fan of agony in real life. “I had a pair of Vivienne Westwoods that were really comfy, then when they’d come at me, I’d be, ‘No, please, I don’t want to put on the Louboutins!’ ”

A few months later, Cumberbatch calls in from the set of the second installment of director J.J. Abrams’ revival of the big-screen “Star Trek” franchise, where he’s in the makeup trailer having his hair dyed, and says, “For me, Sherlock’s not gay. He’s not straight, necessarily. He has a sexual appetite, but it’s entirely swallowed by his work. He doesn’t have time for it.

“That’s very much prevalent in the books. But there has always been ‘The Woman,’ who is Irene Adler. She attracts him, because she is a match for him and outmatches him and outplays him with female intuition, using emotional landscaping to outflank his abilities, to distract him.

“He basically gets distracted by the fact that she’s a beautiful woman who has the ability to play the same games as he plays. So it’s a great chess match between two very evenly matched players.”

“The answer is on the page,” says writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, calling in a few weeks before Cumberbatch from a hotel in Austin, Texas, where he’s promoting “Sherlock.” “The answer is absolutely that he does not get involved in these things, because it would distract him. It’s a monastic decision. Our attitude is, it should (satisfy people); it’s by far the most dramatic and interesting version of the story.

“It’s not that Sherlock Holmes lacks emotion or is asexual. Doyle never says anything of the sort. He says that Sherlock Holmes devotes himself to his work. That’s what thrills and fascinates him, and everything else is sublimated towards that end.

“Now, you can play the games of rewriting Sherlock Holmes and say he’s a repressed homosexual or asexual or whatever you want,

1 x 5.5" ad

Expressions North

but that’s not what was on the page. Since the original is the most successful fictional character in the history of everything, maybe you should stop trying to improve it.”

As for switching Adler from opera singer to dominatrix, part of that was due to changing times.

“Love among the deranged,” quips Moffat. “He’s a consulting detective; she’s got to have a weird job, too. Opera singer, in the context of the original story, is quite a racy job. Now it’s positively stuffy.

“(For Sherlock) to fall in love with a dominatrix, it immediately appeals. And he’s so cruel himself at times, the moment you say it, ‘Irene Adler the dominatrix,’ people just laugh.”

“It’s a beautiful dynamic,” says Cumberbatch. “It’s great for Sherlock to be seen as doing something unexpected, which is that he might have emotions and feelings for someone other than himself and his own brilliance.”

But there is contact.

“There’s this moment where he just holds her hand,” Pulver says. “It melts her heart.”

What’s all the hype about?

3 x 2" ad Good Samaritan Society

8. “Boy __ World” (1993-2000)

9. Sam and David James

13.Sigh of relief

15.“__ __ You in My Dreams”; film for Doris Day and Danny Thomas

16.“How the West Was __”

17.Easy gait brainerddispatch.com

The latest in local to national news, sports & entertainment. We are the number one website of the lakes area!

22.Recipe amt.

23.“The __ Patrol” (1966-68)

24.To __ __; exactly

25.Like fine wine

27.W’s partners on a weather vane

28.“__ Wife Swap”

32.“Original __”; 2001 Angelina Jolie movie

33.“__ Jobs”; 1986 Paul Reiser film

34.“The View” personality

37.Bridget Fonda, to Jane

39.“What’s My __?” (1950-67)

40.“Suburgatory” role (2)

DOWN

1. Stewart, for one

2. “__ __ Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!”

3. “__ Up”

4. “__. Brooks”; 2007 Kevin Costner movie

5. 100 centavos

6. Cash sources, for short

7. Initials for J.R. Ewing’s portrayer

18.1972 Susannah York film

19.“__ NBC”

21.__ II; world’s first two-blade razor

24.“__ Day Now”; 1998-2002 Annie Potts series

26.Actor Leary

29.Almond __; chocolate toffee butter crunch

30.“The Big __ With Donny Deutsch”

31.Score for the Bears, for short

34.“According to __”

35.“Snakes __ __ Plane”; Samuel L. Jackson film

36.Craving

38.Initials for Stoltz

39.Columbo’s title: abbr.