Nobody really believed that Sherlock could actually have taken a romantic interest in Mary's bridesmaid Janine, so the reveal that he has manoeuvred himself into her affections on discovering she is a PA to the slimy Magnussen didn't really come as much of a shock to the audience. The audacious lengths to which the detective would go to use Janine to get into Magnussen's apartment, however, were more surprising. Would Doyle's not-really-a-sociopath character ever go so far as to propose marriage just to get a woman to let him in to a house? Yes, as it turns out, that's exactly what Doyle's Holmes would do. His Last Vow's inspiration, Doyle's story Charles Augustus Milverton, sees Holmes disguising himself as a plumber, earning the affections of Milverton's housemaid and, finally, shocking Watson by proposing to the maid in order to gain access to Milverton's home. It may be one of the most preposterous socially manipulative behaviours the TV Sherlock performs, but it is one that is taken completely from Gatiss and Moffat's original source. And Another Thing: In Doyle's Charles Augustus Milverton story, Lestrade asks for Holmes' help investigating the break in and murder of Milverton, giving a witness' description of one of the burglars as a middle aged, strongly-built man with a moustache. This is the only reference to Watson's moustache in the Doyle stories and the source for how he is usually portrayed and illustrated with one (including the much discussed example in The Empty Hearse). So that's what I've got? What about you? Have you found anything different?
