Sherlock Character Files

Greg Lestrade (Or is it Gavin...)

Name: Greg Lestrade (G. Lestrade or just Lestrade)

Played By: Rupert Graves

Sex: Male

Associated with: New Scotland Yard

Occupation: Detective Inspector

Family: Divorced wife (Parents Unknown)

Sherlock: "Shut up."

Lestrade: "I didn't say anything."

Sherlock: "You were thinking. It's annoying."

- A Study in Pink

Life

Greg Lestrade is a Detective Inspector with New Scotland Yard. He often requires Sherlock Holmes' assistance to help with difficult cases. Greg has been connected with Sherlock for the better part of five years, but he still does not know everything about his antics and is therefore frequently surprised at his actions.

Greg has respect for Sherlock and seems to possess none of the hate his team has. He tries to get his team to cooperate with Sherlock whenever possible, even when Sherlock is being insulting. Despite this, he is often frustrated by Sherlock's cryptic deductions and lack of explanations for his conclusions, as well as his constant insults.

Greg seems to like Dr John Watson and throughout Series One Greg becomes closer to Sherlock and John, even attending a small Christmas party at 221B Baker Street. In "The Hounds of Baskerville" he comes to Dartmoor where Sherlock and John are investigating sightings of a gigantic hound. He pretends to be there on holiday but Sherlock quickly deduces that he is there to help with the case; it is suggested but never confirmed that he was sent there by Mycroft Holmes. John tells Greg that Sherlock was secretly happy to see him, which pleases him somewhat. He later assists with the confrontation with Dr Bob Frankland in the Hollow.

In "The Reichenbach Fall" when Jim Moriarty claims he will kill anyone Sherlock cares about, Greg is one of the three people Moriarty has identified as a friend of Sherlock's and therefore is a target. During the episode, Greg does everything he can to help Sherlock and ignores the doubts planted by Moriarty. Sally Donovan forces him to consider Sherlock's significance in the crime and to present the case to the Chief Superintendent. He later phones John to warn him of Sherlock's imminent arrest, an act that could have gotten him fired or even thrown in jail.

Relationships ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Memorable Quotes

"And because Sherlock Holmes is a great man, and I think one day, if we're very, very lucky, he might even be a good one." ―Greg to John

"Not our division." ―Greg to Sally

Trivia!

● In A Study in Pink, he's shown as using nicotine patches in order to concentrate during cases, a trait he shares with Sherlock Holmes. Later, in The Empty Hearse, he's seen smoking regular cigarettes. While seeing this, Sherlock states "Those things'll kill you".

● In A Scandal in Belgravia, he says that he is getting back with his wife, however Sherlock says that she is having an affair with a PE teacher (which surprises him).

● In The Hounds of Baskerville he is no longer wearing his wedding ring suggesting that he and his wife have split up: a visible tan line can be seen on his finger when he puts his sunglasses into his jacket.

● In the original stories, Lestrade's first name is never fully revealed; however, in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" it is said to begin with G. It's possible the series' use of Greg as his first name is a reference to Inspector Tobias Gregson, another recurring police inspector character from the original series with whom Lestrade is possibly a composite character, as Gregson tended to be rather less dismissive of Holmes' abilities than Lestrade.

● Sherlock always mistakes his first name as Gavin or Graham

Go, Go, Go!