Sherlock..........Who?

The Lying Detective Part One

Blurry, out of focus and aimed directly towards the camera, a pistol has fired and smoke drifts from the muzzle. The camera drops slowly downwards, eventually revealing the face of John Watson lying on his back and staring blankly upwards. The very quiet sound of a woman whimpering in pain can be heard, and Mary's voice can just be heard saying tearfully, "Look after Rosie."

The angle changes and we now see John's face upright, then the angle changes yet again and he is actually lying on his back on his bed at home, staring blankly upwards. A woman's voice speaks with a soft German accent.

WOMAN (offscreen): Tell me about your morning. Start from the beginning.

(The scene shifts again. John is reflected in a window. Outside the window is a wicker fence, and inside the room – very out of focus – is a bunch of what look like pale white roses in a vase.)

JOHN: I woke up.

(He smiles tightly. We now see that he is in what appears to be the back room of a house. He is sitting in a chair a few feet away from a woman facing him as she sits in a low armchair. Dark blue floor-length curtains are tied back either side of French windows at the rear of the room, looking out into the back garden, and similar curtains hang either side of a smaller window beside him. On a table under the smaller window stands the vase of flowers. There is a jagged red rug on the floor between John and the woman. It's clear as the conversation continues that this woman is a therapist and is not Ella.)

THERAPIST: How did you sleep?

JOHN: I didn't. I don't.

THERAPIST: You just said you woke up.

JOHN: I stopped lying down.

(In flashback John sits up in bed and shifts back to lean against the headboard. The duvet on the other side of the bed is rucked up and a hand is poking out from under it, resting on the pillow. Blonde curly hair is also visible.)

THERAPIST (voiceover): Alone?

(In flashback John looks across to the mostly-hidden person lying beside him.)

JOHN (in the therapist's room): Of course alone.

(We get our first proper sight of the therapist. She has ash blonde shoulder-length hair and is wearing glasses. She has a notebook on her lap.)

THERAPIST: I meant Rosie, your daughter.

JOHN: Uh, she's with friends.

THERAPIST: Why?

JOHN: Can't always cope ... and, uh, last night wasn't ... good.

(In flashback, John stands in the hallway of his house leaning against the wall. The hall is in darkness. He holds his left shoulder with his right hand and drinks from a glass, ice cubes rattling.)

THERAPIST: That's understandable.

JOHN: Is it? Why? Why is it understandable? Why does everything have to be understandable?

(He smiles and then laughs bitterly.)

JOHN: Why can't, um, some things be unacceptable and-and we just say that?

(He gestures briefly at the end of the sentence, then lowers his hand onto the other one and taps his index finger against it.)

THERAPIST: I only mean it's okay.

JOHN: I'm letting my daughter down. How the hell is that okay?

THERAPIST (softly): You just lost your wife.