Mrs Hudson is the kind of person everybody should have in their life.
Sweet, caring, gentle – and perfectly capable of looking after herself, thank you very much. She may look harmless, but Mrs Hudson takes no nonsense.
> Buy the complete Season 1-3 boxset on Amazon.
She is fiercely protective of her boys and warmly maternal towards Sherlock in particular, but that doesn’t mean she will let him take advantage of her caring ways. Unafraid to call him out on less-than-kind comments and yet amusingly accepting (or perhaps just resigned) to Sherlock’s weirder habits, Mrs Hudson is a wonderful woman.
So without further ado, here are her top five moments…
5. “Mrs Hudson, you are a saint.”
Back in Season 1’s ‘The Blind Banker’, John’s dating prowess was threatened when he couldn’t find anything to eat in the flat for Sarah.
(Of course, it’s entirely possible that his dating prowess was already somewhat spoiled by the fact that their seemingly innocent date to a circus had been overrun by gangsters, but still; beside the point.)
Mrs Hudson was there to save the day – and the date – with punch and nibbles. It was only a fleeting moment, but it gives a lovely insight to Mrs Hudson’s caring nature; never let it be said that she would let her boys go without.
4. “I should never wear cerise, apparently. Drains me.”
It’s not only food which Mrs Hudson is great at providing. John admits that the two of them watch a lot of daytime television and Mrs Hudson isn’t shy about sharing the information she learns from it.
In ‘The Great Game’, she gives DI Lestrade some fashion tips she has learned from television personality Connie Prince, advising him on ‘how to do your colours’.
Una Stubbs and Rupert Graves are wonderful together, with Mrs Hudson’s matter-of-fact rambling bouncing off Lestrade’s baffled interest.
3. “… so when he was actually arrested for blowing someone’s head off, it was quite a relief, to be honest.”
This was probably not how John foresaw his conversation about marriage with sweet, motherly Mrs Hudson going.
An innocent question as to her own marriage in ‘The Sign of Three’ led to a startling revelation that his apparently harmless and kindly landlady had in fact wed someone running a drug cartel. But that wasn’t the only involvement she had…
2. “Sherlock Holmes, if you’ve been YouTubing…”
… as in the very next episode, it became apparent that Mrs Hudson was not merely ‘typing’ for the cartel as she claimed, but was, in fact, an exotic dancer.
Scandalised by Sherlock’s knowledge of this, and evidently all too aware of the video footage of her dancing past, she demanded to know whether he had been watching her on YouTube.
And we never did get an answer from Sherlock to determine how exactly he knew…
1. “I managed to sneak it out when they thought I was having a cry.”
Despite Mrs Hudson’s readiness with food, her fashion tips and her exotic, saucy past, her top moment involves none of them. In Season 2’s ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’, we got to see Mrs Hudson showing off her bravery and resourcefulness.
Threatened and attacked by the men after Irene Adler’s phone, Mrs Hudson dared to defy them and hid it away on herself to keep it safe for Sherlock.
As he later declared, “Mrs Hudson, leave Baker Street? England would fall!” And judging by the quick-thinking courage and determination she showed here: truer words were never spoken.
> Buy the complete Season 1-3 boxset on Amazon.
What’s your favourite Mrs Hudson moment? Let us know below…