Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2019: Week 46

Softly, Softly: The BBC's LGB Research Commission and The Johnlock Conspiracy is a meta essay by loudest-subtext-in-television focusing on how the BBC's comissioned study of "the portrayal of LGB people [in media]" supported The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC), given that it was led by some of the people prominently involved with Sherlock. It heavily centers around a quote from Sherlock creator Mark Gatiss:

It never occurred to me that [the representation of gay characters] was too on the nose; what he did brilliantly was introduce incidentally gay characters—obviously as well as some more in-your-face ones.

One of my favourite stories is [the Doctor Who episode] Gridlock: there’s an elderly couple of ladies who are together, and it just sort of passes by, and that’s the way—softly, softly.

Mark Gatiss quote about Doctor Who via skulls-and-tea on Tumblr. Posted 27 May 2014. Accessed 18 September 2019.

The essay then uses that quote, in conjunction with copious quotation from the BBC's LGB portrayals study, to promote the idea that after the study was commissioned Sherlock was exactly what the BBC wanted in terms of a gay portrayal that wasn't stereotyped or otherwise harmful.