Sometimes it's the little details that really make a period piece. Although
Moriarty the Patriot hasn't been terrific with women's costumes, every so often it slips in a perfectly researched bit of Victoriana that really makes up for a lot of ills. This week's episode has two: the uniform of the Great Northern Railway conductor and Sherlock Holmes' box of matches. Bryant and May's Flaming Fusees were a real brand of matches used in the late Victorian period, of a type made with yellow phosphorus that caused a condition called “fossy jaw” in the women who manufactured them. (I wouldn't suggest looking fossy jaw up unless you have a strong stomach or enjoy nightmares.) I'm not sure if his cigarettes would have produced quite so much smoke in real life as they do in this episode (or if they were just tobacco; this is Holmes after all), but the box of matches was such a wonderful detail that it sets the scene immediately.