Qual é o trabalho do Mycroft?

Sua posição oficial nunca é mencionada, seja na série de TV ou nas histórias canônicas de Doyle.

Essencialmente, na série de TV, ele é um solucionador de problemas para o establishment britânico que concede (ou assume) grandes poderes e habilidades.

De acordo com as histórias do Doyle, ele é referido por Sherlock da seguinte forma:

"He is the British Government – when he's not too busy being the British Secret Service or the CIA on a freelance basis."

^{A Study in Pink}

Isso é muito parecido com a descrição do Doyle ...

"Practically he is the British government [...] the most indispensable man in the country." He apparently serves as a sort of human computer, as stated in "The Bruce-Partington Plans":

He has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for storing facts, of any man living. The same great powers which I have turned to the detection of crime he has used for this particular business. The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he could get his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other. They began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience; now he has made himself an essential. In that great brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an instant.

     

^Wikipedia

"Well, his position is unique. He has made it for himself. There has never been anything like it before, nor will be again

_{A. Conan Doyle - The Bruce-Partington Plans}

Foi respondido no primeiro episódio Um Estudo em Rosa apenas, aqui está a conversa:

Dr John Watson: He's your brother?

Sherlock Holmes: Of course he's my brother.

Dr John Watson: So he's not...

Sherlock Holmes: Not what?

Dr John Watson: I don't know... criminal mastermind?

Sherlock Holmes: Close enough.

Mycroft Holmes: For goodness sake, I occupy a minor position in the British government.

Sherlock Holmes: He is the British government when he's not too busy being the British Secret Service or the CIA on a free-lance basis. Good evening, Mycroft. Try not to start a war before I get home. You know what it does for the traffic. - IMDb

De acordo com o Wiki do Mycroft :

Mark Gatiss plays Mycroft in the 2010 BBC television series Sherlock of which he is the co-creator. In this contemporary version, Sherlock and Mycroft exhibit smouldering animosity toward each other (which Dr. Watson characterises as "sibling rivalry" and Mycroft himself refers to as a "childish feud"). Mycroft is part of the Cabinet Office, and is so powerful that he can use mass surveillance to track Sherlock.

No começo do Episódio 1 da 4ª temporada (The Six Thatchers) , é mostrada uma imagem de um anúncio classificado indicando uma informação secreta e o destinatário: O Gabinete

Embora em Baker Street Wiki , diz-se que ele tem até um nível de transparência maior do que o Gabinete :

Mycroft claims to merely "occupy a minor position in the government." However, according to Sherlock, he functionally is the British Government, acting as the control centre or "clearing house" for all government actions and decisions.There are signs throughout the series that Sherlock Holmes is right about Mycroft's high position in the UK Government, such as his ability to control CCTV cameras at will. He also is shown to have the ability to hack into cash machines and make them display messages he wants the user to see. "The Reichenbach Fall". Sherlock (2010). Series 2. Episode 3. BBC One.

Reflecting his high position is his priority level "Ultra" and clearance level higher than the Cabinet Office or even the Prime Minister: him and a group of peers with certain codenames are the only people to know what really happened at Appledore and doctored the footage that will go public and even managed to clear Sherlock of his crimes. He is also implied to have a great say over certain policies: the fact that the British Government stopped using freelance agents for missions after the incident in Tbilisi is his initiative. With his priority level, he has access to MI5's top secret archives.

Alguns detalhes sobre o Gabinete do Governo :

The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. It currently has just over 2,000 staff, most of whom work in Whitehall. Staff working in the Prime Minister's Office are part of the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office's core functions are:

• Supporting the Prime Minister to define and deliver the Government’s objectives, implement political and constitutional reform, and drive forward from the centre particular cross-departmental priority issues such as public service improvement, social exclusion and the third sector;
• Supporting the Cabinet – to drive the coherence, quality and delivery of policy and operations across departments; and
• Strengthening the civil service – to ensure the civil service is organised effectively and efficiently and has the capability in terms of skills, values and leadership to deliver the Government's objectives, including ensuring value for money to the taxpayer. This also includes working with the Treasury to drive efficiency and reform across the public sector.

Other functions include oversight of the Crown Commercial Service and the accreditation of Social Impact Contractors.

Em His Last Vow, S03E03, Magnussen está revendo seus arquivos mentais em Sherlock. O arquivo de Sherlock diz, em parte:

Brother: Mycroft Holmes
M.I. 6 (See file)

Embora não seja declarado explicitamente que ele é o head do MI6, é na tela que ele trabalha lá.

Dos livros.

Ele não tem posição oficial, nem ele quer um em uma base permanente e isso implicaria ele ter obrigações.

No entanto, todas as pessoas que têm grande poder e / ou influência sabem sobre ele e sabem se eles lhe pedem uma solução, eles vão conseguir uma muito boa. Ele é basicamente a pessoa mais inteligente do planeta por um longo caminho (mais do que Sherlock por uma margem razoável), mas é muito preguiçoso para ter qualquer desejo de poder ou ambição.

"Todos os outros homens são especialistas, mas sua especialidade é onisciência".