FIENNES FELLOWS

As Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock crime prequel, starring Hero Fiennes Tiffin and real-life uncle Joseph, picks up Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's timeless story, they tell GABRIELLE DONNELLY about their special connection on and off the screen

- GABRIELLE DONNELLY

T IS the 1870s and the young man who will become England’s greatest detective is embroiled in a whirlwind of murder, assumed identities and eccentricity that have enthralled Sherlock Holmes fans since the arrival of Arthur Conan Doyle’s deerstalker-sporting sleuth in 1887’s A Study In Scarlet.

By the end of Young Sherlock - the new television series inspired by Andrew Lane’s book series and directed by Guy Ritchie — our protagonist has been shot at, arrested, endlessly attacked, and pursued down more winding alleys than the average non-adventurer can keep up with.

Except for his best friend James Moriarty (at least for now), he is alone in the world. His father, Silas, lives in Vienna working on urgent, if shadily described, business; his mother’s nerves have been destroyed by an early family tragedy; and his brother Mycroft, who tries to protect him from his wilder impulses, is unable to keep up.

Right now, though, Sherlock is taking a breather at his parents’ country manor, relaxing over a blazing fire with his mother and Moriarty, while they cudgel their brains to try to figure out how to see justice served while still managing to stay alive themselves.

Suddenly, their tranquillity is interrupted by a thunderous knocking at the door.

All three start up, their nerves on edge.

After the briefest hesitation, Sherlock springs up, strides to the door and opens it with a fierce scowl... which immediately melts to a smile of pure joy as there on the doorstep stands his father, not in Vienna at all but right in front of him.

“Sherlock, my boy,” smiles Holmes senior. “I heard you had a spot of bother.”

A smile, says handsome young actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin, which needed remarkably little in the way of rehearsal, since the actor who plays Silas Holmes is, if not exactly his real life father, then certainly the next best thing: his uncle Joseph Fiennes.