Article #35518

Rafe Spall will play Conan Doyle’s super sleuth in a huge new drama next year. While some fans fear ‘Sherlock fatigue’, others – including Stephen Moffat – insist he will always make great telly

In 1893, in The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes’s older brother, Mycroft. Meeting Dr Watson for the first time, Mycroft shakes his hand and sighs: “I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler.”

Spare a thought for the rest of us, Mycroft. More than a century later, Sherlock Holmes has achieved a level of near-ubiquity that would alarm even the great detective himself – spawning ever more elaborate spin-offs that stretch his life backwards, forwards and sideways.