Rafe Spall to Star in ‘The Death of Sherlock Holmes’
Sky boards Sphere Abacus's 'The Death of Sherlock Holmes,' starring 'Trying's Rafe Spall.
Sherlock Holmes has been written about and examined from every angle, from the super-faithful adaptations, like Jeremy Brett, to the modern concept Sherlock. In more recent years, we’ve had Mr. Holmes (very old Sherlock), Young Sherlock (college-age Holmes), and Absolute Unit Sherlock (Enola Holmes’ older brother). Now, there’s a Swiss-German-Belgian co-production in the works that Sky has officially boarded for U.K. distribution, featuring a completely different era: The Death of Sherlock Holmes.
Unlike Mr. Holmes, where Ian McKellen played the detective in his final days, this series is actually about the gap in Holmes’ resume that no one ever bothers to explain: the three years between his disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls in 1891 and his return in 1894.
The new series stars Rafe Spall (Trying) as the detective, who is 37 at the time of his apparent death. The world believes the master detective perished in his final duel with Professor Moriarty. Meanwhile, a young single mother named Alma, played by Swiss actor Deleila Piasko (Transatlantic), finds a stranger suffering from amnesia lying in an icy stream near her home and takes him in.
Here’s the series’ current synopsis:
Set against the majestic and merciless Swiss Alps, the story follows an Englishman found barely alive in an icy mountain stream by local woman Alma and her young son, Franz. When the village doctor is found murdered, villagers turn on the boy – leaving the amnesiac stranger as his only hope. Though the man remembers nothing, flashes of razor-sharp deduction betray a hidden past. As unsettling fragments of memory return, he must confront an unnerving question: who is he really? What starts as an isolated Alpine mystery soon opens into a far-reaching conspiracy that draws the man closer to the truth of his past—and the legendary name he may once have borne.
Thus far, only Spall and Piasko have been officially announced as part of the cast. The supporting roster is expected to be revealed in due course.
The series was created by André Küttel (Platzspitzbaby), Claudia Bluemhuber (Fallen), and Pierre Monnard (Winter Palace). Küttel and Simone Schmid (Die Beschatter) penned all episodes, with Bluemhuber splitting helming and showrunner duties with Monnard. All three creators executive produce, alongside Florian Dargel, Alexander Jooss, Fabian Stein, Baptiste Planche, Bettina Alber, Jonathan Ford, and Will Stapley.
The Death of Sherlock Holmes is currently filming, with Sky eyeing a 2027 release date in the U.K. and Ireland. The series does not yet have American distribution.
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