‘Sherlock & Daughter’ Boss Introduces Show’s Moriarty & Reveals ‘A Study in Scarlet’ Homage

TV has tackled Sherlock Holmes many times over the years, most recently with the BBC’s Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the long-running Elementary (Jonny Lee Miller). Currently, there’s Watson with the good doctor as the main character (played by Morris Chestnut) and a missing Holmes (voiced by Matt Berry in a hallucination).

Lifelong Sherlock Holmes devotee executive producer Brendan Foley joins the crowd with his new show about the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock & Daughter. In this take, the executive producer wanted it to be set in foggy Victorian London for canon fans, while inviting newcomers in with the introduction of Amelia Rojas (a feisty Blu Hunt), an independent and determined young American woman.

“Amelia crashes into the life of Holmes [a perfectly cast prickly David Thewlis, who, like Foley, is a major Holmes fan] like a meteorite,” says Foley. She announces he’s her father and insisting that he investigate the murder of her mother Lucia (Savonna Spracklin), a brilliant designer and inventor with roots encompassing both early Spanish rancheros and Native Americans. (Hunt is part Lakota and Apache, as well as European American.)

Amelia, who grew up in rural California, discovered letters and photos that her mother had hidden from when she designed sets for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, which toured Europe including London, England, not long before she was born, indicating that she knew Sherlock.

Could Sherlock have had romantic feelings for this woman and acted upon them? “The question here,” says Foley, is, “What made Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes? Was he born like a giant brain in the glass jar of some mad scientist, all intellect and no emotion? Or were there events that helped shape his famous aversion to passion? Was there a point back in time that caused a person who wasn’t particularly inclined to romance to have an experiment that maybe didn’t go well which helped shape the man we know?”

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The great man finds Amelia’s claim “preposterous,” but he’s had to back away from major cases for existential reasons he won’t reveal to Scotland Yard — though we’ll quickly learn involve his closest friends Dr. Watson (Sean Duggan) and Mrs. Hudson. Amelia is on the spot to help him out.

He agrees to hire Amelia as his maid and undercover assistant throwing out the challenge, “you say you’re my daughter, effectively prove it,” Foley says. “Prove that you have inherited my exceedingly large brain.”

After she proves herself rather inept as a maid but a clever enough investigator using her connection to a crime affecting the American ambassador and his family, whose daughter Clara (Gia Hunter) she “conveniently befriended” on the ship heading from New York to London, he agrees to become her mentor. “A lot of the relationship,” Foley adds, “is characterized by their feisty father/daughter relationship. Regardless what the truth is, whether or not she’s his daughter, Sherlock has to consider if Amelia is being used by the people who are trying to bring Sherlock down.”

As the season’s deductions and mayhem pile up, look for appearances by the “deliciously dark” uber-villain Moriarty (Dougray Scott) and the vengeful Lady Violet (Fiona Glascott). “In our version,” says Foley, “poor old Moriarty is languishing in a London prison. At one level, he has understandable rage with Sherlock, who effectively has put him there, but at another level, they are facing similar [more personal] problems.” Not that we can believe that Arthur Conan Doyle’s major nemesis won’t be tangled up in evildoing on the show.

As for the seductress Lady Violet, “who held a torch for Sherlock,” but whose overtures he had indifferently rejected, “she can be particularly despicable as she basically channels Cruella de Vil.” Foley teases. Sounds like we can expect some perverse machinations. (Hopefully no dogs are involved.)

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And though this is back in the 1890s, like many contemporary crime shows, there’s a proud techie on hand, this one called Swann (Antonio Aekeel). The eager young police detective, described by Foley as  a “sort of steampunk nerd based in the basement of Scotland Yard,” is always eagerly telling Holmes of the latest invention.” Holmes may have experimented with various kinds of drugs, but the most famous detective in the world “feels under siege” from such devices as telephones and elevators. Swann could be one part of a crush triangle with Amelia and Dan (Joe Klocek), “an Australian bad boy hunk ” with dubious origins.

For a special treat this season: look for an homage to the very first Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story published, A Study in Scarlet, in which Holmes says, “There’s a scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless grain of life, and our duty is to unravel it.” Hence, there is an ongoing clue in which a red thread is found in a number of cases and seems to be perhaps the only element that ever had scared the indominable Englishman away from a case! “Every time Holmes show up at a new case, if he sees a red thread tied somewhere around the crime, he immediately retreats and doesn’t investigate,” Foley shares. “We have to find out why he’s being prevented from doing the one thing that Sherlock Holmes is good at, and that’s being Sherlock Holmes.”

“We thought that this is a time for people to have a bit of joy in their lives,” says the executive producer, describing one of the perks of making this new original Holmes series. “It has humor, and if it leans into melodrama sometimes, it is certainly not a miserable, serious documentary. We get enough gloom in the world.”

We agree. And whether Amelia is related by blood to Sherlock Holmes or not, they’re a team we hope to enjoy in future adventures.

Sherlock & Daughter, Series Premiere, Wednesday, April 16, 9/8c, The CW