New series reinventing Sherlock Holmes to focus on villain Moriarty

By Pierra Willix, Press Association Senior Entertainment Reporter

A new TV series will aim to reinvent the stories of Sherlock Holmes to focus on his arch-nemesis Professor James Moriarty.

Created by Arthur Conan Doyle as an enemy for his famous detective, Moriarty first appeared in the short story The Adventure Of The Final Problem in 1893 – and over the years Holmes has featured in a string of screen adaptations.

Fremantle and Archery Pictures, the production company from Bafta-nominated producer Kris Thykier, have announced a collaboration on the new original drama – working title Moriarty.

It will be written by A Discovery Of Witches and Strike Back’s Chris Cornwell, and Where’s Wanda?’s Oliver Lansley.

In the new series, Moriarty is a professor of criminal psychology at Durham University, who leads a secret double life as the mastermind behind every crime of sophistication in the north of England.

When a rival criminal begins an assault on his underground empire, he is forced to join the police as a consultant, using the law as a weapon to dismantle his foe while keeping his true identity hidden from the police.

Paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a stoic Yorkshire detective, they form a fearsome team, however Moriarty soon realises that the real threat isn’t the rival criminal faction he is dismantling, but her increasingly perceptive suspicions.

Thykier said his production company was “thrilled” to be working with Fremantle to “bring to life the original and character driven spin-off from the Sherlock Holmes universe that Chris Cornwell has created”.

The series is set to “show audiences what it takes to be a criminal genius, combining genre thrills with a playful, dark, and thrilling dive into the psychology of villainy”.

Fremantle’s senior vice president of scripted content Rebecca Dundon said it “instantly saw huge potential for a commercial, returning franchise that brings to life one of the more allusive characters in the Sherlock world” when Thykier approached them with the idea.

She added: “It’s exciting to collaborate with Kris and the team at Archery to bring a premium, propulsive, contemporary drama to screen that will not only be clever and hooky, but also give us a fresh spin on the procedural crime format with an unconventionally brilliant protagonist at the heart who will constantly surprise and frustrate viewers in a highly entertaining manner.”

Although casting is yet to be announced, actors who have previously played Moriarty on screen include Jared Harris, Andrew Scott and Donal Finn, in the shows Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, Sherlock and Young Sherlock respectively.

There have been several adaptations of the famous detective released in recent years, Young Sherlock and the upcoming The Death Of Sherlock Holmes, which will star Rafe Spall and be released on Sky next year.

Throughout his career, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories about the fictional detective.