Killing off world famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes proved to be a real crisis point for his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Actor Douglas Henshall enjoyed the challenge of playing this famous fellow Scot. Viv Hardwick reports.

SHERLOCK Holmes remains the world's greatest fictional detective, so what made his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reach the not so elementary decision to kill off the Baker Street sleuth?

Actor Douglas Henshall soon discovered there was far more to his fellow Scot than the common perception of a bookish elderly scholar with a weakness for spiritualism and fairies.

In Henshall's hands we see the Victorian author as a 33-year-old with handsome blue eyes flashing with laughter, anger and deep vulnerability in The Strange Case Of Sherlock Holmes And Arthur Conan Doyle on BBC2.

And the emotional appeal of Doyle suffering a series of personal problems while going to war with his creation immediately won over the actor's sympathy. He says: "Arthur Conan Doyle had a lot to deal with - the childhood problems with his father who then died alone in an asylum, his wife's tuberculosis and his love for another woman.

"It was a lot to deal with and he was in turmoil. Nowadays he could get help, but he had to cope alone with the guilt and the grief and it is very sensitively handled in the drama."

Largely based on fact, the David Pirie-penned drama explores an incredibly turbulent period in Doyle's life when his 'killing off' of Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, prompted public outrage, scandalised headlines in the press and even hate mail.

The author then learnt of the death of his father in an asylum while caring for his wife Louise (played by Saskia Reeves) who was diagnosed with consumption (TB) - a condition Doyle, a qualified doctor, had failed to spot.

As often happens with famous men, Doyle also met and fell in love with the young, beautiful and spirited Jean Leckie (Emily Blunt) and struggles to stay faithful to his dying wife.

The catalyst for this drama is a biographer called Selden (Tim McInnerny) who probes into Doyle's past and reveals the truth behind the origins of Sherlock Holmes: a deeply personal, dark truth concealed in Arthur Conan Doyle's childhood and early family life.

Brian Cox features as Doyle's mentor and Sinead Cusack's appears as his mother, Mary.

Henshall, who is actually 39, says: "I really liked the fact that we play everyone as real human beings, who very much had feelings and emotions rather than just the buttoned-up archetype of Victorian times.

OBVIOUSLY people in that period didn't and couldn't just blurt out anything or do anything they wanted to do, but that adds to the emotional currency. People couldn't go for counselling or whatever, they had to deal with problems by themselves."

He'd read some of the Sherlock Holmes's stories when he was younger, but he got into them in earnest for his research for the role: "And found I enjoyed them so much that I read them all - the novels though possibly not all the short stories - just for pleasure. They are a great read.

"And obviously I love all the films, Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett were great Holmes."

Henshall did his own research into Conan Doyle but stopped short of listening to tapes of a rare interview with the famous author.

He says: "Few people would know what Doyle sounded like but the point is that the performance isn't about giving an impersonation, as an actor you've just got to go with your feeling for the character."

Although the drama is set in the period when the Doyle family were living near London, this cinematic drama was shot entirely on location in Scotland utilising real country homes - including Ardgowan House in Inverclyde and Hunterston House in Ayrshire - while Glasgow University and Park Circus area are suitably period backdrops.

This was Henshall's first major role filming in Scotland since his movie debut in Orphans in 1997, which was followed by his TV breakthrough Psychos on Channel 4. He says: "It was nice to work on home territory and to be part of the whole thing, in working every day with the crew rather than just the new guy who comes in for a brief day or two here and there. That was good."

What wasn't so good was the moustache - a requirement for the character and indeed the period generally.

"I don't like glue on my face and I didn't want to be in make-up for hours, so I grew my own moustache, but as soon as it was feasible, it came off," adds Henshall

He reveals that Conan Doyle is his first major screen role playing a real person, though he did once play T E Lawrence - "a cartoon part where I more or less said 'Hello, I'm T.E. Lawrence'" - in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

One deduces that Conan Doyle fans may not have heard the last of Mr Henshall.

* The Strange Case Of Sherlock Holmes And Arthur Conan Doyle, BBC2, Wednesday, 9pm

Published: 21/07/2005