Rafe Spall will star in The Death of Sherlock Holmes, a European drama series about a missing chapter in the life of the famous British sleuth.
Sky‘s Switzerland arm, content financier and producer Silver Reel, Switzerland’s SFR, Germany’s ARD Degeto, Umedia and distributor Sphere Abacus have teamed for the show, which stars Spall (Under Salt Marsh, Trying) and Deleila Piasko (The Exposure, Transatlantic). A 2027 premiere date has been set.
Silver Reel has set up the co-production. Claudia Bluemhuber, the company’s CEO, who has credits for the likes of the International Emmy-winning Fallen), created the series alongside André Küttel (Platzspitzbaby) and Pierre Monnard (Winter Palace). Küttel and Simone Schmid (Die Beschatter) are the writers, with inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle iconic characters of Arthur Conan Doyle. Production has begun, with Pierre Monnard and Bluemhuber directing.
Per the synopsis: “The series begins with one of the most famous moments in literary history: the apparent death of Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls. While the world believes the master detective perished in his final duel with Professor Moriarty, The Death of Sherlock Holmes reveals for the first time what happened during the three mysterious years between his disappearance in 1891 and his return in 1894 – a chapter that Arthur Conan Doyle left untold and which now finds its story.”
The show will be set against the Swiss Alps, following 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.
Silver Reel, Sky Switzerland, SRF, ARD Degeto and Umedia are the co-producers, with Sphere Abacus handling international distribution. Sky will broadcast the series exclusively in the UK and Ireland, and it will stream on the pay-TV giant in Switzerland and Germany, while SRF will have broadcast rights in Switzerland and ARD Degeto in Germany.
The project is supported by FFF Bayern and the IDM Film Commission. Bluemhuber and Monnard are the showrunners, supported by co-execs Florian Dargel, Alexander Jooss, Fabian Stein, Baptiste Planche, Bettina Alber, Jonathan Ford and Will Stapley. Alen Bulic oversees the project for Silver Reel.