From Sherlock Holmes and John Watson to Moriarty, Mycroft, and Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock reimagines some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s best-known characters for modern London—and introduces a few memorable additions of its own.
Here’s a guide to the characters and the actors who bring them to life.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Sherlock Holmes
A brilliant consulting detective with extraordinary powers of observation, a taste for difficult cases, and little patience for ordinary social conventions.
Martin Freeman
Dr. John Watson
An army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan who becomes Sherlock’s flatmate, closest friend, and indispensable partner in solving crimes.
Mark Gatiss
Mycroft Holmes
Sherlock’s formidable older brother, whose mysterious position within the British government is matched by an intellect that may rival—or surpass—Sherlock’s own.
Amanda Abbington
Mary Morstan (Watson)
John’s clever and capable wife, whose warm exterior conceals a complicated past—and considerably more skill with danger than anyone initially suspects.
Andrew Scott
Jim Moriarty
Sherlock’s unpredictable and dangerously clever nemesis, whose fascination with the detective turns their rivalry into something intensely personal.
Louise Brealey
Molly Hooper
A pathologist at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital whose access to the morgue often aids Sherlock’s investigations—and whose quiet affection for him proves more complicated than it first appears.
Una Stubbs
Mrs. Hudson
The long-suffering landlady of 221B Baker Street who insists she’s “not your housekeeper” while becoming an essential part of Sherlock and John’s unconventional household.
Rupert Graves
DI Lestrade
A Scotland Yard detective who regularly turns to Sherlock for help with baffling cases, despite frequently finding both his methods and his personality exasperating.
Lara Pulver
Irene Adler
A clever and formidable dominatrix who becomes both adversary and fascination for Sherlock, matching him in a battle built as much on psychology as deduction.
Lars Mikkelsen
Charles Augustus Magnussen
A powerful media magnate and master blackmailer who uses other people’s secrets as weapons—and proves to be one of Sherlock’s most unsettling opponents.
Sian Brooke
Eurus Holmes
Sherlock and Mycroft’s brilliant and deeply troubled sister, whose extraordinary intellect is tied to secrets from the Holmes family’s past.
Jonathan Aris
Philip Anderson
A forensic scientist with Scotland Yard whose antagonistic relationship with Sherlock makes him a frequent target of the detective’s contempt, though his obsession with Sherlock eventually takes an unexpected turn.