The game is afoot once again as Prime Video launches its new series YOUNG SHERLOCK, which premiered earlier this week. Created by Matthew Parkhill and produced by Guy Ritchie (who directs the raucous and riveting first episode) and set in the late 1800s, this take on the classic sleuth, based on the young adult novels by Andrew Lane, follows nineteen year old troublemaker Sherlock Holmes, played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. Recently released from a short stint in prison, Sherlock is sent to venerable Oxford University by his politically connected brother Mycroft (Max Irons) to get his life back on track. But Sherlock isn’t sent there as a student, but rather as a glorified janitor and gofer, doing the bidding of various staff and faculty members.
The brilliant but mischievous Sherlock quickly finds a fast friend in the equally smart and curious James Moriarty (Dónal Finn), a student who shares Holmes’ love of exploring moral fluidity. It’s not long into their friendship that Sherlock is accused in the murder of a top professor, and they’re drawn into a world of intrigue surrounding the arrival of a tough and cunning Chinese princess (played by Zine Tseng) who has ulterior motives for attending the school.
It’s a blast of good fun, filled with top notch action, rapid fire quips, and sharp storytelling. The show also features memorable supporting performances from the likes of the star’s own uncle, Joseph Fiennes (as Sherlock’s absentee father, Silas), Natasha McElhone (as Sherlock’s mentally ailing mother, Cordelia), and Colin Firth (as political big-shot Sir Bucephalus Hodge).
We had the pleasure of talking with stars Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Zine Tseng as they attended the show’s premiere in Mexico City to talk about the iconography of Sherlock Holmes as a character, the physical intensity of Tseng’s performance, and working with Parkhill and Ritchie.
Young Sherlock is now available to stream on Prime Video.
