‘Holmes with a heart’ leads Netflix into copyright fight

SIR Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate is suing Netflix, claiming that a new film which shows the “human” side of Sherlock Holmes is an infringement of copyright.

Enola Holmes stars Millie Bobby Brown, the British actress, as the detective’s gifted younger sister. It is due for release in September, with Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Helena Bonham Carter as his mother.

The estate, run by members of the Conan Doyle family, argues that any portrayal of Holmes as a man of warmth and emotion is taken from the last 10 stories, published between 1923 and 1927 – a period covered by US copyright. All earlier stories are in the public domain. In a US court filing, the estate said that Conan Doyle was profoundly affected by losing his brother and son in the First World War. As a result, he created “significant new character traits” for Holmes and Watson.

It cites a passage from The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (1893) in which Watson calls Holmes “a brain without a heart”.

It then adds: “All of this changed. After the stories now in the public domain, and before the Copyrighted Stories... Conan Doyle lost his eldest son, Arthur Alleyne Kingsley. Four months later, he lost his brother, Brigadier-general Innes Doyle.

“It was no longer enough that the Holmes character was the most brilliant rational and analytical mind. Holmes needed to be human. Holmes became warmer. He became capable of friendship. He could express emotion.”

The Netflix film is adapted from The Enola Holmes Mysteries, a series of children’s books by Nancy Springer. She created the Enola character, but the books include Holmes and Watson. The estate is also suing Ms Springer and her publishers, and is requesting a jury trial and unspecified damages.

The estate consists of eight people, all but one of whom are beneficiaries of the will of Dame Jean Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur’s youngest child. Most are his relations by marriage or blood.

In 2015, it reached a settlement with the makers of Mr Holmes, which starred Sir Ian Mckellen as the detective in his old age.

‘Holmes became warmer. He became capable of friendship. He could express emotion’