Mycroft Holmes

Mycroft Holmes is a fictional

character appearing in stories
Mycroft Holmes
written by Sir Arthur Conan Sherlock Holmes character
Doyle.[1] The elder brother (by
seven years) of detective Sherlock
Holmes, he is a government
official and a founding member
of the Diogenes Club. Mycroft is
described as having abilities of
deduction and knowledge
exceeding even those of his
brother, though their practical
use is limited by his dislike of
fieldwork.[2]

The character has been adapted

in various pieces of literature and
media, including television
series, movies, radio, and comics.
He is also popular in culture,
being mentioned by many works,
which mostly reference his job,
personality, or his relationship
with Sherlock Holmes.

Contents
Fictional character biography as depicted by Sidney Paget

History and occupation in the Strand Magazine

Personality and habits First "The Adventure of the
Appearance and age appearance Greek Interpreter"
Adaptations (1893)
Radio Last "The Adventure of the
Film appearance Bruce-Partington
Television Plans" (1908)
Novels and short stories Created by Arthur Conan Doyle
Comics In-universe information
Video games
Occupation Government official
References in popular culture
Family Sherlock Holmes
References (younger brother)
Nationality British

Fictional character
biography

History and occupation

Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock Holmes's older brother. He mainly

appears in two stories by Doyle, "The Adventure of the Greek
Interpreter"[3] and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans".[4]
He also appears briefly in "The Final Problem",[3] and is mentioned
in "The Adventure of the Empty House".[5]

He first appears in "The Greek Interpreter", in which he brings

Sherlock a case involving one of his neighbours. Sherlock Holmes
tells Dr. Watson that Mycroft has powers of observation and
deduction superior to his own, but is not energetic or ambitious. He
also comments that some of his most interesting cases have come to
him through Mycroft. In the story, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
visit Mycroft at the Diogenes Club, which Mycroft co-founded. Also,
Mycroft visits 221B Baker Street.[3]

Mycroft makes a brief appearance in "The Final Problem". Sherlock

Holmes gives Dr. Watson instructions to take a certain route to leave
London to avoid Moriarty's gang, and part of this plan involves a ride
in a brougham driven by a cloaked driver. Watson sees the coachman
and does not recognise him. Sherlock later tells Watson that the
driver was Mycroft. Near the end of the story after Sherlock's
supposed death, Watson reads a letter left by Sherlock, which
includes the statement, "I made every disposition of my property
before leaving England, and handed it to my brother Mycroft."[3]

In "The Empty House", it is revealed that Sherlock Holmes faked his

death in "The Final Problem" and subsequently went abroad. His only
confidant during this time was Mycroft, who provided him with the
money he needed. When Sherlock returned to London, he found that
Mycroft had preserved his Baker Street rooms and his papers "exactly
as they had always been".[5]

In "The Bruce-Partington Plans", Mycroft goes to Baker Street to

speak with his brother about recovering missing submarine plans for
the government. Sherlock Holmes says in this story that Mycroft only
visited 221B Baker Street once before. Though Sherlock initially told
Watson in "The Greek Interpreter" that Mycroft audits books for the
British government, he reveals to Watson in "The Bruce-Partington
Plans" that Mycroft's true role is more substantial:
 "I did not know you quite so well in those days. One has to
be discreet when one talks of high matters of state. You
are right in thinking that he is under the British
government. You would also be right in a sense if you said
that occasionally he is the British government."[4]

Mycroft has a unique position in the government, which is not named

in the stories. Sherlock comments regarding Mycroft's role that there
"has never been anything like it before, nor will be again" and that
Mycroft "has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest
capacity for storing facts, of any man living". He describes Mycroft's
position:

"The conclusions of every department are passed to him,

and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which
makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but
his specialism is omniscience. We will suppose that a
minister needs information as to a point which involves
the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he
could get his separate advices from various departments
upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say
offhand how each factor would affect the other. They
began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience; now he
has made himself an essential. In that great brain of his
everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an
instant."[4]

He adds to this that Mycroft thinks of nothing other than government

policy, except when he asks Mycroft to advise him on one of his
cases.[2]
Several Holmesian scholars have proposed theories about Mycroft,
though none of these are confirmed in the stories. In "The Adventure
of Black Peter", Dr. Watson records that Sherlock Holmes could
assume various disguises in "at least five small refuges" which he had
in different parts of London; Vincent Starrett wrote that Mycroft's
residence "would certainly be one of them".[6] Ronald A. Knox
suggested that Mycroft was a double agent who assisted both
Sherlock and Professor Moriarty, with the goal of ultimately betraying
Moriarty and members of his gang, including Colonel Moran.[7] June
Thomson theorised that Mycroft nominated Sherlock to infiltrate the
German spy ring in "His Last Bow" (set in 1914) and might have
persuaded Sherlock to come out of retirement. Thomson calculated
that Mycroft would have retired himself in 1912 at the age of sixty-five
years old, but would have maintained his connections with former
colleagues in the government.[8]

Personality and habits

Possessing deductive powers exceeding even those of his younger

brother, Mycroft is nevertheless unsuitable for performing detective
work as he is unwilling to put in the physical effort necessary to bring
cases to their conclusions.[1] In "The Adventure of the Greek
Interpreter", Sherlock Holmes says:

"...he has no ambition and no energy. He will not even go

out of his way to verify his own solutions, and would
rather be considered wrong than take the trouble to prove
himself right. Again and again I have taken a problem to
him, and have received an explanation which has
afterwards proved to be the correct one. And yet he was
absolutely incapable of working out the practical
points..."[3]
Mycroft does not have ambitions of any kind, according to
Sherlock.[2] Despite being "the most indispensable man in the
country", as Sherlock says, Mycroft remains a subordinate, will
receive "neither honour nor title", and his relatively modest annual
salary in "The Bruce-Partington Plans" (which takes place in 1895) is
£450[4] (equivalent to £52,362 in 2019[9]).

He lives in rooms in Pall Mall. His regular routine is to walk around

the corner each morning to Whitehall where he works, and in the
evening, to walk back to Pall Mall. He then stays at the Diogenes
Club, which is located across from his lodgings in Pall Mall, from
quarter to five until twenty to eight.[10] He seldom breaks this routine
or goes anywhere except these three locations.[1]

Mycroft reads Watson's accounts of Sherlock's adventures and takes

an interest in Sherlock's cases.[11] In "The Greek Interpreter", he
takes snuff from a tortoise-shell box while at the Diogenes Club, and
brushes the grains from his coat with a large, red silk handkerchief.
He is also seen "sitting smoking in the armchair" at Baker Street.[3]
Mycroft is occasionally referred to by Sherlock Holmes as "Brother
Mycroft" in "The Bruce-Partington Plans".[4] He is the only character
to refer to Sherlock exclusively by his first name.

Appearance and age

Mycroft resembles his brother Sherlock Holmes, but is described in

"The Greek Interpreter" as being "a much larger and stouter man".
According to Watson, Mycroft's eyes are "a peculiarly light, watery
grey" and always have "that far-away, introspective look" which
Watson had only seen in Sherlock's when he exerted his full
powers.[3] (Sherlock also has grey eyes.[12]) In "The Final Problem",
Sherlock informs Watson that the driver of the brougham (later
revealed to be Mycroft) will wear "a heavy black cloak tipped at the
collar with red". When Watson sees the coachman, he describes him
as "a very massive driver wrapped in a dark cloak".[3] In "The Bruce-
Partington Plans", Watson states that Mycroft is "tall and portly", and
gives the following description of him:

Heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of

uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this
unwieldy frame there was perched a head so masterful in
its brow, so alert in its steel-grey, deep-set eyes, so firm in
its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after
the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered
only the dominant mind.[4]

Mycroft is seven years older than Sherlock. According to Leslie S.

Klinger, Mycroft was born in 1847.[13] A reference in the short story
"His Last Bow", which takes place in 1914, suggests that Sherlock is
sixty years old at the time the story takes place.[1] This would make
the year of Sherlock's birth approximately 1854, and thus Mycroft's
approximately 1847.

Adaptations
Mycroft Holmes has been portrayed many times in adaptations of the
Holmes stories in film, television, radio, and other media.

Radio
Episodes adapted from the stories in which Mycroft appears, "The
Bruce-Partington Plans" and "The Greek Interpreter", both aired
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1931, and in The New
 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1939 and 1940 respectively, as
well as both in 1943 in the same series. No cast listing currently
exists to show who portrayed Mycroft in these episodes. Rex
Evans played Mycroft in at least two episodes of The New
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which were broadcast in 1945
and 1946 respectively, with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel
Bruce as Dr. Watson.[14]
In the 1950s radio series starring John Gielgud as Sherlock
Holmes, Gielgud's own brother, Val Gielgud, played the part in
"The Bruce-Partington Plans".[15]
In the BBC radio dramatisations with Carleton Hobbs and Norman
Shelley, Mycroft was played at various times by Malcolm Graeme,
Keith Williams, Felix Felton,[16] and, in "The Empty House", by
Carleton Hobbs himself.[17]
In the BBC Radio adaptations starring Clive Merrison as Sherlock
and Michael Williams as Watson, John Hartley played Mycroft in
"The Greek Interpreter" on 21 October 1992, "The Bruce-
Partington Plans" on 24 January 1994, and "The Retired
Colourman" on 29 March 1995. Mycroft, voiced by James
Laurenson, also appears in a two-part episode of the BBC radio
series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, again with
Clive Merrison as Sherlock Holmes.[18]
Mycroft is a recurring character in the American radio series The
Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.[19]

Film
The first film appearance of Mycroft Holmes was in the 1922 short
film The Bruce Partington Plans in the Stoll film series, where he
was played by Lewis Gilbert.[20]:67
Mycroft was supposed to appear in the 1943 film Sherlock
Holmes in Washington but was replaced by Mr. Ahrens.
In the 1965 film A Study in Terror, Mycroft is played by Robert
Morley.[20]:279
In the Billy Wilder-directed film The Private Life of Sherlock
Holmes (1970), which starred Robert Stephens as Sherlock,
Mycroft was played by Christopher Lee[20]:142 (who also played
Sherlock Holmes in other productions before and since). In this
film, which purports to show the 'real' people behind Watson's
dramatised accounts, Mycroft is nearly unrecognisable: whippet-
thin and not notably indolent. He is also depicted as either the
head or at least a senior operative of the British secret service, for
which the Diogenes Club is a front.
The 1975 film The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter
Brother, starring Gene Wilder as Holmes's younger brother
"Sigerson Holmes,"[20]:11 was inspired by Mycroft, who is
mentioned, but does not appear except in a photograph of the
three brothers as children.
Charles Gray assumed the character in both the 1976 film The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution and Granada Television's Sherlock
Holmes series.[20]:165
He is also briefly mentioned in the 1985 film, Young Sherlock
Holmes; when Sherlock is expelled from boarding school, he tells
Watson that he plans to stay at his brother Mycroft's for a few
days.
Peter Jeffrey played Mycroft in the 1990 film Hands of a Murderer
which starred Edward Woodward as Sherlock.[20]:72
Stephen Fry played Mycroft in the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released in December 2011.[21]
In the 2015 film Mr. Holmes, set in 1947, though it is revealed that
Mycroft died a year or so earlier, he appears briefly, played by
John Sessions.
Hugh Laurie played Mycroft in the 2018 film Holmes & Watson.
Sam Claflin plays Mycroft in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, though
his deductive and reasoning skills have been reduced.
Television
The BBC broadcast two Sherlock Holmes series in 1965 and
1968 which starred Douglas Wilmer (1965) and Peter Cushing
(1968) as Sherlock and Nigel Stock as Watson. Mycroft appeared
twice, once in 1965 in "The Bruce-Partington Plans" and played
by Derek Francis and in 1968 in "The Greek Interpreter" and
played by Ronald Adam.[22]
Boris Klyuyev played Mycroft Holmes in The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, a Soviet television film
series.[20]:139–140 Klyuyev was nine years younger than Vasily
Livanov, who played Sherlock Holmes. According to Sherlock,
Mycroft is married and has a son.
Charles Gray, who played Mycroft in the film The Seven-Per-Cent
Solution, also played the character in four episodes of Granada
Television's Sherlock Holmes series in the late 1980s and early
1990s. Gray's first two television appearances were adaptations
of the two stories in which Mycroft actually appears ("The Greek
Interpreter" and "The Bruce-Partington Plans"). In the two other
appearances, the character was used to replace another for
various reasons. In "The Golden Pince-Nez", Mycroft was used in
place of Watson, since Edward Hardwicke was unavailable due to
a prior commitment to appear in Shadowlands. In "The Mazarin
Stone", Mycroft was used in place of Sherlock owing to Jeremy
Brett's ill health.[20]:115–117
A direct female descendant named Mycroft Holmes is introduced
in the BraveStarr episode "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century"
as an agent of Scotland Yard and an ally of her ancestor.
Jerome Willis played Mycroft in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading
Lady, a 1991 made-for-TV film which starred Christopher Lee as
Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson.[20]:206–207
R. H. Thomson played Mycroft in the 2001 made-for-TV film The
Royal Scandal opposite Matt Frewer's Sherlock.[20]:159<
Richard E. Grant played Mycroft in Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002).
In the television film, Mycroft was injected with an unidentified
substance by Moriarty many years before the film takes place,
which left Mycroft disabled and dependent on leg braces and
walking sticks. It is not explained further in the film why or how
this occurred.[20]:166–167
In the 2010 BBC television series Sherlock, Mycroft is portrayed
by series co-creator Mark Gatiss.[20]:168 In this contemporary
version, Sherlock and Mycroft exhibit smouldering animosity
towards each other (which Dr. Watson characterises as "sibling
rivalry" and Mycroft himself refers to as a "childish feud"). Mycroft
is part of the Cabinet Office and is so powerful that he can use
mass surveillance to track Sherlock. In keeping with the books,
Mycroft describes himself as "occupying a small position in the
British government", but more accurately, "he is the British
government". While Sherlock reveals that Mycroft essentially
bullied him as a child and has made him feel stupid throughout
his life, going so far as to suggest that they would both be willing
to arrange the death of the other, Mycroft gradually reveals a well-
hidden deep familial love for his brother, something Sherlock, in
time, begins to reciprocate. In the 2015 Christmas Special "The
Abominable Bride", he is portrayed by Gatiss in heavy makeup as
morbidly obese, more in keeping with the original stories.
Rhys Ifans played Mycroft Holmes in another modern adaptation,
Elementary.[23] In this series, Mycroft is introduced as a London
restaurateur who later turns out to work for MI6 as a source due
to his restaurants being used as a front for various crime
organisations. Mycroft goes into hiding at the end of the second
season when he exposed his ties to MI6 to help Sherlock with a
case, which Holmes feels reflected a lack of trust in him to find
another solution. In the sixth-season episode "Nobody Lives
Forever", it is revealed that Mycroft died ten months prior to the
events of that episode of a brain haemorrhage, which Sherlock
was never informed about until he started digging.
 In the Russian TV adaptation from 2013, Igor Petrenko played
Mycroft Holmes, as a twin brother of Sherlock, who is serving The
Queen.
In the NHK puppetry television series Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft is
a fat young man who is in the sixth grade of Beeton School. He is
in the position of managing the pupils of Dealer house in which he
lives, the head of the pupil council and member of Diogenes Club
in his house. Though he has deductive powers superior to
Sherlock, he is more calculating than his younger brother.
In the Japanese television series, Miss Sherlock, which premiered
in 2018, Yukiyoshi Ozawa plays Kento Futaba, who is modeled
on Mycroft. He is the older brother of Yuko Takeuchi's Sherlock,
who respects his intelligence, and he holds a prominent position
in the government's Intelligence Agency.

Novels and short stories

The character has been used many times in works that are not
adaptations of Holmes stories:

American former basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and

Anna Waterhouse authored Mycroft Holmes, released September
2015,[24] as well as two sequels entitled Mycroft and Sherlock
released in 2018[24] and Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty
Birdcage released in 2019.[25]
In Jasper Fforde's series of books about Thursday Next, Mycroft
is revealed to be Thursday's uncle, having escaped into fiction
and taken up residence in the Sherlock Holmes series to escape
the evil Goliath Corporation.
He was the main character in a series of mystery novels by the
author Quinn Fawcett beginning with Against the Brotherhood: A
Mycroft Holmes Novel[26]
He is a recurring character in the Mary Russell mystery series by
Laurie R. King, which feature a retired Sherlock Holmes as a
major character. Mycroft is portrayed as a senior figure in the
British Secret Service, who occasionally calls on Russell and
Holmes for assistance in specific cases.
A young Mycroft Holmes is the protagonist of a mystery-
adventure "edited" by Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright,
Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes
(published in hardcover by Hawthorn Books in 1979 in the U.S.
and by JM Dent & Sons Ltd. in 1980 in London and in paperback
by Playboy Press in 1980).[27] The action takes place in 1875, ten
years after the end of the American Civil War, at the time when
Mycroft Holmes was a minor official in the Foreign Office. Mycroft
is aided by his younger brother Sherlock, Victor Trevor (who
appears in Doyle's tale "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott"), and
an adventurer known as "Captain Jericho", a mysterious former
slave. They band together in an effort to prevent an attempt by
former Confederate officers to involve the British government in a
scheme to overthrow the United States government. The story
also provides an explanation as to the antagonism between
Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty.
Mycroft has a small but extremely important role in Ray Walsh's
novel The Mycroft Memoranda, published in London by Andre
Deutsch, 1984 (ISBN 0-233-97582-9), in which Sherlock Holmes,
at the request of Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner for the
City of London, becomes involved in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
Mycroft and the Diogenes Club play an important part in Kim
Newman's novel Anno Dracula.
The Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire featured Sherlock and
Mycroft Holmes, as well as the apocryphal Sherringford Holmes.
The Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield was then reunited
with Mycroft in the 2008 audio play The Adventure of the
Diogenes Damsel where he was voiced by David Warner.
The novel Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles
Brandreth suggests that Oscar Wilde's friendship with Arthur
Conan Doyle led Doyle to create Mycroft as a caricature of Wilde:
mentally brilliant, but indolent and lazy.
He appears in the novel The Italian Secretary (2005) by Caleb
Carr.
In the Enola Holmes series, Mycroft is the official legal guardian
of their much younger sister, Enola, after the mysterious
departure of their mother on her daughter's 14th birthday. Rather
than submit to his wish for her to be sent to boarding school to
conform to contemporary feminine social mores, Enola instead
runs away to secretly become a private detective in London while
eluding her brothers. Through the series, Mycroft is steadfastly
determined to capture her while Sherlock gradually grows to
respect her considerable talents and begins to understand her
reasons for her defiance. However, it is Mycroft who suspects that
Enola may well be determined to become an adult colleague in
his brother's profession, a notion Sherlock finds difficult to accept.
The Young Sherlock Holmes series by Andrew Lane features
Mycroft Holmes.
In the story "Whitechapel Rose" by Lorelei Shannon, contained in
Jordan K. Weisman's Into the Shadows anthology of short stories
set in the universe of the Shadowrun role-playing game, Mycroft
is revealed to be legendary among deckers (an in game term for
futuristic hackers).
He is a recurring character in the Amelia Watson series of novels
and short stories by Michael Mallory, which recast him as a close
confidant of King Edward VII and the head of England's fledgling
secret service bureau.
The Dorking Gap Affair by Glen Petrie published February 1,
1990 [28] by Bantam (first published 1989) ISBN 9780593016961
The Monstrous Regiment by Glen Petrie published by Bantam.[29]
Glen Petrie was commissioned by Transworld to publish a series
 of 10 books on Mycroft Holmes. He was paid but Transworld was
sold and the books were not finished.

Comics
Mycroft is depicted as a violent psychopath in 2000 AD (Canon
Fodder, issues #861–867) by Mark Millar and Chris Weston.
In Issue #6, Volume 1 of Alan Moore's The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mycroft Holmes becomes the leader of
British intelligence and uses the code-name "M" – a nod to the
fictional head of MI6 in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. It is
hinted that he and his brother are not on the best of terms as a
mention of Sherlock sending his regards are met by Mycroft with
laughter and regarded as a joke. (Mycroft also appears as the
Bond M in Son of Holmes and Anno Dracula).
Mycroft Holmes is the head of "The Committee" in the comic book
miniseries, Predator: Nemesis, by Gordon Rennie and Colin
MacNeil and published by Dark Horse Comics. He hires the main
character, Captain Edward Soames, to hunt down Spring-Heeled
Jack, a predator hunting in the East End.
Mycroft Holmes appears at least twice in the Italian comic book
Martin Mystère and spin-off series Storie di Altrove/Stories from
Elsewhere.[30][31]
The comic book series Muppet Sherlock Holmes features Rowlf
the Dog as Mycroft Holmes.
In the popular manga History's Strongest Disciple, Mycroft is a
fictional martial artist who has worked with Sakaki Shio and
Christopher Eclair.
Mycroft is featured as the main character of the comic Mycroft
Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook, published by Titan
Comics and written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymon
Obstfeld.
Video games
Mycroft has a minor role in the 1987 Infocom game Sherlock: The
Riddle of the Crown Jewels
He plays a central role in the 1996 PC game The Lost Files of
Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo.
In the 2009 PC and Xbox game Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the
Ripper, the younger Holmes receives assistance on a case from
his brother.
Mycroft appears as a minor character, voiced by Jon Severity,[32]
in the 2014 Focus Home Interactive game Sherlock Holmes:
Crimes & Punishments. He primarily seeks his brother's help to
combat a terrorist group known as The Merry Men, but also
provides occasional assistance; in one case, Sherlock has the
option to call on him to apprehend the suspects.

References in popular culture

Mycroft was parodied in the Solar Pons series with a character
named Bancroft Stoneham Pons, who was also seven years older
than the leading protagonist.
Mycroft Holmes was the inspiration for the name of the silent
assistant quiz master of BBC Radio 4's programme Brain of
Britain. The phrase "Mycroft is shaking his head" became well
known to listeners. Ian Gillies (who was known as Mycroft) died in
2002 and was replaced by a character known as "Jorkins".
Mycroft was the inspiration for the name of a character in Robert
A. Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress: "Mycroft" a.k.a. Mike,
a H.O.L.M.E.S. ("High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating
Supervisor") Mark 4, a sentient computer. At one point in the
story, Mike indicates Sherlock is indeed his brother.
First series of seaQuest DSV, in the episode "Photon Bullet", a
reformed computer hacker used the handle "Mycroft" while at an
underwater telecommunications node.
British writer Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse series of
books, wrote a Sherlock Holmes short story "A Case of Mis-
Identity", part of a collection of short stories published under the
title "Morse's Greatest Mystery", in which Watson's practical
knowledge of the circumstances of a case outwits both Sherlock
and Mycroft.
In John Dickson Carr's "Sir Henry Merrivale" novels, the brilliant,
overweight Military Intelligence chief is compared to Mycroft
Holmes, much to his annoyance.
At one point it was planned for Gregory House (who is based on
Sherlock Holmes and also lives at 221B) to have an elder brother
who was based on Mycroft. Stephen Fry (who was the comedic
partner of Hugh Laurie) was to play him but was unable, due to
other commitments. Fry would later go on to portray Mycroft in the
2011 film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
In the TV series Numb3rs episode "Angels and Devils", Larry
Fleinhardt, played by Peter MacNicol, says: "I have rather always
fancied myself more as a Mycroft than a Dr. Watson." He expands
upon this reference in the series finale when he assumes the role
of math/science expert for the FBI in place of Charlie Eppes
saying, "... like Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes, I prefer to do
the conceptualizing, leaving the grunt work to others."
In Nobuhiro Watsuki's manga series Embalming – The Another
Tale of Frankenstein, Asuhit Richter goes to the Diogenes Club in
London to meet one of the club's founders and his client "Mike
Roft", a play on Mycroft, who is also a high-standing government
official. Mike remarks that "if you are looking for someone, my
younger brother is quite good at that type of thing" and has him
locate Dr. Peabody and Fury Flatliner. Only the younger brother's
silhouette is shown, but it is obviously that of Sherlock Holmes.
In the Honor Harrington novel A Rising Thunder, the name
Mycroft is used as the code designation for a new Manticoran
missile fire control system to be deployed for system defence,
 based somewhat upon the Havenites' 'Moriarty' system (the name
of which is a reference to Professor Moriarty).
In the American TV series Monk, Adrian Monk has an older
brother called Ambrose Monk. Ambrose, like his brother Adrian,
possesses uncanny powers of deduction and memory.
Unfortunately, he suffers from a severe form of agoraphobia. As
of 2003, he had not left the home he grew up in since 1971.
Agatha Christie featured in The Big Four the character Achille
Poirot, the supposed twin brother of Hercule Poirot, who is clearly
based on Mycroft Holmes. Like Mycroft, Achille is depicted as
equally brilliant to his more famous sibling but too indolent to
accomplish much. However, Achille is later revealed to be
Hercule Poirot himself in disguise.
The short story "You See But You Do Not Observe", by Canadian
writer Robert J. Sawyer, portrays Mycroft Holmes's namesake
involved in pulling Sherlock and Watson into the year 2096 to
solve a scientific mystery.

References
1. Smith, Daniel (2014) [2009]. The Sherlock Holmes Companion:
An Elementary Guide (Updated ed.). Aurum Press. pp. 30–31.
ISBN 978-1-78131-404-3.
2. Cawthorne, Nigel (2011). A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes.
Running Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0762444083.
3. "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle" (http://
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/834). Gutenberg. Retrieved 25 June
2020.
4. "His Last Bow: An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan
Doyle" (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2350). Gutenberg.
Retrieved 25 June 2020.
5. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle" (http://w
ww.gutenberg.org/ebooks/108). Gutenberg. Retrieved 25 June
2020.
 6. Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes,
Volume II (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). p. 979. ISBN 0-393-
05916-2
7. Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes,
Volume II (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). p. 801. ISBN 0-393-
05916-2
8. Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes,
Volume II (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). p. 1439. ISBN 0-393-
05916-2
9. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from
Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings
for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" (https://measuringwort
h.com/ukearncpi/). MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
10. Cawthorne, Nigel (2011). A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes.
Running Press. pp. 203–204. ISBN 978-0762444083.
11. Cawthorne, Nigel (2011). A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes.
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12. "The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle" (http://ww
w.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2852). Gutenberg. Retrieved 26 June
2020. "...there he sat upon a stone outside, his grey eyes dancing
with amusement..."
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Volume I (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). p. 752. ISBN 0-393-
05916-2
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American Radio. BearManor Media. pp. 27, 39, 88–89, 130–131,
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ttps://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle). Harper &
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h00dewa/page/385)–390. ISBN 0-517-217597.
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eb1909e61f1c50eaf37). BBC Genome: Radio Times. BBC.
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ts_and_credits.php). Retrieved 24 June 2020.
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Sherlock Holmes: Broadcast Log" (https://www.old-time.com/otrlo
gs2/fash_sw.log.pdf) (PDF). Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 24 June
2020.
20. Alan Barnes (2011). Sherlock Holmes on Screen: The Complete
Film and TV History (https://books.google.com/books?id=KR6JK
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ttps://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle). Harper &
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e/page/138). ISBN 0-06-015620-1.
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Sherlock Holmes' Brother, on "Elementary", Premiering Thursday,
Sept. 26" (http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/rel
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24. Sondheimer, S.W. (January 19, 2018). "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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s://bookriot.com/2018/10/09/kareem-abdul-jabbar-interview/).
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ersweekly.com/978-1-785659-30-0). Publishers Weekly. June 25,
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weekly.com/978-0-312-86363-0). Publishers Weekly. October 1,
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ditore.it/auto/scheda_speciale?collana=13&numero=168)
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w-en.sergiobonellieditore.it/auto/scheda_speciale?collana=13&nu
mero=168) 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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sergiobonellieditore.it/auto/scheda_speciale?collana=30&numero
=2&subnum=)
32. https://www.mandy.com/voice-artist/profile/jon-severity

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