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Harry Potter and Mission: Impossible stars tease "different" Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty dynamic in new TV series

"It’s something quite unique - you won’t have seen a Moriarty like this before."

Dougray Scott as Moriarty in Sherlock & Daughter.

HBO Max

Published: Thursday, 5 November 2026 at 8:00 am

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There have been plenty of on screen iterations of the Sherlock Holmes vs James Moriarty rivalry, and now we're about to see one more in HBO Max's Sherlock & Daughter.

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While the series largely centres on the dynamic between David Thewlis's (Harry Potter) Sherlock and a young American woman, Blu Hunt's Amelia, who believes she is his daughter, it also sees Holmes having to team up with an imprisoned Moriarty, after the events of The Final Problem.

Speaking about this dynamic, Thewlis exclusively told Radio Times while on set for the series: "It's a different slant on that because we almost become allies really, because he's in prison. It’s after Reichenbach Falls, I've had him put away in prison, and he's festering in there. But I need his help to crack something and he needs my help. And we both come together to fight a common enemy."

Moriarty is played in the series by Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible 2), and Thewlis called it a "very interesting performance".

"It’s something quite unique," he said, before adding that "you won’t have seen a Moriarty like this before".

"It's fantastic to work with Dougray. I knew Dougray, but I’ve never worked with him, so it's going to be really rather entertaining."

David Thewlis in Sherlock & Daughter, with long scraggly hair and a beard, holding a newspaper, wearing period dress and stood on a street.

David Thewlis in Sherlock & Daughter. HBO Max

Scott also spoke with Radio Times in Dublin where the show was filmed, and noted that Thewlis's Sherlock and his Moriarty "both want something from each other".

"They spar with each other," he said. "They're both highly intellectual characters, and so it's just interesting to play that. It's all in the writing."

He continued: "They're wary of each other. They're respectful. They don't really like each other. Sherlock Holmes doesn't like Moriarty, and similarly, Moriarty doesn't like Sherlock Holmes, but that doesn't mean to say they don't enjoy sparring with each other, they don't enjoy certain aspects of each other.

"He's a maverick. Both of them are mavericks, and they're both incredibly intelligent people. He wants something from Holmes, and Holmes wants something from Moriarty, and so they form this unlikely pact with each other. This sort of partnership - that might be stretching it - mutually beneficial relationship for as long as he needs."

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Scott also noted that the series delves into the character's backstory like never before, saying: "15 years previously, he lost his wife. His wife died. Moriarty's wife died, and his son, who was nine at the time, got involved in some sort of criminal activity and was shipped off to Australia. And then Moriarty did everything he could to find him, but couldn't. And that's kind of stayed with him.

"So you see that kind of a man who is powerful and is ruthless and is perhaps sociopathic as Moriarty, but you add in the ingredients of a lost relationship, and of a sense of guilt and of vulnerability and fragility in that because of his what happened with his son, then I think that's really interesting."

While Scott had plenty of previous screen versions of Moriarty to draw on, including Andrew Scott's turn in Sherlock and Jared Harris's portrayal in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, he said that he "didn't go back to any of the performances" to develop his own version of the character.

Instead he "read all the stuff that was available about Moriarty," but noted that "in all honesty, it's not a lot".

He said: "It's pretty thin on the ground, so you kind of use that as a basis, and then your imagination goes, and you think about other people, and other characters, and voices, and the physicality."

Sherlock & Daughter will be available to watch on HBO Max in the UK from Thursday 5 November. Subscribe to HBO Max from £5.99 a month.

Add Sherlock & Daughter to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of James Hibbs, smiling against a lime green background.

James HibbsDrama Writer

James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.

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