Sherlock Holmes shows age

Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr Watson, are to be transformed from the middle-aged sleuths of modern imagination into muscular men of action in a remake of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic stories.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is to be filmed for a one-off BBC drama later this year, with its leading characters played by the youngest actors since the detective duo were first brought to the screen more than 60 years ago.

The production will take the much-adapted story closer to the original, with Holmes and Watson portrayed as young and athletic men in their mid-30s in contrast to the mature and paternalistic figures of most screen versions.

Richard Roxburgh, 40, who played the Duke in Moulin Rouge, will star as Holmes while Ian Hart, 38, who portrayed Quill in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, will be Dr Watson.

Alongside them in the film, which will be set in 1901, when it was written, will appear Richard E. Grant as an archaeologist and John Nettles as the local physician, Mortimer.

Computer-generated wizardry will also add a cutting edge to the classic tale of Dartmoor terror, with the technology that brought dinosaurs to life expected to turn the famous hound into a "genuinely frightening" creation.

Jane Tranter, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning, said the adaptation would be "a chilling thriller for the 21st century".

It follows in the footsteps of The Lost World, also adapted from Conan Doyle's text and shown in New Zealand earlier this year, in which computer technology was used to add authenticity to the drama. "It's for an adult audience and features a genuinely frightening hound using the latest special effects technology," Tranter said.

The story sees Sherlock Holmes discovering the ancient legend of the hell-hound of Dartmoor as he investigates the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville.

The BBC's last adaptation of the story was a four-part serialisation in 1982, starring Tom Baker as Holmes. Earlier BBC versions included one in which Peter Cushing played the detective in 1968. The first screen version was a Twentieth Century Fox film with Basil Rathbone in 1939. ITV produced a version starring the small screen's best-known Holmes, Jeremy Brett, in 1988.

- INDEPENDENT