Set between 1892 and the early 1900s, the movie is an exploration of the family past which drove Arthur Conan Doyle to create the world-famous detective ... and then to kill his creature. The movie depicts Conan Doyle's relationship with his interned father, his dying (first) wife Louisa, the meeting with his (future) second wife Jean, the pressure put by his mother and his editor Greenhough Smith to write more Sherlock Holmes stories ... Conan Doyle confide his intimate souvenirs to a fictional biographer, Selden, which is in reality himself. Selden was, in fact, the name of the convict killed by the hound in the Conan Doyle's novel: "The Hound of the Baskervilles."
Brian Cox and his Nuremberg (2000) cast mate, Christopher Plummer, both have another connection to Sherlock Holmes. Plummer's cousin was actor Nigel Bruce who, like Cox's son Alan Cox, has played Doctor Watson.
Brian Cox appeared in The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes & Arthur Conan Doyle (2005) with Christopher Plummer, X2 with Ian McKellen, and Zodiac with Robert Downey Jr.. All three of those actors have played Sherlock Holmes.
In this movie, David Pirie, the writer, used some scenes from The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes: Part 1 (2000) and The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes: Part 2 (2000) such as the deductions on the patient in the university auditorium, and also the pocket watch from Conan Doyle's father. Two actors from the 2000 movie also played in the 2007 one (John Bett again as Charles Doyle, and Ralph Riach).