Sister Act

How do you reinvent SHERLOCK HOLMES, the most adapted literary character of all time? Focus on his kid sister, of course. Total Film visits the stately set of Netflix’s Enola Holmes, to uncover clues with the help of stars Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin.

- MATT MAYTUM

It’s a sunny summer’s day in August 2019, and Total Film’s exploring the beautifully kept grounds at West Horsley Place, a Grade I-listed medieval manor house in Surrey. This isn’t just an extremely wholesome day out. On the gravel driveway in front of the impressively wide home is all manner of filming equipment, from food trucks to lighting rigs: Enola Holmes is being filmed here.

Adapted from Nancy Springer’s novel series by ubiquitous screenwriter Jack Thorne, Enola Holmes is a Netflix movie that could launch a new franchise. It stars Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown – also taking on the first producing role of her career – as Sherlock and Mycroft’s younger sister. Here, Sherlock’s played by Man Of Steel’s Henry Cavill, while Sam Claflin is Mycroft.

We’re ushered inside the house to observe some filming. The interior of the manor has seen better days, which is just what the production team wanted: in the story, Ferndell has gone to seed while Enola’s lived there with her mother, Helena Bonham Carter’s Eudora (the exterior of the house in the movie is actually a very different one – a National Trust property in Shropshire). The sequence we watch sees the Holmes brothers returning to the family pile after their mother’s disappearance. Shocked at the state of place, Mycroft resolves to send Enola to boarding school, and so a headmistress (Fiona Shaw) is also summoned into the dusty drawing-room.