Young Sherlock may be billed as a Sherlock Holmes coming-of-age tale, but it is as much about the maturing of Moriarty, so to speak. There is a common bond between Moriarty and Sherlock studying together in 1870s Oxford — they are both outsiders who perhaps feel that they could be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Donal Finn plays a young James Moriarty in the Guy Ritchie-directed Prime Video series, which depicts the origin of the rivalry between a young Sherlock and his future nemesis, who, however, as we get to see in this show, started out as brothers-in-arms.
It was on a relaxed evening when t2oS came face to face virtually with Finn. The Irish actor, known for playing Mat Cauthon in the Prime Video fantasy series The Wheel of Time and for originating the role of Orpheus in the West End production of Hadestown, was thoughtful and reflective but also easygoing and grounded in this conversation.
For Finn, 30, the chief takeaway from the Young Sherlock experience has been the people who have been involved in the project. “The highlight was about getting to work on something where everyone feels so dedicated and has so much care for the project. It made it really easy for me to come to work, even though it was a long shoot. The energy of the cast and crew was really relentless, and that made our job a lot easier,” the actor told t2oS. He added: “I was always really excited by the script and the vision that Matthew (showrunner Matthew Parkhill) had for the show. That made me excited to get going once I had been cast and to see these characters at a point in time that we have never really seen them in before.”
Young Sherlock has its foundation in Andrew Lane’s Young Adult series of books which looks at the beginnings of the “consulting detective”. Besides the script, Finn relied on some of his own research to get into the skin of Moriarty. “To pad out the imaginative world at the end of the day of filming, I used to listen to some of the audiobooks read by Stephen Fry. Those are the Arthur Conan Doyle case books, starting with A Study in Scarlet. Those were the resources I pulled from.”
The experience of playing Moriarty, according to Finn, pushed him to the deep end, especially given how brilliant a mind the character is. Finn, when asked, ruminated on the same: “I don’t know if I had ever played someone as intelligent as Moriarty. It is not a characteristic that I would immediately assign to myself... that level of intelligence, you know,” he smiled, before adding: “I worked relatively hard at that. I tried to understand a couple of mathematical equations and a little bit of imaginary numbers and what it might have been like studying in Oxford at that time. That gave me a sense of how intelligent these people were. They were walking-talking encyclopedias and inhabiting that level of resourcefulness and intelligence was not something that immediately came naturally to me.”
Did math appeal to Finn as a student, we asked. “I actually loved it! I did honours-level math, which is, you know, opting to make it difficult for yourself! We had a course study which was the practical application of mathematics in real-world circumstances, which was a lot more enjoyable than regular math.”
In the first episode of Young Sherlock, Moriarty tells Sherlock: “In order to know your enemy, you must become your enemy.” We asked Finn how much does that line encapsulate Moriarty’s journey from Sherlock’s best friend to his arch nemesis. “The evolution to becoming Sherlock’s mortal enemy is not on Moriarty’s mind at the point we meet him in Young Sherlock. So, I tried not to steer my performance to signal that. Moriarty certainly isn’t acting maliciously. At this point in his life, which we get to see in Young Sherlock, he is really open to building a good friendship and partnership with Sherlock Holmes. They have built this kind of intimacy where they are willing to be vulnerable with each other, they are willing to take risks on behalf of the other person. There is a lot of trust between them and that accentuates the betrayal that comes between them. But right now, their responsibility to each other is just to be as good a friend as possible.”
Building on that, he added: “One of the aspects that makes Young Sherlock so thrilling even if you aren’t a Sherlock Holmes fan, is that you are unaware of what these two people will be to each other later, and that kind of keeps you guessing. If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan, you will probably watch it with your eyes covered, thinking: “Oh no! This is so much more painful because I understand where this will end.”
Given the stage in life in which he plays him, did Finn feel that the depiction of Moriarty in Young Sherlock challenge the traditional idea of the character? The actor took some think to ponder over this before answering: “Since the writing is so intelligent, it serves up both the internal and the external world of Moriarty. Ultimately, it is an origin story for both Sherlock and Moriarty. It would be perhaps a little bit short-sighted to serve up an immediate idea of where the character will end up. It is a long journey. He is described as ‘The Napoleon of Crime’ (by Sherlock), but I don’t think anyone kind of feels that at age 20. It is perhaps about seeing a set of circumstances fall into a character’s path and the decisions that they choose to make.”
He added: “One can perhaps even ask that if Sherlock had faced the same things as Moriarty does, would he, perhaps, have ended up a villain. Is it just a series of unfortunate events that leads a person to be the way they are or is it something more innate? These are the questions that you can ponder on in the show. Young Sherlock doesn’t overturn the classic idea of who Moriarty is; it sets you up to enjoy what you know about where the character will be in the future.”
Finn’s initiation into the world of Sherlock Holmes and his subsequent experiences with the character has been eclectic, like it has been for most Holmes fans. “As a kid, I spent a whole summer reading The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. I loved it! And then I went to the cinema, of course, to see Guy Ritchie’s version of the film with Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Jared Harris. I found all of that so thrilling — the style, the aesthetic.... It is very hard to ignore the amazing adaptation that the BBC made with Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott. I found that came at a time where television was accessing new kinds of worlds. The first season is like three films and they are all so thrilling! Not even in a Sherlock Holmes context, but just in a more general acting context, I was so inspired by the performances of Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott. The boldness and the wildness of their choices was so inspiring,” offered the actor.
I rounded off this conversation by asking Finn if he had ever made a trip to India or had had any brush with the culture of the country. His heartwarming answer: “I have not been to that part of the world, not even the continent! Indian culture, though, is deeply entrenched in London. I have had a couple of brilliant Indian meals down around Tooting and in Notting Hill. But I always overestimate my tolerance to spice, and invariably end up being very humbled and very sweaty in those places,” he laughed.