Hero Fiennes Tiffin unpacks playing his uncle Joseph Fiennes’ son in gritty mystery thriller

When you tune into Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock, you’ll be treated to some onscreen magic from not one but two of the Fiennes family.

The Amazon Prime Video mystery thriller, which doubles as an origin story for the widely-loved Arthur Conan Doyle detective, Sherlock Holmes, is helmed by Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who some may recognise from the After movie quintet.

But that’s not all, he’ll be joined by his uncle Joseph Fiennes, who is stepping into an adjacent role for the show as Sherlock’s father, Silas Holmes, where fans will be able to see the real-life familial chemistry come to roaring life.

‘It’s a luxury that we have the relationship we do and that we are playing the characters that have the relationship they do, because if there is any familiarity that creeps in, it works quite well,’ Hero, 29, told Metro about making the leap from reality to fiction.

His uncle Joseph, famed for his roles in Shakespeare in Love and the Merchant of Venice, among countless others, is quick to agree.

He shared: ‘What we have is what actors are really reaching for all the time through quite hard work and research.

‘We get it for free, which is lovely, this familiarity, and so you want to lean into that; if anything, you want to embrace that.’

Joking that, naturally, great British actor Joseph is ‘obviously uncle Joe to me’, Hero acknowledged the impact growing up under his tutelage has been (bolstered, no doubt, by brother Ralph).

‘He’s also an incredible actor whom I’ve watched and, I guess, aspired to be like, so working opposite [him] in multiple capacities was inspiring, but also you make it fun as well,’ he said to a grinning Joseph, who was quick to add that he hoped he isn’t ‘the stodgy old uncle’.

The American Horror Story actor, 55, had similarly glowing words for his nephew, calling him ‘just sublime’, hugely talented’ and ‘having a great sense of leaving no stone unturned.’

He continued: ‘Off camera, he is such a graceful gentleman with the crew. That’s one thing I observed, which I just thought: “Wow, he’s got it in spades.”

‘He’s got a really, great understanding of caring and how the machine works, and also putting in the work ethic as an actor. It’s wonderful to behold.’

As an origin tale, this certainly goes off the beaten track, with the most notable shift being the unexpected friendship between Sherlock and his arch-rival, Moriarty.

But part of the process is embracing the radical changes.

‘Sometimes, you have a knee-jerk reaction and go: “They haven’t explored Sherlock and Moriarty [as] friends“. But you very quickly start to completely flip it on its head and go: “This actually justifies so much more of what I read in Conan Doyle’s works with this being the case.”‘

When it comes to the complicated father-son dynamic specifically, Joseph was compelled by the way creator Matthew used both the source material and Conan Doyle’s real life to fuel his interpretation.

Joseph pointed out: ‘Conan Doyle, I think, had a pretty unstable but brilliant childhood where his father was an illustrator, and also, sadly, an alcoholic.

‘That sense of a relationship, which is fractured and beautiful at the same time, is something that plays out within the family dynamics of the character he invented, Sherlock Holmes, and Matthew Parkhill picked up on it, so it’s really, really rich, and it’s good fun.’

All in all, Hero echoed a boatload of ‘fun’ for anyone who tunes into the show, as well as plenty of ambition to pull something like this off.

Meanwhile, paraphrasing the great crime author himself, Joseph quipped: ‘ Conan Doyle once said: “If you’re feeling low, jump on a bicycle, go for a ride” and Hero, Matthew and Guy have delivered the best exhilarating ride for [eight] episodes. It is one to pick up the spirits.’

Young Sherlock is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.

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