Rented this not knowing what to expect, but being a big fan of holmes I wasn't going to endure something hammy. This is a really good take on how ACD learnt of the mechanics of how his character will solve crimes. Set around the university days of ACD, it follows his exploits with his medical lecturer in foresnsics and crime solving. A bit of a romantic interlude, and a couple of good twists in the tales, make this a really enjoyable hour or so for holmes fans.

It starts out a bit odd, making you think its all about holmes, but you realise its about his master, Sir ACD. Worth watching.

If you were a medical student at the University of Edinburgh in 1876, be prepared for cold, gray, grimy days, complacent and pompous professors, class consciousness and the occasional dissection. If you were lucky, as the young Conan Doyle was, you might wind up as a clerk assisting the brilliant Dr. Joseph Bell, a forensic surgeon and one of the professors. In Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle (subtitled, The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes), Bell, played by Ian Richardson, believes that one must "observe the small facts upon which large inferences depend." He can take a man's pocket watch, even though newly cleaned, and determine that the owner was poor but had come from a well-off family, that he had periods of income but they never lasted, that he was an alcoholic and that he was descending into madness. Bell can study a poorly clad man standing on stage in front of a classroom of students and determine, among other things, that the man was recently discharged from the army, earned a living as a horse driver and who drove two horses, one bay and the other white. This all comes in handy for two reasons. First, Bell uses his powers of observation and deduction to find criminals of the worst sort who otherwise would have been missed by the police. Second, and this is true, the real-life Bell served as the inspiration for Conan Doyle's great creation when Doyle gave up medicine for writing...Sherlock Holmes, of course.

Young Doyle, played by Robin Laing, initially doubts Dr. Bell's methods. Gradually, observing Bell in action and being challenged by Bell to use his own powers of deduction, Doyle becomes a believer. "You see," Bell says to Doyle one afternoon at the Edinburgh morgue, "I believe that crimes can be diagnosed in the same fashion as disease if we use the same techniques. So...what can you glean from the late Mrs. Canning here?"

While Doyle is learning from Bell, Bell and Doyle are caught up in several crimes which might be related. They involve a nobleman who often visits a house of ill repute and whose wife becomes ill; a mute street beggar who plays the violin for coins, and who dies in convulsions; a room bespattered and filled with blood, and then slaughtered sheep are discovered with their eyes gouged out; a woman who dies in a locked room with a husband who is perhaps too helpful; a pair of severed human ears placed in a box and delivered to one of the few women who are studying, with great opposition from most of the teachers and many of the male students, to be doctors; a woman of the streets who was given herbal pills and now is vomiting her life out. In fact, some of these cases truly are related, and the suspects include a moralistic, furious fellow student and an unknown psychopath who believes in simple, straight-forward evil. Bell, with help from Doyle, eventually pulls the pieces together. The conclusion, however, is not entirely satisfactory. There is loss and the promise of retribution. Even more, there is a sense that a part two was waiting to be filmed and, for whatever reason, wasn't made. Eventually there were four additional mysteries featuring Ian Richardson as Dr. Bell and a different actor as Conan Doyle.

Through it all, Doyle and Elspeth Scott, one of the women students, hesitantly discover a mutual affection that could easily grow into love. Their recognition of a possible romance comes while she dissects a corpse's right knee. One of the attractions of the production is that it doesn't shy away from depicting the reality of autopsies and forensic experiments. We first encounter Dr. Bell while he is whipping the buttocks of a corpse, prior to firing a bullet into the dead man's chest. Throughout we see the reality of how the poor live in Edinburgh, the damp, cobbled streets, the constant chill, the smeared faces of the children and the grubbiness of the prostitutes. Even the medical students don't look too well washed at times. The production values are high and there is a solid depth of acting.

Ian Richardson makes the production work. Laing does a fine job as the sincere and somewhat callow Doyle. Richardson, however, gives us a complex character who can at times be impatient, even irascible, but who has a sense of humor and irony and who has a strong feeling of humanity for those who are unfortunate, sick and poor. We can see how Bell slowly grows to feel affection for Doyle and how, in a moment of tragedy, Bell can provide comfort and strength to his student.

The DVD transfer is first rate. There are one or two inconsequential extras, such as cast lists. One of the pleasures of this production, if you are a reader of the Sacred Texts, is to identify references to some of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I found two, but I've been told there are several others. The affair of the watch references The Sign of Four. The severed ears are a key element in The Cardboard Box.

Pilot Episode - Set in the back drop of Edinburgh in 1878, Murder Rooms follows the early life of Arthur Conan Doyle (Robin Laing) - a humble medical student dealing with conflicting interests of university and home life (he is coming to terms with his father's mental illness). The story unfolds with Doyle's fortuitous meeting with his tutor Dr Bell (Ian Richardson). . . although Doyle openly questions the Doctor's methods as trickery in a lecture, Bell takes him on as an assistance - this is when Doyle's 'powers' of deduction begin to form! Bell leads the way by investigating several mysterious deaths occurring in Edinburgh and Doyle is drawn into this 'underworld' when he becomes puzzled by the suspicious death of a healthy street fiddler (and a pile of coins left beside the body). Young Doyle is more ruled by passions of the heart rather than the logic of his head and often makes mistakes with hasty actions...but Dr Bell corrects him with his 'methods' - ones which Doyle himself adopts later on. At university, he befriends a young female student Elspeth (Dolly Wells) and despite certain male students opposing the education of women, Doyle willingly supports her. When Dr Bell is called to examine the health of her sister, Lady Carlyle, young Doyle and Elspeth are drawn further together...
Overall, Murder Rooms is about Doyle's 'dark beginnings', which eventually affect his later life and writing. The writer, David Pirie, cleverly entwines many of the 'methods' that are familiar to Sherlock Holmes readers and also incorporates Doyle's 'chivalric' side (he wrote several medieval romances such as 'Sir Nigel'). A superb cast (includes Charles Dance) and an excellent script keep you gripped to the very end . . . it will appeal to both young (late teens) and older viewers - for the former, Doyle is wonderfully played by newcomer Robin Laing and Elspeth by Dolly Wells. (A word of warning...although Murder Rooms continues as a series with more thrilling exploits of young Doyle, alas we are left wondering why the young actor - Laing- has been replaced?)
Of course many of us miss seeing 'Sherlock Holmes' on television (especially with Jeremy Brett in the lead), but this is a welcome alternative. Murder Rooms is well worth buying because the plot is full of twists and surprises that you will want to watch it again and again!!!

All I have to say about this movie can be encapsulated in one word.....wonderful!!!!!!
Buy it now.....and then buy the other four in the series when they are released. Also, if they can find an actor who can hold off the ghost of the late and very much missed Jeremy Brett (Alan Rickman perhaps), I would love to see the producers get their teeth into some proper Holmes stories.
Marvellous stuff!!!!!

At last a detailed account of one of the worlds greatest ever crime writers. Great hints of simple but intense deduction, wonderfully portrayed by Ian Richardson as Dr Joseph Bell. The Strand magazine would be honoured!