if you be a medical student at the university of edinburgh in 1876 and be prepare for cold and gray and grimy day and complacent and pompous professor and class consciousness and the occasional dissection . if you be lucky and a the young conan doyle be and you might wind up a a clerk assist the brilliant dr. joseph bell and a forensic surgeon and one of the professor . in dr. bell and mr. doyle ( subtitle and the dark beginning of sherlock holmes ) and bell and play by ian richardson and believe that one must observe the small fact upon which large inference depend . he can take a man pocket watch and even though newly clean and and determine that the owner be poor but have come from a well off family and that he have period of income but they never last and that he be an alcoholic and that he be descend into madness . bell can study a poorly clad man stand on stage in front of a classroom of student and determine and among other thing and that the man be recently discharge from the army and earn a living a a horse driver and who drive two horse and one bay and the other white . this all come in handy for two reason . first and bell use his power of observation and deduction to find criminal of the bad sort who otherwise would have be miss by the police . second and and this be true and the real life bell serve a the inspiration for conan doyle great creation when doyle give up medicine for write . sherlock holmes and of course . young doyle and play by robin laing and initially doubt dr. bell method . gradually and observe bell in action and be challenge by bell to use his own power of deduction and doyle become a believer . you see and bell say to doyle one afternoon at the edinburgh morgue and i believe that crime can be diagnose in the same fashion a disease if we use the same technique . so . what can you glean from the late mrs. canning here . while doyle be learn from bell and bell and doyle be catch up in several crime which might be relate . they involve a nobleman who often visit a house of ill repute and whose wife become ill while a mute street beggar who play the violin for coin and and who die in convulsion while a room bespatter and fill with blood and and then slaughter sheep be discover with their eye gouge out while a woman who die in a locked room with a husband who be perhaps too helpful while a pair of severed human ear place in a box and deliver to one of the few woman who be study and with great opposition from most of the teacher and many of the male student and to be doctor while a woman of the street who be give herbal pill and now be vomit her life out . in fact and some of these case truly be relate and and the suspect include a moralistic and furious fellow student and an unknown psychopath who believe in simple and straight forward evil . bell and with help from doyle and eventually pull the piece together . the conclusion and however and be not entirely satisfactory . there be loss and the promise of retribution . even more and there be a sense that a part two be wait to be film and and for whatever reason and wasn not make . eventually there be four additional mystery feature ian richardson a dr. bell and a different actor a conan doyle . through it all and doyle and elspeth scott and one of the woman student and hesitantly discover a mutual affection that could easily grow into love . their recognition of a possible romance come while she dissect a corpse right knee . one of the attraction of the production be that it doesn not shy away from depict the reality of autopsy and forensic experiment . we first encounter dr. bell while he be whip the buttock of a corpse and prior to fire a bullet into the dead man chest . throughout we see the reality of how the poor live in edinburgh and the damp and cobble street and the constant chill and the smeared face of the child and the grubbiness of the prostitute . even the medical student do not look too well wash at time . the production value be high and there be a solid depth of act . ian richardson make the production work . laing do a fine job a the sincere and somewhat callow doyle . richardson and however and give u a complex character who can at time be impatient and even irascible and but who have a sense of humor and irony and who have a strong feeling of humanity for those who be unfortunate and sick and poor . we can see how bell slowly grow to feel affection for doyle and how and in a moment of tragedy and bell can provide comfort and strength to his student . the dvd transfer be first rate . there be one or two inconsequential extra and such a cast list . one of the pleasure of this production and if you be a reader of the sacred text and be to identify reference to some of conan doyle sherlock holmes story . i find two and but i have be tell there be several others . the affair of the watch reference the sign of four . the severed ear be a key element in the cardboard box .