Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes as Dr Watson, in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (2000), "The Royal Scandal" (2001), "The Sign of Four" (2001) and "The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire" (2002). 2002 saw a new version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" featuring Richard Roxburgh. Ian Hart played Dr. Watson then and also in the 2004 BBC airing of "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", alternatively billed as "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". An original screenplay "based on the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", this film takes place in 1902, with Dr. Watson "saving a dear friend from narcotics
Sherlock Holmes link between medical investigation and the detection of crime. Other inspirations have been considered. One is thought to be Francis "Tanky" Smith, a policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicester's first private detective. Another might be "Maximilien Heller", by French author Henry Cauvain. It is not known if Conan Doyle read "Maximilien Heller", but he was fluent in French, and in this 1871 novel (sixteen years before the first adventure of Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, polymath, cat-loving, and opium-smoking Paris-based detective. Details about Sherlock Holmes' life are scarce in Conan Doyle's stories.