Sherlock

Mycroft Holmes (Gatiss)

Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' brother and is traditionally older by seven years. It is mentioned in "The Final Problem" that, along with tradition, he remains seven years Sherlock's senior in the BBC adaption.

  Mycroft was born to Mr. and Mrs. Holmes the eldest of their three children, with his younger brother, Sherlock , being born seven years later, and their younger sister, Eurus, a year after Sherlock. Eurus was institutionalized at age five after her psychosis caused her to kidnap Sherlock's best friend in jealousy (she killed him) and also to burn down their home of Musgrave. Their uncle Rudy oversaw this, and Mycroft would later assume the responsibility when he ascended to his position in the British government. He deceived their parents out of kindness to believe she was killed in another fire to spare them to pain of letting them know what she had become, but would consult with Eurus for her intellectual insight occasionally and still showed brotherly care of her in giving her "treats" in exchange.

  In the pilot episode of the series, Mycroft has Dr. John Watson brought to him for questioning when he begins investigating crimes with Sherlock and offers him money to help ease his way for information on his brother's activities out of concern for his well-being, which John refuses believing Mycroft a possible criminal. During the meeting, Mycroft, neglecting to mention hes Sherlock's older brother, told John that Sherlock may even consider him his arch-enemy. Sherlock neither confirms nor denies this statement, and introduces them properly at the end of the episode, at which point Mycroft ordered the surveillance of Sherlock be increased to observe how Sherlock and John's partnership will progress and keep them safe.

  Mycroft came to Sherlock to ask him to investigate the death of Andrew West and the disappearance of the Bruce-Partington missile project plans, supplying John with further information on West when Sherlock sent him to Mycroft's office. Throughout the episode, Mycroft eventually grew impatient with them, having texted them continuously, but Sherlock eventually solved the murder of West and recovered the memory stick with the plans that West was responsible for, which was afterwards ruined by consulting criminal Jim Moriarty at the end of the episode. Mycroft, however, had stated previously that it was not the only copy of the plans. ("The Great Game")

After Irene Adler, a dominatrix with a passion for making trouble, took a number of compromising pictures of herself with a female member of the royal family, Mycroft had Sherlock and John brought to Buckingham Palace to be briefed on the case and to assign them to recover the photos, which they failed to do. In their effort, American agents tried to get the phone, causing Sherlock to suspect Adler had more than compromising photos and that something big was coming, but Mycroft ordered him to leave the case be from then on and stay out of the way. For some time, he and the British government had been working on a counter-terrorism project with the US government to foil the efforts of terrorists to blow up an air-plane, and Mycroft didn't want Sherlock in the way after encountering the American agents involved. Mycroft was later informed on Christmas that he might find Adler dead, and had "her" brought to the morgue of St Bartholomew's Hospital for Sherlock to identify, after which he gave Sherlock a Christmas cigarette as he seemed sad at the idea of her death. When Sherlock left, Mycroft phoned John to see if there was any danger of Sherlock relapsing on drugs and ordered him to stay with him in case its a "danger night." However, Adler was still alive, and Mycroft didn't know at first, or that Adler was working for Jim Moriarty. On his behalf she later came to Baker Street and tricked Sherlock into deciphering an MOD official's email that proved the British and US governments knew the plane would be bombed. She texted Moriarty the information, who then informed the terrorists of governments' knowledge of the bombing plot, and Mycroft that their project had been exposed. With the counter-terrorism project foiled, Mycroft brought Sherlock to the plane to confront his unwitting aide in its failure and apologized for pushing him into Adler's path. She then arrived to confront Mycroft and tried to blackmail him and the government with her camera phone's contents, however, Sherlock finally cracked its password, gave it to Mycroft to make up for having ruined the project, and they refused Adler's plea for help despite knowing she won't be able to avoid her enemies for long without the phone's protection. When she was later apparently killed, Mycroft brought her file to Baker Street and gave it to John, them agreeing to tell Sherlock that Adler got herself into a witness protection program in America out of consideration for his brother's unspoken feelings for her. ("A Scandal in Belgravia")