The play takes place in the rooms at 221B Baker Street (one of London’s most memorable addresses besides Buckingham Palace!) and the set catches the mood perfectly portraying the rooms as rather gloomy and dusty, surrounded by shelves of books, well read and thumbed, an untidy desk and few comforts. In short it tells the tale of two crusty old bachelors cohabiting. Holmes is a man of eccentric habits and needing to find a companion to help fund the costs of the rooms he comes upon Watson, a medical researcher at Barts, retired injured from the war, more or less as alone in the world as Holmes.

As well as dark drama (Holmes addiction to both cocaine and morphine is discussed and frowned on by Watson, both for the damage it will do to his friend’s brilliant mind and his health and the moral connotations of it) there are many lighter sides to the play. At the beginning when Watson comes to view the rooms, Holmes avers that they should each list their shortcomings as a flatmate and whilst doing so just as Watson is about to sit down, he barks tersely "that’s my chair" so we are left in no doubt regarding Holmes’s tetchiness.

During the course of the play much is revealed about the relationship between Holmes and Watson. During their association Watson was married although his wife subsequently died, and Holmes has a brother called Mycroft (Sherlock and Mycroft - what were their parents thinking?) who is almost as eccentric as Holmes, belonging to the Diogenes Club, where no members are allowed to speak, except in the Strangers Room.