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Official release poster

Enola Holmes is a Legendary Pictures film, based on the book series of the same name by Nancy Springer, written by Jack Thorne, co-produced and featuring Millie Bobby Brown and directed by Harry Bradbeer. It stars Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock Holmes' teenage sister Enola, with Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes and Helena Bonham Carter as Enola's mother Eudoria. Enola discovers her mother missing and she sets off to find her, becoming a sleuth as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.

In June 2020 Arthur Conan Doyle's estate sued in the USA Netflix, Springer, Legendary Pictures, Thorne, Bradbeer and Penguin Random House for breach of intellectual property rights.^[1]

It is listed for release on Netflix on 23 September 2020, delayed by the 2020 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Filming

Filming took place between Kidderminster and Arley from 14 to 17 July with that area of the railway closed to the public. Passenger services ran between Bridgnorth and Highley using a special 'Timetable D'.

Preparations for filming began the week before. At Kidderminster parts of the concourse were repainted from their normal GWR colours into maroon, while posters and other props appeared referring to Basilwether station. The station buildings at Arley were repainted green with the station sporting a 'Ferndell' running-in board.

On 17 July, the final day of filming, an early morning train ran from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth while a helicopter took aerial shots. Although set in 1884, the train was an early 20th century consist of 2857 with the Toplights set of 3930, 9055, 6913 and 9103. It did not include 'Siphon G' 1257 which was part of the set used for filming at Arley.

The SVR was contractually bound not to publicise the filming or the film being shot, although photos from publically accessible viewpoints showed the changed station names and allowed the film to be identified. In June 2020, 'First look' articles about the Enola Holmes film, including still images, first appeared in the press and on YouTube. One of the images shows Enola, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes on a station platform in front of a GWR toplight carriage. The photograph was taken on Platform 1 at Arley (features such as the Station Bridge and reflections of the station buildings and signal can be identified), with the carriage being 3930.

Further pre-release publicity in August 2020 also showed information to be in the public domain, and to be published.

A previous Sherlock Holmes movie was filmed on the SVR in 1976, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.