After escaping to the moon, Gwen refers to the now ancient Lunar Revolt ( as described in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress ) and Mike ( Mycroft ), the self-aware computer responsible for the uprising's victory, and claims to have been present during the revolt ; despite her claim that she was only a girl at the time, Campbell grows suspicious, and learns that she is a rejuvenation of the revolution's most prominent female leader.

Following his supposed death ( indicated, but not clearly portrayed, as he " falls " into the sky while clutching the Cavorite ), he was ironically succeeded as " M " by Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother.

* Captain “ Padre ” Mycroft ( Roger Livesey ) was a quartermaster dismissed for public gross indecency.

The portrait of Hyde's wife ( he comments " I regret to say the bitch is still going strong ") is a close copy of a portrait of Deborah Kerr which was used in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp in which Roger Livesey ( The Leagues " Padre " Mycroft ) also starred.

Sherlock's birth date is given as 1854 in His Last Bow, and if Mycroft was " seven years his ( Sherlock's ) senior ", then Mycroft would have been born in 1847.

* In the BBC radio dramatisations with Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, Mycroft was played at various times by Malcolm Graeme, Keith Williams, Felix Felton and-in " The Empty House "-by Carleton Hobbs himself.

* The first film appearance of Mycroft Holmes was in the 1922 film The Bruce Partington Plans, where he was played by Lewis Gilbert.

* In the Billy Wilder-directed film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes ( 1970 ), which starred Robert Stephens as Sherlock, Mycroft was played by Christopher Lee ( who also played Sherlock Holmes in other productions before and since ).

* The 1975 film The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes ' Smarter Brother, starring Gene Wilder as Holmes ' younger brother " Sigerson Holmes ," was inspired by Mycroft ( he is mentioned, but doesn't appear ).

The action takes place in 1875, ten years after the end of the American Civil War, at the time when Mycroft Holmes was a minor official in the Foreign Office.

The Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield was then reunited with Mycroft in the 2008 audio play The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel where he was voiced by David Warner.

* Mycroft was parodied in the Solar Pons series with a character named Bancroft Stoneham Pons, who was also seven years older than the leading protagonist.

* Mycroft Holmes was the inspiration for the name of the silent assistant quiz master of BBC Radio 4's programme Brain of Britain.

Ian Gillies ( who was known as Mycroft ) died in 2002 and was replaced by a character known as " Jorkins ".

* At one point it was planned for Gregory House to have an elder brother who was based on Mycroft, in much the same way that House is based on Sherlock.

During all this time, the only people who knew that Holmes was alive were Moriarty's henchmen and Holmes's brother Mycroft.

He was appointed to the position on the death of Ian Gillies, who worked under the pen-name ' Mycroft '.

The concept, while easily countered by ' Mistletoe ' missiles ( a variation of the ' skipper ' missiles seen in the movie Wing Commander ), is nonetheless the inspiration for the Manticoran development of the ' Mycroft ' defensive weapon system in A Rising Thunder.

Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of memory-man or walking database for all aspects of government policy.

Mycroft is described as even more gifted than Sherlock in matters of observation and deduction, but he lacks Sherlock's drive and energy, preferring to spend his time at ease in the Diogenes Club, described as " a club for the most un-clubbable men in London ".

His exposure by Mycroft and Sherlock leads to his suicide to avoid arrest, for which Professor Moriarty blames the Holmes brothers, and provides an explanation as to the antagonism between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty.

Another story, " The Adventure of the Greek Invertebrate " ( a play on " The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter ", the story that introduced Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft ), features Professor Moriarty's brothers, the colonel and the station master, and offers an explanation for the lack of variety in their forenames.

Though Sherlock initially tells Watson that Mycroft audits books for some government departments, he later reveals that Mycroft's true role is more substantial.

Mycroft is portrayed as a senior figure in the British Secret Service, who occasionally calls on Russell and Holmes for assistance in specific cases.

* Mycroft has a small but extremely important role in Ray Walsh's novel The Mycroft Memoranda, published in London by Andre Deutsch, 1984 ( ISBN 0-233-97582-9 ), in which Sherlock Holmes, at the request of Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner for the City of London, becomes involved in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.

Through the series, Mycroft is steadfastly determined to capture her while Sherlock gradually grows to respect her considerable talents and begins to understand her reasons for her defiance.

" He expands upon this reference in the series finale when he assumes the role of math / science expert for the FBI in place of Charlie Eppes saying, "... like Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes, I prefer to do the conceptualizing, leaving the grunt work to others.

* In the Honor Harrington novel A Rising Thunder, the name Mycroft is used as the code designation for a new Manticoran missile fire control system to be deployed for system defense, based somewhat upon the Havenites ' ' Moriarty ' system ( the name of which is a reference to Professor Moriarty ), but incorporating all of the newest Manticoran missile control technologies, and better dispersed than ' Moriarty ' had been.

The plot of the short story – Holmes and Watson attempting to recover incriminating photos from Adler – is covered briefly in the first half of the episode updated for the contemporary period ( Adler's photos are stored digitally on her mobile phone ) and adjusted ( the royal they incriminate is British and female ); the episode then moves on to an original storyline that includes Adler, Mycroft Holmes ( Mark Gatiss ) and Jim Moriarty.

Colonel Valentine shows up and is stunned to find Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, and Mycroft all waiting for him.

The story was adapted for a 1988 episode of the television series The Return of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Doctor Watson and Charles Gray as Mycroft Holmes.

Mycroft, as Watson learns, does not have the energy of his younger brother and as a consequence is incapable of using his great skills for detective work:

Sidhu Jyatha, whose formal name is Shiddeshwar Basu, is an aged character who has described himself to be like Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft, living on Sardar Sankar Road, Lake Market, Kolkata.

Eventually, it just " woke up " and was given the name Mycroft Holmes by the technician who tended it.

For many years Ian Gillies fulfilled the role, taking the name Mycroft ( from Mycroft Holmes, older and wiser brother of Sherlock ).

His character name was taken from Arthur Conan Doyle's Mycroft Holmes, the smarter older brother of Sherlock Holmes.

Mycroft Holmes is a character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

* The character of the Marquis of London in Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories, while mostly based on Nero Wolfe, also has elements of Mycroft, in that he is a government official related to the detective and, while just as intelligent as his relative, has little interest in using his intellect to solve crimes.

Mycroft appears as a major character in " The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter " and in this story.

Colin Dexter, known for writing the Inspector Morse novels, wrote a short story based on this called " A Case of Mis-Identity ", in which Holmes's brother Mycroft is involved in the case's deduction ; in this story, Holmes's theory about the ' Hosmer Angel ' character is the same, while Mycroft deduces that ' Hosmer Angel ' is a fiction created by the mother and daughter to eliminate the step-father, only for Watson to reveal that ' Hosmer Angel ' is actually a real person who suffered an attack due to an illness on the way to his wedding and was treated by Watson shortly before the case was officially presented to Holmes.

* Mycroft Next, a character from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of books

In the 1950s, Gielgud was involved in directing a run of Sherlock Holmes radio plays starring his brother John as the lead character, with Ralph Richardson as Dr Watson and Gielgud himself once appearing as Mycroft Holmes.

This also happens to other classic novels-Uriah Heep becomes the obsequious, and generally insincere character we know, due to an accident inside the book-world and Thursday's uncle Mycroft becomes Sherlock Holmes's brother.

The film's title and premise are a joke referring to the character of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes ' older brother, who was by both of their estimates a good deal smarter than Sherlock.