Dramatisation
In the BBC television series Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes was a fictionalised account of Doyle's time as Bell's clerk. The series exaggerated Bell's criminal investigations as well as the degree to which Holmes was based on Bell (played by Ian Richardson), and positioned Doyle in the role of a Dr. Watson to Bell's Holmes. The original one-off production – which led to the later series – was released on DVD and VHS in the US in 2003, titled Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle – The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes.
In 2006, Stone Publishing House published a book aimed at schoolchildren titled Dr Joseph Bell – the original Sherlock Holmes. Illustrated by Cheryl Ives, it was written by Kent historian Dr Robert Hume, who had previously authored books about Christopher Columbus and Perkin Warbeck.
In the Doctor Who episode "Tooth and Claw", the time travelling adventurer known as the Doctor identifies himself as an ex-student of Dr Bell to Queen Victoria.
The comic book Les dossiers du Professeur Bell by Joann Sfar is about the (fictional) supernatural adventures of Dr. Bell.
In episode 11, Season 5, of the Fox TV show House M.D., Wilson presents House with Joseph Bell's Manual Of the Operations of Surgery as a Christmas gift. The character of House is based on Holmes, who, as noted, was based in turn on Bell. When House's staff begin to wonder what dark meaning to put to House throwing away the expensive Christmas gift of the book, an amused Wilson begins making up a story about House having a brief, unhappy affair with a nurse named Irene Adler whom he will always consider "the woman".
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