Brian Cox plays Ethan Lawrence Talbot's father in Penny Dreadful. Anthony Hopkins played Lawrence Talbot's father in The Wolfman (2010). Brian Cox played Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter (1986) and Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its sequels.
The surname of the female fencer (and thanatologist), Catriona Hartdegen, seems to be of German origin, and would translate to "hard épée".
In the late 1880s munitions makers quickly adopted the newfangled smokeless powder (there were several formulations). The old blackpowder created a lot of smoke and left a lot of grimey crud in the gun. That meant you couldn't just reload and keep firing; you frequently had to stop and clean out the crud. The new smokeless crudfree powder made possible semiautomatic guns, like Sir Malcoms Mauzer.