Save some champagne: Sherlock will return on New Year’s Day. Which, obviously, means Sherlock himself is alive. Which, in turn, should mean that we’re in for a crazy good explanation of how he survived his tumble off the side of St Bart’s at the end of Series 2. Speaking to ShortList, the man who plays him, Benedict Cumberbatch, was in no mood to reveal spoilers, but said we’re “in for a treat”.
So, what do we know?
Well, after Sherlock’s untimely ‘demise’, his wingman John Watson (Martin Freeman) is channelling his boundless grief into an excellent Magnum PI moustache, and getting on with his relationship with girlfriend Mary (Freeman’s real-life partner Amanda Abbington). This peace and quiet is shattered by the return of his pal. Says Freeman: “If you can imagine you thought someone you loved [was dead], and it transpires they’re not, it’s a huge piece of news.”
Cumberbatch adds that this massive news may not be broken in the most socially adept way: “He is Sherlock, so he doesn’t necessarily go about introducing himself back into John’s life in the best way possible.”
Co-creator Mark Gatiss also had this message for the impatient fans waiting for the explanation behind Sherlock’s ‘resurrection’: “Conan Doyle threw him off a waterfall and left him for 10 years. We left it two and a half minutes before saying he’s back. And there’s that old adage – ‘the suspense is killing me, I hope it lasts’.”
Looks like we’ll just have to bide our time on the big reveal, but maybe if we stare at these exclusive shots long enough, it will reveal some secrets. Like a detective-based Magic Eye.
Sherlock Series 3 starts 1 January 2014 on BBC One
UK Prime Minister responds to Chinese Sherlock fans’ request for speedier series
Remember our news from last week that a request from Chinese Sherlock fans to UK Prime Minister David Cameron to see if he could get production on future series accelerated was the most popular post on his Weibo page?
Well, that request was put to him on camera during his visit to China.
You can view the full thing on this link (though be aware buffering speed for the video may be extended based upon your location. The question is posed about 2 minutes in) but the Prime Minister’s response is replicated in full below.
"Well I know that Benedict is hugely popular in China, he’s a big star. Sadly I can’t tell them what to do as it’s an independent company, but I know how popular Sherlock Holmes is and the modern adaptation is a brilliant adaptation. Of course people can always go back and read the original Conan Doyle stories which are wonderful , but I will do everything I can to say that people in China want more of Sherlock Holmes and more of the modern version."
We can imagine a probable sigh of relief from the team at Hartswood Films at that…
I was going through my phone and I found a few pictures I'd taken during some of our cases.
It might seem a bit odd but I've hardly any pictures of him. I remember him once saying how everybody was so busy photographing their lives for Facebook and Twitter that they were forgetting how to live. 'I'm far too busy to be instagramming, John!' He was annoyed at the time because Mrs Hudson was going through this phase of taking photos of her breakfast. Buying her a laptop for Christmas was probably the biggest mistake of our lives. That was the Christmas he managed to offend most of our guests, I got dumped and he met The Woman.
Best Christmas I've ever had, actually.
So, yeah, here are a few pictures.
This one is from when we were investigating a smuggling ring. It feels like so long ago.
It looks like some graffiti but it was actually a secret code. It was all secret codes back in those days. It was around then that Sherlock was getting these anonymous messages. Of course, we know now who they were from.
Not long after, Sherlock did his own bit of graffiti.
This was on the wall of our living room. Mrs Hudson was not amused. But she didn't have time to worry about it too much as a few minutes later a bomb exploded across the road.
And that was the beginning of what we ended up calling 'The Great Game'
This guy was Kenny Prince. He was the brother of Connie Prince (See Connie Prince's website for those of you who can't remember her). I took photos of him while undercover as a journalist during the whole Great Game thing. He had the ugliest cat I've ever seen.
And from cats to dogs... Do you see what I did there?
This was Henry Knight's house. He'd come to see us because his Dad had been killed by a giant devil dog. Which sounds mad but the truth was even madder. That was in Hounds of Baskerville. Nice house though!
The following pictures are from our last case. Which I never typed up. I don't want to type it up. I probably never will. Because that's too final.
But you know what happened? Sherlock saved the lives of two kids. Regardless of anything else, he did that. And they didn't even like him very much. If you really think that he was guilty or that Moriarty wasn't real then feel free to explain this.
But this is meant to be a positive thing. I'm not dwelling on the bad stuff. I'm remembering the good times.
Such as how much he loved this hat...
He adored that hat so much.
And, of course, Cluedo.
He liked playing Cluedo. So did I. Before I played it with him. He actually deduced that the victim had done it.
He deduced that the victim had faked his own death.
I said at the time that it wasn't very likely. In fact, I think I said it was impossible. And he told me that it might be improbable but nothing's impossible.
Post time 5-12-2013 01:05 PM
