Ominously, the last episode in this run, which airs on 15 January, is called The Final Problem – the name of the Conan Doyle story in which Holmes dies. Moffat and Gatiss told the same press conference that they were unsure if the remaining cast could be united for future series. But soon afterwards, it emerged that the context was uncanny: the actors had actually separated shortly before filming. It’s unclear how Gatiss specified the sound in the script but, for King Lear, it was written as the hardest line in theatre: “Howl, howl, howl, howl!”ĭuring a Q&A session after a premiere screening on 19 December, Freeman and Abbington discussed the weirdness of a real-life couple acting the tragic end of a relationship. And with Mary taking a bullet meant for Sherlock, Martin Freeman’s Watson let out an extended, escalating, animalistic moan. And thanks to the dramatic impact achieved by director Rachel Talalay, the murder of Mary matched the death of M in Skyfall.Ĭonfronted with a dead friend, her widower and their motherless baby, Cumberbatch’s face (mainly required to remain blank) painted a picture of pain and confusion. The episode felt very Bond overall – Holmes has never done so much running towards or away from explosions.
A new sub-plot involving the historical decisions of a villainous woman in Whitehall also logically seemed to lead to Thatcher, but the script again opted to give the BBC press office a quiet holiday. In one respect, Gatiss has even depoliticised the original, which is filled with references to immigrants and refugees, “the outcasts of Europe”. But the point, as Sherlock immediately realises, is that the vandal has no political motivation: he’s looking for something hidden inside a head. Here, the French emperor’s replacement with the former British prime minister has led to some muttering about the BBC’s supposed leftwing bias. The Arthur Conan Doyle story on which Gatiss based his script has busts of Napoleon being smashed by an intruder. But although the franchises have to some extent overlapped, both tending towards tragicomic love stories, viewers knew that as Amanda Abbington lay slain on the floor she would not shimmeringly regenerate into another actor. Such was their hunger, Doyle ended up being very well-paid indeed - and Holmes and Watson defied the death he had sent them to, and ended up retiring instead.īut what's the best way to read them? Here's our take on the essential way to navigate the Sherlock Holmes stories.Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss also work on Doctor Who, which was awarded the other prime seasonal slot on the BBC on Christmas Day. So Doyle turned to financial incentive in lieu of creative stasis, urging publishers to cough up for more Holmes stories. He takes my mind from better things." His mother - inadvertedly representing the voices of fiction fans the world over - was outraged. It even got to a point that Doyle himself was sick of his creation, writing to his mother in 1891: "I think of slaying Holmes. Nevertheless, he was no great age when he created the character who would make him famous as a writer - he was 27, and wrote A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's debut, in just three weeks.įrom that humble beginning, three Sherlock novels and five collections of short stories emerged. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Holmes in 1887, in the midst of a career as a doctor and botanist. Auguste Dupin and Monsieur Lecoq haven't become quite such familiar household names.
Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes isn't the first fictional detective to grace bookshelves, but C.