Brand new Sherlock trailer is here – and Benedict Cumberbatch wears PLAID

A brand new extended trailer of the Sherlock Christmas special has dropped – and we now know it'll air on Friday 1 January 2016 on BBC1.

In the two-minute teaser video for The Abominable Bride, Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson meet a woman in a wedding dress who's seemingly hell-bent on murder.

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She pulls a gun in the middle of the street and starts shooting at someone, leaving the pair to work out what's gone on.

After the excitement of the third series of Sherlock, this time round the crime-solving duo have travelled back in time to the Victorian age, presumably just so we can see DI Greg Lestrade (played by Rupert Graves) with sideburns.

The twosome also meet up with old favourites Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) and Watson's wife Mary Morstan (played by Martin Freeman's real-life partner Amanda Abbington) – and, of course, Sherlock's infamous deerstalker hat.

While The Abominable Bride isn't strictly canon, it does seem to be based on a remark made by Holmes in the original Sherlock stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss revealed this upcoming episode is a spin on a case referred to in the short story The Musgrave Ritual, when Sherlock says to Watson:

Hmm.

There's no mention of James 'Jim' Moriarty, who appeared to be back in the final episode of the third Sherlock series last year, but Sherlock does refer to an ongoing "war" in this trailer.

What do you think of the Victorian-style throwback? Let us know over at @heatworld.