Ever since the good folk at the BBC gave the greenlight to Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt’s adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective stories back in 2010 we’ve been completely hooked. Not least because the gigantic head and sexy curls they chose to squeeze into the famous deerstalker belonged to then little-known British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
The crazy, one-off, pseudo-Victorian, feature-length, mind-bending, time-hopping special episode The Abominable Bride sent our heads into a spin on 1 January 2016 and we still have questions. Is Moriarty really dead? Has Sherlock lost his mind? Is the whole series actually the drug-fuelled future imaginings of a Victorian Holmes? Mind. Blown.
But we’re ready now BBC. We were ready in April. We want more!
The good news: the fourth series has finished filming. The bad news: we still have to wait until January 2017 to actually watch it… but it sounds like it could well take things to another level. Here’s what we know.
We have an official Sherlock season 4 trailer! And it’s a cracker
Right, settle in. It opens with our old frenemy Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty creepily saying: "Did you miss me?" So, we may not have seen the last of him, either alive or perhaps on film.
We get the first glimpse of a new villain played by Toby Jones having a tense exchange with Sherlock while he sits in a car with Watson. That is before things ramp up with gunfire, explosions and couple of quick shots of Amanda Abbington with fetching dark hair.
Sherlock season 4 on air date?
It's the 1 January 2017. Woo hoo!
There’s a Bloodhound in it, which might be called Toby
Some shots from the set seemed to show a new addition to the cast with four fuzzy legs and great big jowls. Press shots have since confirmed the new addition to be an adorable Bloodhound.
This could well be derived from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s second novel The Sign Of Four where Holmes borrowed a dog called Toby to track down a pair of thieves. We’d love to hear Cumberbatch say: "I would rather have Toby’s help than that of the whole detective force in London" from Doyle’s original.
Cast news for Sherlock season 4
Confirmed returning cast aside from Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson, and the show’s co-creator Mark Gatiss as Mycroft. Plus:
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Amanda Abbington as Watson’s wife, Mary
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Rupert Graves as the clueless DI, Greg Lestrade
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Louise Brealey as love-struck pathologist Molly Hooper
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Una Stubbs as long-suffering landlady Mrs Hudson
We can’t say for sure whether Andrew Scott will be back this series, given Moriarty’s circumstances. But if the trailer’s anything to go by we won’t rule it out.
We can confirm that new villain Culverton Smith will be played by Toby Jones, will have terrible teeth and will be the most evil villain yet on the show. But how can Toby Jones be evil? He did the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films.
And Tom Hiddleston to play Sherlock’s other brother?
Rumours circulated earlier in the year about Thor and The Night Manager star Hiddleston taking on the role of the third Holmes brother, rumoured to be called Sherrinford Holmes. Swoon.
There’s still nothing solid, but show creator Mark Gatiss, who also plays Sherlock’s known brother Mycroft, tweeted this photo of himself and co star Amanda Abbington who plays Mary Morstan from Comic Con with the caption ‘Blud’. Viewers have also pointed to a Mycroft Holmes comment in the third series finale where he said: "I'm not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion. You know what happened to the other one." Intriguing.
However, BBC Store created a parody video cutting together scenes from existing Sherlock episodes with scenes from Tom Hiddlestone’s popular series The Night Manager. It’s hard to imagine that the BBC would create something like this if the real thing as actually is the pipeline but fingers crossed.
Toes crossed.
This series will be darker
The BBC have confirmed that: "Doctor Watson and his wife Mary prepare for their biggest ever challenge - becoming parents for the first time." While that sounds joyful, there’s still a worry that the character Mary doesn’t survive in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original. Cripes
Show creators Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss even told us at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego to expect: “dark stuff coming… tragedy as well as adventure.” Double cripes.
We have three names after the SDCC panel: Thatcher, Smith and Sherrinford
On the Sherlock panel featuring creators Steven Moffatt and Mark Gattiss, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, producer Sue Vertue, and Amanda Abbington, we were treated to three mysterious names:
Thatcher: Could this be a nod to one of the stories of Sherlock’s escapades on John Watson’s blog (created for the series) called The Six Thatchers?
Smith: This one’s clearer, given that it’s been revealed that Toby Jones will be playing the terrible villain Culverton Smith from original Sherlock Holmes tale The Dying Detective.
Sherrinford: Could this really be Sherlock and Mycroft’s previously unseen brother? The Sherlock fandom is getting whipped up into a frenzy about this one, but we might just have to wait and see… and hope it’s Tom Hiddleston. Please.
There’s a brilliant Sherlock parody video
And finally, internet parody creators The Hillywood Show have made the greatest musical, rap-based Sherlock parody that we never knew we wanted. It even has Steven Moffatt in it. Just watch it, it’s incredible.