‘Sherlock fans will be floored’ Amanda Abbington opens up about the fourth series
As the show's stars explain why this is the most devastating – and thrilling – series of Sherlock so far
Given that it’s the most talked-about drama on British TV, it’s no surprise that the cast of Sherlock get just as excited about the show as its fans.
But as TV Magazine joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington on set during filming of the three-part fourth series, we’ve never seen them so fired up about what they’re making.
As the trio pop in to see us, one by one,and reveal as much as they dare about what’s coming our way this New Year’s Day, they give the 300 devoted fans camped out on the road – having given up their Sunday just to see Benedict walk in and out of 221B Baker Street – a run for their money.
“There were a couple of times with this series that I’ve been walking round the kitchen an hour after reading the script, I’ll put the kettle on and just think: ‘F***ing hell!’” admits Martin who, like his character John Watson, is not a man prone to overstatement.
“I’ve been in a daze from reading a script so good that I can’t quite believe it.”
“I can’t wait for you all to see it,” beams Amanda, who plays Martin's on-screen wife, Mary Watson.
“I hope Benedict and Martin are bigging up this series as much as I am because it is really, really good. Sherlock fans will be floored.”
Benedict, 40, does his best to keep a lid on things in a professional way and avoids leaking any spoilers, but even he can barely contain his excitement.
“I’m allowed to tell you that there are a huge number of pay-offs,” he hints.
“It’s nice to be doing it again, but it’s always better when you’re doing something you’re familiar with and think you know, just to have everything ripped from beneath you and feel like you’re,in many ways, starting the character again.
“There is a lot that gets thrown at Sherlock this time. You see very new and different sides to him.
"If you were to put Sherlock in a psychiatrist’s chair at the start of this series, you would be faced with someone who is in a lot of trouble.
"But it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what is to come…”
To recap, after last year’s New Year special – in which the gang ‘time-travelled’ back to Victorian England, only for it to be revealed that the whole episode was one of Sherlock’s drug-induced problem-solving musings – we are now back in the real world as Holmes and Watson investigate the apparent back-from-the-dead reappearance of arch-enemy Moriarty that ended series three.
If that wasn’t enough to deal with, John and Mary are also now proud parents to a baby girl, Rosamund – with Sherlock as potential babysitter.
“Having a baby is another shift further down that road between John and Mary,” admits Martin, 45.
“I guess we’ll see how that changes the dynamic of the central relationship in the show. But we know that it can’t change too much because: a) the show is called Sherlock, and: b) the central thing of the show is Sherlock and John.
It’s not Sherlock, John and anyone else – not even Mary. At the same time, and we’re not making a documentary here, if it’s to be vaguely realistic, John has to care more about his missus and baby than anything else.”
The appearance of Mary in the third series proved to be a success among almost all but a few hardcore Watson and Sherlock fans.
“There are five per cent of viewers who absolutely hate Mary and wish that she be tortured and die horribly,” reflects Amanda, 42, “because she’s come between Sherlock and John. But actually, she brings them together.
"She wants them to go off on adventures. But it’s been nice for me this series because Mary gets to do lots of different things.
“Of course, I first read the script thinking: ‘Please don’t let me die.’ Then you get to the end of the episode and you’re like: ‘Thank God, she’s still here!’ I love playing Mary. She’s a fantastic character and, particularly in this series, you get to understand her a lot more.”
As usual, we’d be shot if we revealed any of this year’s big secrets, but Amanda thinks that’s partly why there’s still such a buzz around the show after three series.
She lost her rag on Twitter with one fan who tried to enlarge a picture Amanda posted of herself holding a script, to see what was on the first page.
“I got really angry about that because I thought it was a really s***ty thing to do,” she says.
“But I spoke to the boy who did it and he was really sorry. The thing is, it might have said: ‘Enter Moriarty’ or: ‘John gets shot,’ or any manner of things.
"In Sherlock, there are so many twists and turns that I think: ‘Why would you want to know that now?’ I know it’s frustrating, waiting.
"We all want stuff so immediately now, but just wait because it’s going to be so beautiful when it happens.”
Benedict says he’s as excited as anyone at the prospect of settling down to watch the debut episode for the first time on New Year’s Day.
“There’s something about a family sitting around a television set – this sounds very old-fashioned – on the night it airs and watching it,” he smiles.
“I think, as the viewing figures showed last year [8.4 million watched that evening], you can still have this phenomenal event.”
Ready when you are, Holmes.
NEW! Sherlock New Year’s Day 8.30pm BBC1