It has become one of the BBC’s most successful creations, a reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterful detective and the courageous military doctor who records his adventures in London’s criminal underworld.
And later today, Sherlock looks set to cement its reputation as a global phenomenon, responsible for propelling the screen careers of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman into the stratosphere.
The New Year’s Day feature-length episode, The Abominable Bride, returns the contemporary adaptation back to its Victorian roots and will for the first time be aired in the UK and the US on the same day, as well as in cinemas around the world.
The special reflects how Sherlock has joined the ranks of event television alongside the likes of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and Mad Men, attracting an average of 12 million viewers for the third series last year.
The BBC said more than 13 million people were expected to watch today’s episode, challenging the Downton Abbey finale and the Queen’s Christmas Day address as the most popular television during the festive period.
Sherlock was an immediate hit when it was first broadcast in 2010. Four years ago, its first New Year’s Day episode titillated viewers with the tale of a whip-wielding dominatrix who held compromising photographs of a minor royal on her cell phone. This was a modern twist too far for some viewers, prompting 100 complaints.
However, the program has continued to break viewing records and garner accolades. It is now shown in more than 200 countries, including Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and has also proved wildly popular in China.
In the UK, nearly 10 million viewers tuned in to the first episode of series three last year to find out how Holmes managed to fake his rooftop suicide, a plot turn that prompted countless fan theories and still attracts scrawled messages of support outside St Bartholomew’s hospital in central London.
The show has also catapulted its two lead actors into super stardom. Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes, starred in Star Trek sequel Into Darkness in 2013 and will play the lead in Marvel’s Dr Strange next year, while Freeman, star of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, will take a role in another blockbuster comic adaptation, Captain America: Civil War.
Asked about Sherlock’s success earlier last year, Cumberbatch said Holmes had always had worldwide appeal.
“I don’t think this is a phenomenon tied in with our success. I think it’s to do with Conan Doyle’s extraordinary invention, which has a universal appeal to all nationalities,” he said. “This is a man who’s an outsider, who’s intelligent, who doesn’t tolerate mediocrity, who is incredibly efficient, but also has his weaknesses and comeuppances. You never know where it’s going to lead — there’s an endless amount of potential adventure.”
Production of new episodes is expected to begin in the spring of this year.
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