STAYING IN ‘What Conan Doyle created was pure gold’

HOLIDAY HOLMES So how did Sherlock survive? Henry Northmore searches for answers before the return of the BBC detective series

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E stablishing one biggest in British TV history, two of Sherlock climaxed with a shocking thud. A nation gasped as the titular ’tec (Benedict Cumberbatch) apparently plunged to his death while his faithful sidekick and sounding board Dr John Watson (Martin Freeman) looked on. We all kinda know old clever clogs did survive (that season three even exists is a pretty big clue, as is the title of the opening episode, ‘The Empty Hearse’) but how on earth did he do it?

‘It’s been a long time since Sherlock Holmes jumped off that roof,’ says executive producer, writer and co-creator Steven Moffat. ‘It’s time to reveal the truth about what happened between him and the pavement.’ Given how big the show is, it’s unsurprising that

44 THE LIST 12 Dec 2013–23 Jan 2014

no one involved is willing to reveal how Sherlock managed to get out of this seemingly inescapable conundrum. So, we’ll all just have to wait a little longer for series three to screen at the New Year to see how Sherlock’s formidable intellect saved him from the jaws of certain death. Sherlock Holmes is one of the most enduring characters in all of i ction. Countless i lms, TV programmes and plays have been adapted from the source material. This modern retelling was perhaps one of the most radical, taking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tales of mystery and reinterpreting them for a contemporary audience. ‘Sherlock’s a mass of contradictions and that makes him fascinating,’ says Mark Gatiss, who not only plays Sherlock’s brother Mycroft but also co-created this new vision of Holmes. ‘He’s cold, aloof, arrogant and

dangerous, so therefore absolutely magnetically attractive. It works in real life as well, but ultimately people would not remember Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson if Conan Doyle had not been a genius writer; what he created was pure gold.’ Unlike Guy Ritchie’s recent movies, which recast Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes as an action hero, Cumberbatch’s Sherlock relies on superior intelligence and reasoning rather than quick i sts to beat any criminal. Moffat and Gatiss have thrown Sherlock against some i endish villains and dastardly dilemmas while their wonderfully visual approach revealed just how Sherlock’s mind works.

The show also works due to perfect casting with Cumberbatch as the detached driven genius and Freeman adding the everyman charm. Their