Sherlock,
Nine,
February 5 at 8.30pm
IT was the finale of all finales, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) fell to his death watched by his best friend and colleague John Watson (Martin Freeman) at the end of the second series of Sherlock almost two years ago.
Now surely the death of the main character – the titular character in this case – is the end of the road for the series, I mean can you have Sherlock without Sherlock?
Well no – but this is Sherlock Holmes and lets face it, he isn’t going to let a little thing like death stop him and so here we are back for series three of the brilliant modernised TV version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic books, written by Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffatt (when they aren’t working on Doctor Who).
It seems that our friend Sherlock didn’t really die and we learn in the first episode how he pulled off this deception – and it’s pretty clever but you wouldn’t expect anything less from two of the smartest writers in television.
Series three, which has been screening to huge numbers in the UK, picks up two years after Sherlock’s “death” and while Sherlock has been hiding, his London world has been going on withouth him.
His old friend has moved on and now has a new girlfriend played by Freeman’s real-life partner Amanda Abington. Amazingly Abington has received a lot of negative comments (and even reports of death threats) from fans who were eager to see Sherlock and Holmes ride off into the sunset or who believed it was stunt casting which is a real shame as Abington is an accomplished actress in her own right. And if you are wondering where you her credits include After Your Gone and Married Single Other among a long list of acting achievements.
But I digress – Sherlock needs his old friend’s help when his brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) investigates an underground terrorist network planning an attack somewhere in London.
Joining Cumberbatch and Freeman (who have both been busy filming something about Hobbits and dragons in New Zealand during the show’s hiatus) are all the old favourites including Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs), D.I. Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey), and a new nemesis for Sherlock: Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen).
It is so nice to see our old friend back – lets hope he is here to stay!
– TANIA PHILLIPS
