After the now regular two-year wait between series, Sherlock returned on New Year's Day - but this time with a difference. For this instalment, Sherlock and co returned to their roots and were back in Victorian London, a move which caused many a viewer to exclaim 'WTF' in itself. Fans were surely preparing themselves for an episode that stripped away the usual Sherlock thrills and trickery and took the Great Detective back to basics. Well, if they did, they made a very bad deduction. In fact, the special - with the wonderfully lurid title of The Abominable Bride - was probably the most mind-bending, twisty-turny episode of the series to-date, with time travel, dreamscapes and drug trips abound. Far from being faithful, you can imagine Arthur Conan Doyle's moustache would spin round and round if he ever saw this wacky adaptation of his work. Needless to say, SPOILERS are meat and drink to this article from this point on.
13. Dr Hooper
The first twenty-odd minutes of the special do actually play out much as you would expect, with the usual Sherlock suspects being reintroduced in Victorian times. Lestrade is a muttonchopped bobbie, Mary is a frustrated housewife with an itch for more, Mrs Hudson is still complaining that she's not their housekeeper. And then we're introduced to a Victorian-ised Molly Hooper - an original character to the show - who is entirely different from the regular version. Rather than a timid mortuary attendant who is infatuated with the detective, she is now a doctor, has an argumentative relationship with Sherlock and, oh yes, pretends to be a man. It's a tough call but she might also sport a better moustache than Watson. But then this wasn't the only eyebrow-raising reinvention of a Sherlock favourite...
