BBC's Sherlock Gets Third Series

By Matt Holmes / January 16, 2012

Sherlock is to return for a third series, the creators have confirmed. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss both broke the news via Twitter just after the finale of the second series aired in the UK last night. Moffat; "Of course there's going to be a third series - it was commissioned at the same time as the second. Gotcha!" Gatiss; "Gotcha! And of course there'll be a third series!" As I'm sure you all know, Sherlock is the contemporary take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's super sleuth detective Sherlock Holmes and stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. The creators of the show had been cagey about a third series being commissioned, as too was co-star Martin Freeman who said in a recent appearance on BBC's One Show that a third season was less sure than a second one was after the airing of the first, but it sounds like they had a plan all along to bring it back. Indeed last night's episode "The Reichenbach Fall" was consciously alluding to Conan Doyle's The Final Solution where Holmes and arch-enemy Professor Moriarty appear to fall to their deaths in Switzerland, the novel in which the author tried to kill off his creation so he wouldn't have to write any more books about him and could go on to write 'better things'. This helped bring a sense that the Sherlock series was coming to a close. Sherlock has been a big ratings winner for the BBC with 8.8 million watching the opening episode of its latest three part run on New Year's Day and 7.9 million returning to watch last night. Though don't expect a quick return for the series. Both actors are busy in Hollywood (Freeman on The Hobbit which is still filming in New Zealand and will have lengthy press rounds this year and Cumberbatch has just been cast in the Star Trek sequel)