The news that Sherlock series three is to start shooting was dropped by Martin Freeman on Thursday night, as he joined Graham Norton during the host's marathon talk show for Comic Relief. Freeman told Norton that the series is to begin filming
"the week after next". Details were otherwise, understandably lacking for the forthcoming series, though Freeman has read the "brilliant" script for the first episode. Meant to explain how Sherlock survived the fall of last year's finale, Freeman claims that even with the script he hasn't worked out the mystery. Further news comes from Twitter as regular Sherlock director, Paul McGuigan, regretfully informs his followers that he won't be directing. McGuigan, who has directed four of the six Sherlock episodes already produced,
is signed up to a new silver-screen production of Frankenstein, and is currently location scouting for that project.
Toronto to New York...scouting for locations. I guess by now you've worked out that sadly I won't be directing the next season of #Sherlock. Paul McGuigan (@paul_mcguigan) March 9, 2013
The new series of Sherlock will see the reunion of Freeman with co-star Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the titular character. Both actors are currently enjoying incredible film careers of their own with Freeman starring in The Hobbit films as lead character, Bilbo Baggins, and Cumberbatch taking the role of villain in Star Trek Into Darkness which is set for release this Summer. Yet despite these marvellous highlights to two fantastic acting careers, there are many who'll be happier to see them reunited as Sherlock and Watson. Questions remain as to the content of the episodes. Writer, Mark Gatiss,
has previously revealed his eagerness to invent adversaries of his own to pit Sherlock against, rather than adapting further characters from the literature. It's a questionable move, though not necessarily a bad one. The show is sure to be spectacular at any rate, given the sterling run of previous series. With such a rich character to explore and a wonderful cast with which to do so, it would be difficult to disappoint. This is definitely a series worth getting excited about.