Is the modern Sherlock Holmes as big a hero as the classic James Bond? Steven Moffat, co-creator of the hit BBC1 reboot, has suggested he might be – and that Benedict Cumberbatch is a “star” rather than merely a skilled actor.


”The difference between stars and just great actors is that stars can make parts into them, rather than themselves into parts; they make those people them,” Moffat told the Sydney Morning Herald, ahead of the Australian premiere of Sherlock series two. ”They never quite play it like you expect them to, so it becomes very much Benedict’s Sherlock. Look at how Sean Connery owned James Bond.”

The interview also saw Moffat recall how writing duties were divvied up for the show’s three-episode 2012 run – he and co-creator Mark Gatiss spent a lot of time agonising over who would bring The Hound of the Baskervilles up to date, Moffat said.

”Obviously we were both eyeing Baskervilles – that’s the one, isn’t it? Suddenly, we were in a place where neither of us was writing it and we were thinking of farming it out. I kept looking at Mark and every time he talked about Baskervilles his eyes lit up, so I thought he should be the one to write that,” Moffat remembered.

”I think he was right for that one, in the same way that I was right for [A Scandal in Belgravia], which has a twisted love story,” Moffat went on.

”I’ve written quite a lot of tormented relationships in my time and liked it. I like doing the non-love story… it felt like something I was inspired to do.”


Anyway, back to Benedict Cumberbond, as we now call him in the office. Just for fun…