Steven Moffat has admitted that Louise Brealey's performance as Molly Hooper in his and Mark Gatiss's adaptation of Sherlock made them break their first rule of not introducing new regular characters.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other journalists, the show's co-creators discussed the impact of Brealey's character on their version of Arthur Conan Doyle's classics.

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"She's really interesting, Molly, because she was an absolute one-scene character for the pilot but Loo Brealy was just so fantastic," Moffat said.

"We went against our first decision which was 'We will not add a regular that's not from Doyle'. The first thing we did was add a regular character that's not from Doyle!"

He continued: "I think she's fascinating because over time, certainly by the time you get to the second series, she wins every encounter with Sherlock.

"All the time, always. And by being honest and truthful with him. He's so on the back foot now with Molly, I think it's hilarious.

"In a way that John can never put Sherlock on the back foot, Molly really, really does. She sort of wins every single conversation."

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Gatiss added: "It's a fascinating thing because it's a new idea. We were doing the pilot and I said, 'What if she has a boyfriend and Sherlock says he's gay?'.

"That rolled on to the whole thing with Jim and it massively expanded. It's so much to do with Loo's interpretation making it so heartwarming."

Moffat agreed: "It's extraordinary. What you don't get a lot of in the original stories is, 'What do women think of him?'.

"They don't talk much in the original stories. It doesn't happen much. There's Irene Adler who he barely meets in the original. There's Mrs Hudson who just brings tea in.

"It was fun to have that perspective on him, what would a modern young woman make of this vulnerable monster."

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Gatiss said of the audience response to Molly: "You could imagine that the audience might not like her, that maybe the girls who like Benedict [Cumberbatch] might not, but they adore her."

Cumberbatch said of Molly and Sherlock's changing relationship: "It's a beautiful thing. It's just a lovely thing.

"She's extraordinary. She's a wonderful actress, Louise Brealey. So it's really good fun, that strain of it. All the characters feature more. All of them are back and all of them play a role."

Asked how much Molly - like John - is a way into the Sherlock character for the audience, he said: "You'd have to ask Loo. But I imagine so from what I hear. She sort of represents a few people out there.

"They feel like her about someone in their lives who's blissfully cruel to their advances."



He added: "It's also about what she has, which is independence. She may be quiet, she may be retiring but she's a strong woman at the same time.

"Just because she's fallen for a couple of sociopaths doesn't necessarily rule her out as a sane and courageous and strong woman."

Asked about the different role of women in Moffat and Gatiss's Sherlock compared to the original novels, Martin Freeman said: "Well I suppose they do definitely have more to do.

"Even though we're doing it in 2013 and it's contemporary, they're obviously extremely respectful of Conan Doyle but they can't be hamstrung by it. It has to be our own version."

He continued: "Because it's 2013, rightly women are going to have more input in the show but at the same time it doesn't really impinge much on John and Sherlock because there has to be that relationship in a way.

"Also because Sherlock's attitude towards humanity, including women, is what it is, which is pretty dismissive. John is a lot more open to humanity and women, certainly open to women!"



Freeman added: "Sherlock's pretty dismissive of everybody regardless of gender so it doesn't really affect John and Sherlock

"They are a very very tight unit those two, which I guess is where the thing of them being a couple comes in, it's a pretty short walk to go there.

"John also tries to live a reasonably 3D life whereas Sherlock is totally focused on the job in hand.

"So he doesn't really listen to Mrs Hudson. He uses Molly Hooper when he needs to.

"It's not that he's a monster, he's not a monster at all but he's fixated. I guess by John Watson's terminology, he's a psychopath."



Of working with his own real-life partner Amanda Abbington, who has been cast as Mary Morstan - John Watson's love interest and eventual wife in the Arthur Conan Doyle books - Freeman said: "It's been lovely, it's been really really nice.

"She's known [show producer] Sue Vertue and Mark Gatiss for a very long time and they wanted her to be in it, which is fine by me.

"She's a really good actor, I know how good she is and I know how easy she is to work with and I'm a big fan of hers as a craftsperson. So yeah, she's wonderful!"

Sherlock will return for a third series on January 1, 2014 at 9pm on BBC One.

A special mini-episode of Sherlock, titled 'Many Happy Returns', will also debut on Christmas Day via the BBC's interactive Red Button service.

Sherlock series three - photo gallery:

Sherlock Series 3

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