It has become one of the BBC’s most successful creations, a reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterful detective and the courageous military doctor who records his adventures in London’s criminal underworld.

And on Friday, Sherlock looks set to cement its reputation as a global phenomenon, responsible for propelling the screen careers of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman into the stratosphere.

The New Year’s Day feature-length episode, The Abominable Bride, returns the contemporary adaptation back to its Victorian roots and will for the first time be aired in the UK and the US on the same day, as well as in cinemas around the world.

The special reflects how Sherlock has joined the ranks of event television alongside the likes of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and Mad Men, attracting an average of 12 million viewers for the third series in 2014.

Sherlock is a man who’s an outsider, who is incredibly efficient, but also has his weaknesses and comeuppances Benedict Cumberbatch

The BBC said in excess of 13 million people were expected to watch the 1 January episode, challenging the Downton Abbey finale and the Queen’s Christmas Day address as the most popular television during the festive period.

Sherlock was an immediate hit when it was first broadcast in 2010. Four years ago, its first New Year’s Day episode titillated viewers with the tale of a whip-wielding dominatrix who had compromising photos of a minor royal on her phone. This was a modern twist too far for some viewers, prompting 100 complaints.

But the programme has continued to break viewing records and garner accolades. It is now shown in more than 200 countries, including Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and has also proved wildly popular in China, where 98 million people were estimated to have watched the last series, despite it only being available online.

In the UK, nearly 10 million viewers tuned in to the first episode of series three in 2014 to find out how Holmes managed to fake his rooftop suicide, a plot turn that inspired countless fan theories and still attracts scrawled messages of support outside St Bartholomew’s hospital in central London.



The show has also provided its creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, with their second hit series for the corporation. Moffat took over as the executive producer of Doctor Who from Russell T Davies in 2010, with Gatiss working as a regular writer of the long-running sci-fi series.

Their interpretation of Sherlock has arguably proved a bigger hit with critics and fans than their handling of Doctor Who, which has seen its domestic audience decline amid complaints about Moffat’s convoluted metafictional narratives. Both shows have around 5m likes on Facebook, suggesting comparative international appeal. But the detective drama is not as lucrative for the BBC as Doctor Who, which is made in-house, because it is made by Hartswood Films, run by Beryl Vertue, mother of Sherlock producer Sue Vertue, who is married to Moffat.

Its two lead actors have become superstars. Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes, starred in Star Trek sequel Into Darkness in 2013 and will play the lead in Marvel’s Dr Strange next year, while Freeman, star of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, will take a role in another blockbuster comic adaptation, Captain America: Civil War.

Asked about Sherlock’s success earlier this year, Cumberbatch said Holmes had always had global appeal. “I don’t think this is a phenomenon tied in with our success. I think it’s to do with Conan Doyle’s extraordinary invention which has a universal appeal to all nationalities,” he said.

“This is a man who’s an outsider, who’s intelligent, who doesn’t tolerate mediocrity, who is incredibly efficient, but also has his weaknesses and comeuppances. You never know where it’s going to lead – there’s an endless amount of potential adventure.”

Production of new episodes is expected to begin in the spring of 2016. Moffat has said – half-jokingly – that the show will “continue until Benedict [Cumberbatch] gets too famous”.