Benedict Cumberbatch has spoken about how he deals with Sherlock's 'obsessive' fans.

The actor - who stars alongside Martin Freeman in the BBC drama - said that fan fiction is "part of the love people have for the show".



Speaking about the show's fans, he told The Independent on Saturday's Radar magazine: "They don't teach you how to deal with that.



"I had a friend who once squeezed her rabbit too much until it started to squeal and she thought it was kind of going, 'I love you', when it was really saying, of course, 'You are the reason I'm dying'.

"But what I love about the show is that there are lots of people who weren't outside the hotel today equally excited to see it and are just waiting for it as a quality piece of television."

Cumberbatch also admitted that social media has given a platform for Sherlock fan fiction, with some imagining Watson and Holmes as gay lovers.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

"The problem, of course, is he [Sherlock] uses social media and it gives a platform for this fan fiction, which is really creative but it's not really what we're doing...

"It's part of the love people have for the show even if a few of them are quite fanatical about it."

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.

Catch up on all the latest TV and Movies releases in Digital Spy's Screen Time:

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io