With a hugely successful first series under his belt and a second three-parter currently filming, Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss has hinted that a Christmas special could be next on his agenda.


“I love [the story] The Blue Carbuncle,” he told RadioTimes.com. “I’d love to use it as the basis for a Sherlock Christmas special!”

He couldn’t have chosen a Sherlock Holmes adventure that better captures the magic of Christmas.

Set against the backdrop of snowy Victorian London, the tale of a stolen gemstone and a missing Christmas goose is as perfect a festive tale as you could hope to find.

For now, Gatiss is engrossed in shooting a second series, set to air early next year.

“Sherlock [Benedict Cumberbatch] and John [Martin Freeman] are still in the early days of their immortal friendship,” he says, “and Moriarty is still out there, in the shadows…

“We’re doing our versions of three of the most famous stories. The Woman. The Hound. The Fall.”

“The Woman” is Irene Adler, the only member of her sex to have bested Holmes (a rare feat whatever your gender). She earns Holmes’s undying respect in the first of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories, A Scandal in Bohemia, which Gatiss and co-creator Moffat are moving to Belgravia.

“The Hound” is, of course, the curse of the Baskerville clan, and the centre of the most iconic Holmes adventure. The intriguing difference in Sherlock is that the “Hound” becomes “Hounds”…

“The Fall” that concludes series two refers to Holmes and Moriarty’s apparently fatal plunge to the base of Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls. Conan Doyle called the story The Final Problem but its enigmatic ending allowed him to resurrect Holmes following the public outcry at his demise.

Given Gatiss’s enthusiasm, the final instalment in series two is likely to be a way of managing the fickle and unpredictable nature of television commissioning rather than a definite end to Sherlock.


And if this series receives the same kind of reception as the first – viewing figures averaging eight million per episode and a best drama series Bafta – perhaps Gatiss’s reward will be the ultimate Christmas present.