Ever since it aired its final episodes back in 2017, Sherlock fans have been desperate for the hit detective show to make a return.
And while new seasons aren’t in the pipeline for the time being, the show’s creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have said they’d be delighted to write more – if only Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were available.
“I’d do Sherlock again tomorrow, why ask me?” Moffat remarked in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com at the Radio Times Covers Party. “Mark would do it tomorrow, Sue [Vertue, producer] would do it tomorrow – we’d all just do it again.
“It’s down to Benedict and Martin,” he added – before stressing that that’s where the obstacle may lie.
“They were very loyal to that show over a very long while when it was out, when it definitely became their lowest paying job,” he said.
“And I don’t think that’s necessarily what they want to do now – fair enough, absolutely fair enough. But if anyone thinks I’m the one getting in the way, I will confidently tell you I would start writing it tomorrow, if everybody else did too.”
Moffat went on to talk about one other problem that “none of us might be able to get past”: the sad death of Mrs. Hudson star Una Stubbs, who passed away aged 84 last summer.
“Maybe if we reassembled that set and she didn’t magically appear, we might all be too sad to make a show,” he said.
“So those are the facts. We would do it, I’d do it, Mark would do it, Sue would do it. We might be too sad to get through it. And we’d need our leading men and, quite understandably, they may well feel they’ve done their time.”
In a separate interview, Gatiss added his twopence – claiming they’ve “not shut the door” and reiterating that he, Moffat and Vertue would all “very much like to do some more”.
“But you may have noticed, the cast are very busy,” he continued. “So that’s where we are at the moment really. I mean… who can say?”
Cumberbatch and Freeman have certainly not been lacking for parts in recent times. The former was up for Best Actor at last week’s Oscars for his turn in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, while the latter gave one of the best performances of his career in recent BBC One drama The Responder.
Furthermore, both actors have roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange and Freeman as Everett K. Ross – in addition to a whole host of other projects on screens both big and small.
But who knows, maybe somewhere down the line a return to 221B Baker Street could still be on the cards…
Enjoy more chats with the stars at the Radio Times Covers Party 2022 in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale Tuesday 5th April. Subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door, and for more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
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