SHERLOCK Return Date Revealed!

The game is, once again, afoot! PBS announced today that Sherlock will return on New Year’s Day, Sunday, January 1, 2017.

Season 4 of the meditation on friendship masquerading as a detective show starts off with “The Six Thatchers”, possibly an update of the short story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleans“. While the mysteries being solved provided quite a lot of entertainment, the meat of the story has always been the interpersonal relationships. So far we know that Moriarity is back somehow and Toby Jones is a “horrific” new villain, plus the Watsons have a new baby, which should provide oodles of awkward situations for Sherlock.

When we were at Comic Con in July, Leah and I sat in on the Sherlock panel which featured cast members Benedict Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington, show runners Mark Gatiss (who pulls double duty as Mycroft) and Stephen Moffat and producer Sue Vertue. The panel was a lot of fun, talking about an uncooperative canine guest star and teasing an absent Martin Freeman (he was back in England filming “a very difficult scene”).

They were careful about revealing too much information about season 4, teasing us with three mysterious words: Thatcher*, Smith**, and Sherrinford***. The audience was excited yet frustrated, much to the panel’s glee. But! A clever fan turned the tables when she asked, “What is the first thing your character says in season 4?” Well played, clever fan, well played. After much hemming and hawing and consultation behind their hands, the answers were as follows:

Benedict: “Yes.”

Mark: “Oh, Sherlock.”

Amanda: “I can’t tell you what I say, but this is what I do first.” *motions “come here” with her hand*

Only 2 more months until we find out what it all means!

*Obviously with the release of the first episode’s title, “The Six Thatchers”, we have our answer for this clue.

**Toby Jones is playing a character named Culverton Smith who we suspect is featured in the second episode, “The Lying Detective”.

***Could this be the much speculated older Holmes brother?