Sherlock fans, look away now. The British super-sleuth won’t be taking on new cases any time soon.
Speaking at the Italian Global Series Festival (IGSF), Sherlock creator Mark Gatiss was downbeat on the prospects of a return for the BBC show either for TV or as a film, saying: “Going back is often very difficult.”
Hopes for a new season or film had increased after Sue Vertue from the BBC’s producer, Hartswood Films, last year told Deadline there was a “future” for it, provided stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman would agree to a return.
However, when asked today why another season had not been produced, Gatiss replied: “Because Benedict and Martin didn’t want to do any more.”
The series starred Cumberbatch as titular master detective Sherlock Holmes and Freeman as his sidekick, Dr John Watson, and was based on the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle. Gatiss himself played Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother. Launching on the BBC in 2010 and running for three four-part seasons, it ended with a special in 2016.
Gatiss revealed he had pitched Cumberbatch and Freeman a Sherlock film during lockdown, “which they both like the idea of, but it has not happened.”
Taking this as a sign, he added: “It’s important to acknowledge when a time is a time. Sometimes, it is there and then it stops, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Going back is often very difficult.”
Gatiss has previously said he would like to make a Sherlock film, but noted “trying to get everyone together is very difficult.”
From detective to ‘Doctor’
Having previously written episodes of Doctor Who, another British TV staple whose future is up in the air, Gatiss was also quizzed on the sci-fi show’s future.
“I don’t think anyone knows what is going on with Doctor Who at the moment,” he responded, saying that “all I know is it’s all about the Disney deal.” He noted that he hasn’t written an episode since 2017, quipping: “I’m two Doctors down and once you’re two Doctors down, you don’t come back.”
Gatiss was speaking during a wide-ranging masterclass ahead of the world premiere of his new detective series, Bookish, at the IGSF today. The chat ranged from how he began reading murder mystery books in his childhood – “I had German measles, and I got a Sherlock Holmes as a cheering-up gift and I never looked back” – to why he dislikes the term ‘cosy crime’, which has been applied to his new show.
Bookish is about gay antique book store owner Gabriel Book, who solves crimes while living in a ‘lavender’ marriage with a woman, Trottie (Polly Walker). Set in the post-World War II era that has fascinated Gatiss for years, it sees Book solve mysteries in London with the help of a young Inspector Bliss (Elliot Levey). Despite keeping a light tone, the show also addresses the darker facets of Britain in 1946 such as attitudes to homosexuality and post-war lawlessness.
Gatiss is the writer, creator and star, with ITV Studios-owned Eagle Eye Drama producing alongside its subsidiary, Belgium-based Happy Duck Films, for UKTV in the UK and PBS in the U.S. Earlier today, we revealed the latest batch of pre-sales for the show, which is being shopped internationally by Germany’s Beta Film.
“I wanted to make it about the post-war world and how dangerous and exciting it was,” he said. He called the tone “murder as a parlor game” that would act as “a great escape for people from the new world,” but added Bookish still has an edge.
“It’s the puzzle people like, not about having something drenched in blood,” added Gatiss. “People have moved away from those serial killer stories, because they’re so unpleasant, to a more genteel world, but I don’t like the term cosy crime as that suggests there is no teeth to it, and there definitely is teeth to it.”
The IGSF is running this week through Saturday (June 28).
