Ahead of the eagerly awaited 4th season of the Arthur Conan Doyle reboot, Sherlock and Watson will be back in action with a twist in one-off special episode, Sherlock: The Aboninable Bride. Taking us back to the original timeline of the Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson adventures, it’ll see Benedict Cumberbatch (Black Mass) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies) take to the streets of Victorian London with a dangerous game afoot.
Air date
The episode has been confirmed for an air date on New Year’s Day on BBC 1 in the UK and PBS in the United States, which is the first time the show will be going out on the same day for the the two regions. However, to add even more pomp to the eagerly awaited timeline mash-up, the episode will also be screened at more than 100 cinemas in the UK at the same time as it airs on BBC. If that doesn’t inspire a raft of Sherlock cosplay at a cinema near you to kick off the first day of 2016 we’ll be very surprised.
As ever, the episode will be a fairly significant 90-minutes long, so anyone heading to the cinema to watch it will have something movie-length to sit through, but you’ll also be treated extra material on the big screen. This will including Moffat giving us a guided tour of the Victorian 221B Baker Street and peek behind-the-scenes at footage from the filming of the episode. Tickets went on sale on 2nd November 2015, and you’ll be able to see the action at any Picturehouse cinemas and at a selection of Odeon and Vue cinemas.
Story
The story will take place in 1895 on New Year’s Day no less, tying in brilliantly with the air date, and Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson have a new mystery to solve. Described as an “impossible case”, the stage is set for power to collide in the Victorian capital with talk of war, family ties, history, and ghosts in and among the plot, along with dark cloaked sects and the weight of the recently departed.
Cast
In addition to Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, the cast will also feature regulars Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade, Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson, Louise Brealey as Molly Hooper, Jonathan Aris as Philip Anderson, David Nellist as Mike Stamford and Amanda Abbington as Mary Watson. New additions to the show include Catherine McCormack (Braveheart) as Lady Carmichael, Tim McInnerny (Notting Hill) as Sir Eustace Carmichael and Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders) as Emelia Ricoletti.
Production
The episode has been co-written by Sherlock series creators, Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) and Mark Gatiss (The Crimson Petal And The White). It was directed by Douglas Mackinnon (Doctor Who: The Husbands Of River Song), produced by Sue Vertue and Moffatt and Gatiss are once again executive producers. Filming took place in London and Cardiff with the usual partnership between BBC Worldwide UK, BBC Wales and Hartswood Films.
First Impressions
The scenes of Victorian London look amazing in the trailer below and if you thought the drama, action and intensity of the series was high in its modern day incarnation, it looks like it might be bested by the dark and swirling mist of the past. It’s going to be a lot of fun seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in their roles in the original 19th Century setting of Sherlock Holmes. Until the production of the show it was the timeline most associated with Arthur Conan Doyle’s much-loved characters, so it’ll be interesting to see how well they do it justice.
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride may well be a one-off special episode, but it does act as an exciting prelude to the 4th season which will begin filming later in 2016. It’s going to be a long lead-in time to the air date for the 4th major outing for the show with busy schedules for its big name stars and writers, so it will be 2017 before it goes out. Check out our Sherlock interviews to find out what Benedict, Martin, Steven and Mark think about the track back to the Victorian origins of the stories.
