Leap of faith for Sherlock followers in New Year's Day episode

The relocation of tonight’s one-off episode to 19th century London was a bold move for the show’s creators, writes Gemma Dunn

BENEDICT Cumberbatch admits he thought it was madness when Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss revealed they wanted to transport the action from modern day to 19th-century London for a standalone episode.

“I thought they’d finally lost the plot, jumped the shark, and all the other cliches of television gone mad with itself. Then they expanded the idea and pitched it to me properly and now I think it’s fantastic; absolutely brilliant,” says the 39-year-old.