19 facts about BBC Series

As Sherlock returns to our screens, here are 19 curious things you might not have known about the BBC series:

1. It all began with a speech

In 2006, well-known Holmes enthusiast Mark Gatiss was asked to address the Sherlock Holmes Society's annual dinner at the Houses of Parliament. Gatiss, who brought along Steven Moffat as his guest, told the audience about a meeting at the BBC to discuss the possibility of resurrecting Arthur Conan Doyle's creation for a Christmas special. He and the Corporation failed to reach an agreement, but as he "raced round the endless circular corridors, frothing at the mouth at what these philistines might be planning", Gatiss bumped into John Simpson, recently returned from Kabul. “As he passed me,” Gatiss explained, “I touched him on the arm and whispered: ‘You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive’.” This gave him the seed of an idea, which he and Moffat subsequently grew into a modern-day Sherlock: "A young army doctor, wounded in Afghanistan finds himself alone and friendless in London," he teased the group. "Short of cash, he bumps into an old medical acquaintance who tells him he knows of someone looking for a flatmate. This bloke’s alright but a little odd..." Gatiss was effectively pitching his and Moffat’s Sherlock to the toughest crowd imaginable, and they approved.

2. There is no abandoned tube station at Sumatra Road

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Empty Hearse Credit: BBC.The location chosen for the bomb-laden tube carriage meant to blow up Parliament in the season three opener The Empty Hearse is actually in West Hampstead, and isn't the site of a half-finished London Underground station (although the Bull & Bush abandoned station is nearby). It's nowhere near Westminster, but was chosen by Gatiss as a sly reference to The Giant Rat of Sumatra, a Holmes adventure mentioned (but never expanded upon) in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. Sherlock's production team couldn't get hold of a real carriage, so mocked up their own District Line replica - despite exterior shots clearly showing a Jubilee Line train. Tube-loving viewers have also been quick to point out other inaccuracies.                                                                     

3. Holmes and Watson are good enough to eat

Speedy’s Cafe, the sandwich emporium frequented by Holmes and Watson in the series, is a real café on Gower Street, near Euston – the BBC’s stand-in for 221b Baker Street. (In the Sherlock pilot it was run by Una Stubbs’s character and named Mrs Hudson’s Snax n' Sarnies, but that idea was swiftly dropped.) The fans who flock there from all over the world can now enjoy specially created Sherlock-themed snacks, specifically the Sherlock wrap (chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, peppers, red onion, cucumber, chilli sauce – all "wrapped up as tightly as Sherlock’s personality") or the Watson Wrap (roasted vegetables, spinach, tomatoes, spring onion, Brie, sour cream – "safe, warm, and comforting, like his personality").

4. Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t play the violin quite as well as Sherlock

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Cardboard Box, it transpires that Sherlock Holmes owns and plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivarius himself. The Sherlock production team, however, uses a different violin for each series (series three’s is a £1,200 Chinese-made Con Fuoco), all on loan from Cardiff Violins. (The shop’s website contains a sweet testimonial from a ‘Mr John H Watson’, thanking the staff for being ‘extremely patient’ with his friend: ‘He would thank you himself; only, well Sherlock doesn’t really do that sort of thing ...’) For season two’s on-screen violin scenes, Cumberbatch was taught how to play and ‘violin act’ by Eos Chater, a member of the classical group Bond. Although the actor played live on set, the playing heard on the soundtrack is by Chater. "Benedict had a week, and made a surprisingly good sound," she wrote of the experience on her blog. "I have no doubt he would be a good violinist if he had the inclination."

5. Yet his pen-catching skills are beyond reproach

A scene in The Blind Banker shows John throwing a pen to Sherlock, who catches it without even looking at it. Cumberbatch made the catch on the first take (using a mirror so he could see it coming), but the cameraman was too slow and missed it. He got it again on the third.

6. China can’t understand why Sherlock takes so long to make

During David Cameron’s official visit to China in December 2013, the Prime Minister allowed Chinese citizens to ask him questions through Sina Weibo, the country’s Twitter-like social network. Among queries about Larry the Downing Street cat, Tom Daley, Visa application forms and Wendi Deng, by far the most popular request was: “Please urge Sherlock crew to be quick! They have had us waiting for two years for every season!” Cameron diplomatically pointed out that “I can’t tell them what to do, as it’s an independent company”, before urging fans to pass the time by reading Conan Doyle’s stories.

7. Sherlock’s staircase would please purists

In Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock asks Watson how many steps lead up to their quarters at 221b Baker Street. Watson hasn't a clue. “I know there are 17 steps, because I have both seen and observed,” Holmes tells him. Because Sherlock fans are similarly observant, there are 17 steps leading to the first floor of the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and another 17 between the hall and front room on the Cardiff set of Sherlock.

8. In Japan, he’s a comic book hero

Japan has a long tradition of Sherlock-influenced,

copyright-avoiding manga or anime: Young Miss Holmes, a manga comic about Sherlock’s niece; Detective Hound, a canine anime series co-created by Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki; the unrelated Detective Dog Sherdock, a comic in which the sleuth is reincarnated as a dog; and the Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired boy crime-solver Detective Conan,47 Ronin at the Japanese box-office. But the BBC series recently received the ultimate accolade: completely faithful (ie, free of tentacled creatures and and robots) comic-book adaptations of the episodes A Study in Pink and The Blind Banker in Young Ace magazine. As the above rendering proves, Cumberbatch’s gamine features make him the perfect manga hero.

whose latest animated adventure trounced Keanu Reeves’s 

9. And in South Korea, he’s (almost) a pop star

K-pop pretty-boys SHINee paid tribute to the series with their 2012 hit Sherlock, and an accompanying video full of slightly suspect Holmes-ian references (violin, shabby Victoriana decor, an ‘iWatson’ laptop), in which they solve a jewel heist seemingly perpetrated by a ghost:

10. ‘221b Baker Street’ actually looks like this

The 370 sq ft one-bedroom flat above Speedy’s Cafe (see number 4), which is in fact about a mile away from Baker Street but doubles as Sherlock’s home for exterior shots, was available for rent in early 2012 for the price of £330 a week.

11. Sherlock isn’t a sociopath

In A Study In Pink, Anderson flippantly calls Holmes a psychopath. "Do your research, Anderson," comes the reply. “I'm a high-functioning sociopath.” Not true, according to psychologist Maria Konnikova, who convincingly argues that Sherlock is altogether too loving, empathetic, and aware of his own faults to be considered a sociopath.

12. But he may be autistic

Late last year, autism charity the National Autistic Society cited Sherlock’s single-mindedness, inability to understand social norms such as sarcasm, and incredible feats of recall as evidence that he might be autistic. This, despite Watson making a direct reference to his friend’s Asperger’s in The Hounds of Baskerville.

13. Even the fonts have meaning

As typography design experts have noted, the lettering used for Sherlock’s on-screen graphics varies according to the occasion. For text messages, AF Generation Z is used; to show Sherlock deduction process, it’s P22 Johnston Underground (above); Irene Adler’s high-end Vertu phone uses the business-like Verdanda. Johnston Underground is also used as the basis for the series’ custom-made title font.

14. The Russians have their own Sherlock

Freud’s Method, a crime drama produced by Russia’s Star Media, bears a striking resemblance to the BBC series. The lead character is Roan Freydin, a "psychologist and professional poker player" working as a "special consultant" to the police, who are infuriated by his "eccentric methods" but impressed by his ability to solve crimes using "psychological science" and "intuition". Even the opening titles (which have been posted on YouTube) look a little familiar, as Mark Gatiss noted with his tweet: "Ha! The sincerest form of flattery".

15.Sherlock is (possibly) responsible for BlackBerry’s woes

In 2010, season one of Sherlock showed Holmes using a blazingly fast BlackBerry 9700; come season two, broadcast by the BBC in early 2012, he’d made the switch to an Apple iPhone 4. By the end of January, BlackBerry co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie had stepped down, admitting that the company had failed to compete with Apple. Coincidence? Draw your own conclusions.

         16. Matt Smith wanted to be Watson

A week before landing the part of Doctor Who, Matt Smith auditioned to play John Watson; Steven Moffat decided he was "too barmy", and that one Sherlock was enough. Martin Freeman, on the other hand, arrived at his audition having had his wallet stolen on the way and was in such a bad mood it was assumed he wasn’t interested. The following week, he returned in a better frame of mind, read with Benedict Cumberbatch, and the part was his.

        17. Benedict Cumberbatch hates Sherlock’s hair

The actor’s preparations for looking the part of Sherlock include intense Bikram yoga sessions, swimming, and no smoking or drinking during filming. But there’s one thing he especially hates doing: growing his hair. As he told The Times, “I can’t think of a wittier or even accurate comparison, but I just think it makes me look a bit like… a woman.”

      18. Mark Gatiss learnt to swim in Moriarty’s pool

At the end of season one, Moriarty lures Holmes and Watson to a beautiful public pool in order to kill them. The location used (for both the cliffhanger and the beginning of season two, forcing the crew to return a year later and recreate the signage) is Bristol South Swimming Pool; according to the Sherlockology blog, this is also where a young Mark Gatiss learnt to swim.

    19. Sherlock and Mrs Hudson knew each other in a previous life

Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson Credit: BBC.Benedict Cumberbatch has often said that Una Stubbs (above), who plays his screen landlady Mrs Hudson, mothers him on the set of Sherlock. But she has good reason: Stubbs is an acting contemporary of Cumberbatch’s mother Wanda Ventham (who made a surprise appearance in The Empty Hearse as Sherlock's Les Mis-loving mother, alongside the actor's father Timothy Carlton as Holmes senior), and used to live around the corner from her when Cumberbatch was a child. So a four-year-old Benedict would often find himself forced to endure hours of boredom as Stubbs and his mother gossiped on park benches or street corners. Stubbs nonetheless found him “Very polite... A lovely boy.