Cardiff, here we come

It’s quite simple, really. Nothing more than a desire to place the mythical detective, Sherlock Holmes, in a new historical context. Prior to the initial series, Moffat, along with co-creator/co-writer, Mark Gatiss, repeatedly fielded questions concerning the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, a part that, until now, had traditionally been handed over to ‘older’ actors.

Moffat quickly defends the decision by saying: “Well, the thing is, people keep saying, ‘Is this the youngest Sherlock Holmes?’ You look at the Sherlock Holmes stories and the fact that we think of him as 50 is a product of the [film and TV depictions]. It’s not true – he must be, in the first story, in his late 20s or early 30s. He’s referred to as a young man, even in the first story as a student. So he clearly could be 29 in that first story“.

Moffat continued by saying the it was Mark Gatiss that was ‘officially’ responsible for casting Benedict. (Insert, “Let me be the first to say thank you, Mark” here). Seems Moffat was watching Atonement and, after seeing Cumberbatch, thought not only did he portray a brilliant creepy villain, but looked somewhat like the fictional detective. Gatiss said that he knew him personally, they sent him the script and, in true Hollywood fashion, the rest was history.

As we write, trains, planes and automobiles are headed to Cardiff to begin principle filming today on Sherlock 2 and adaptations of ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘The Final Problem’. There has been a confirmed departure sighting of Martin Freeman (Dr. Watson) from Middle Earth and the set of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. Confirmed by none other than Sir Ian McKellen, who revealed the current arrangement in a recent blog post, explaining: “Martin Freeman has left The Hobbit. This is not another April Fool, just a May Fact.”

I so can’t wait for this….Fall 2011 on BBC One in the UK and Spring 2012 on PBS in the States as part of the Masterpiece Mystery series.