‘Sherlock’ season 4: Steven Moffat on reasons for show’s longevity

While fans of many TV series out there do routinely suffer from long periods of waiting, there are probably few out there who have to deal with it more than lovers of “Sherlock.” You get a few new episodes over the course of a month, and then the show goes away for at least a year and a half before it returns again. For at least a few months of that, you are forced into sitting around and waiting to see whether or not you are going to be coming back at all.

However, this waiting may actually be one of the best things about the show, since it allows everyone to have time in their schedules. A recent BBC Trust report came out recently claiming that the show should be doing 12 episodes a year, but executive producer Steven Moffat told BANG Showbiz at the European premiere of “Guardians of the Galaxy” that if they were to take this chance, both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman would have left the show already:

“BBC should be more innovative and make more of ‘Sherlock’? Do they know what innovative means is my question?!

“It would never happen now. It could have happened at the beginning but had it happened, the show would be over by now because the boys wouldn’t be doing it. That will never happen.

“I’m quite surprised we’re announcing four [episodes for 2015] because it’s normally three – and that’s a huge step up for us!”

When it comes to these four episodes, this is really just a Christmas Special, and then three other installments. We originally thought that the Christmas Special was preceding the others, but based on Moffat’s comments we are starting to wonder if that is really altogether true.

Cumberbatch himself was at Comic-Con this weekend promoting “The Penguins of Madagascar,” but we will have some comments from him regarding “Sherlock” up a little later this afternoon. You can also sign up now to piece together some more TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: BBC One