‘Sherlock’ Latest: Yes, Shooting Is Delayed. No, It Won’t Affect Transmission

Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville

Y’know we’ve been having a lot of fun with Benedict Cumberbatch’s increasingly hectic work schedule, and giggling about whether it’ll cause delays on the shooting of the third season of Sherlock? Well suddenly it’s not quite as funny.

It appears that Benedict’s hot streak, in combination with Martin Freeman’s own elevation to Hollywood A-list status for his work on The Hobbit, have caused some delays in the shooting of new Sherlock episodes, so much so that shooting has been moved back two months, from January to March.

Sherlock‘s producer, Sue Vertue, confirmed on Twitter that the shoot has been put back, but was keen to stress that this will have no effect on the proposed delivery date of the next batch of Sherlock stories, which are due in late 2013.

She said: ”To stop further speculation, Sherlock filming has pushed to March for availability reasons. It’s not expected to affect any likely TX dates.”

So far, the next three episodes have been teased with the single words Rat, Wedding and Bow, although it is understood that Mark Gatiss is writing the first episode, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Empty House, which is the story where Holmes returns from the grave.

I tell you, what with this and the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, we are going to be SUCH a happy gang by this time next year.