There was an expected yet very happy bit of news from the BBC Press Office today, announcing the return of Sherlock in autumn, 2011 with another three 90-minute episodes. Here’s the entirety of the announcement from the Press Office webpage:

Hunt also confirmed the recommissions of Sherlock Holmes and Luther for BBC One. Following a highly successful launch with over 7.5m viewers watching the first episode in July 2010, Sherlock returns for three new 90-minute episodes in Autumn 2011, while Luther comes back with two, two-hour specials

Hunt says: “Sherlock was the hit of the Summer. Luther the most memorable new detective on the block. I am delighted they will both be returning to BBC One.”

Talking of the Sherlock recommission, co-creators, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, say: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the warmth of response to our new Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and can’t wait to take them on three new adventures next year. There’ll be baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies – whether on two, or four legs. And we might well be seeing the cold master of logic and reason unexpectedly falling. But in love? Or over a precipice? Who can tell?”

This is exciting news — however, “Sherlock Holmes”? And only three episodes? Well, we’ll take whatever we can get, and regardless of if the BBC knows the proper titles of its own commissioned series.

From the sounds of it, we might be getting an appearance by Irene Adler, the Reichenbach Falls, or both. And, a four-legged adversary can only mean The Hound, can’t it? Still, I would love to see a modern interpretation of “Silver Blaze.”

Who can tell? What do you think?

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Sherlock is over (for now), and regardless of our opinions on the final few minutes of “The Great Game,” most of us were left wanting more…

Now, don’t get too excited, this is very likely an error or a typo as I can’t find any information about this on the BBC websites, but the IMDB has listed the unaired, 55-minute pilot of “A Study In Pink” as airing on August 22nd. Here’s a screencap from the IMDB page:

Again, the IMDB is often wrong about this kind of thing, but we thought it was worth mentioning. Hopefully someone involved in the production can clear this up for us sometime soon, and we’ll update with further info if and when we get any.

Update: As we assumed, yes, it was an error. Sue Vertue tweeted at us:

So, if you’d like to see the pilot, pre-order those DVDs and Blu-Rays! We’ve got links on the sidebar.

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One more poll for this (short) series of Sherlock — like with the previous two episodes, we’re running a poll on the sidebar. The previous two episodes enjoyed great popularity with our blog’s visitors, will that success continue with “The Great Game”?

So, c’mon, communicate your opinions with just one click! Do it now!

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The finale of Sherlock surged in the overnight ratings, with the highest numbers of any episode in the short series, 7.34 million (compare that to 6.442 million for “The Blind Banker” and 7.05 million for “A Study In Pink”). Digital Spy reports:

BBC One’s Sherlock attracted a total audience of 7.34m (31.3%) for its Moriarty cliffhanger last night, according to overnight data.

‘The Great Game’, written by Mark Gatiss, pulled in 7.01m (29.9%) on BBC One, alongside a further 325k on HD.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes has been popular with both viewers and critics, with the first three-part series averaging a strong 7.2m.

Truly amazing ratings for the series overall, and all of this before the timeshifted numbers come in. We’ll pass along the finale’s appreciation index numbers when we get them.

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Here’s one more open thread, this time for tonight’s Sherlock finale “The Great Game,” written by the inestimably fantastic Mark Gatiss and directed by Paul McGuigian. Reminder: Like “A Study In Pink,” tonight’s episode begins at 9pm on BBC1, not 8:30pm like last week.

Use the comments here to express your thoughts on the episode before, during, or after the episode. Or, if you’d rather, jump on into our thread for “The Great Game” in the Sherlocking Forum. Join in as you’re watching and let everyone know what you think in real time — or hop in after it’s over, and share your thoughts on the explosive finale.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for one more “what did you think?” poll tomorrow morning!

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It appears there’s an impromptu Sherlock marathon going on over the internets, with IRC channel set up on EFNet for watchers to chat as they review “A Study in Pink” and “The Blind Banker” before tonight’s “The Great Game.” Click on the link, pick a name for yourself, and join the channel #BakerStreet.

We’re about 20 minutes into “A Study In Pink” right now — join us!

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As it’s “Great Game” Day, it’s time to put a close to our previous week’s poll, on what you thought of “The Blind Banker.” Looks again like the a vast majority rated this episode quite well, though not quite to the heights of “A Study In Pink.” The modal response out of 403 voters rating this episode was “Quite good” (myself included), our second highest notch, with 89% of the voters having a positive rating of the episode. This is down from the 99%+ positive from last week’s poll, and it’s notable that we had a small cluster of five votes rate the episode the lowest possible (“Horrible”), when we had zero votes in that category last week.

We’ve been very critical of certain aspects of “The Blind Banker,” and perhaps similar issues are what led people to those “Horrible” votes. But, we’re still optimistic and came away from “The Blind Banker” with a generally positive impression of the episode and the series’ prospects. It seems many of you did as well. Only a few hours until “The Great Game” transmits — stop back tomorrow morning for a final episode poll!

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Looks like we were wrong about a lower appreciation index for the second episode of Sherlock, “The Blind Banker.” Steven Moffat just tweeted:

An AI of 88 is amazing — it’s up from the premiere, and reaching stellar numbers for a new series. Now, we’re clearly not as fond of the episode as we were of “A Study In Pink” and think there were some very troubling bits to it (the odd orientalism felt quite out of place in a 21st century drama, Holmes or not). Here’s hoping “The Great Game” is even better and can top 90!

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The kind folks at Blogtorwho have posted a sneak preview (with pictures!) of the third and final episode of Sherlock (for now, anyway), “The Great Game.”

Then there’ll be annoyed grumblings when most people realise that there won’t be any more episodes for quite some time. Team Gattfat (hhmm, I think Mofftiss is probably better) are gonna be bombarded with demands for more, and quickly. One can only hope this is the case. Sherlock has shown what happens when two wildly talented and creative men get together – crimes can be solved and television can be made of greatness.

Now, Blogtorwho liked “The Blind Banker” more than many of us at Sherlocking, but a 10/10 review is nothing but encouraging. Only a few more days to go!

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Two weeks in a row, Sherlock draws the most viewers on Sunday night. Here’s the breakdown from The Guardian:

BBC1′s Sherlock was again the most-watched Sunday show, attracting 6.442 million viewers for its second outing last night, 1 August.

The 90-minute drama had a 25.6% audience share from 8.30pm. A further 210,000 (1%) watched on BBC HD, with a later start time of 9.30pm.

A bit of a drop from the premiere, but not much. I’m guessing that the appreciation index numbers will be quite a bit lower, based on the smattering of negative blog posts I’ve encountered so far.

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