Nobody thought that bringing the literary figure Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the 21st century would work, but "Sherlock" creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt managed to do just that. What's more, their show was a phenomenal hit.
However, when the two presented the idea to take Sherlock back to Victorian England during this year's Christmas special, they were once again met with raised eyebrows.
"This is really so funny," Moffat shared with news.com.au. "Because when we first presented to the press our idea of a modern-day Sherlock, they said, 'Oh come on, how could Sherlock Holmes exist in the era of the iPhone?'
"Then we turned up at a press launch five years later, talking about our Victorian version and everyone said, 'How can Sherlock Holmes exist without an iPhone?' I'm looking forward to whatever the third period is for the next special. Hopefully far in the future," he added.
Moffat and Gatiss soldiered on with their idea despite what critics thought, and now fans are more excited than ever to see what they have done with the special episode entitled "The Abominable Bride."
Gatiss revealed that when he first presented the "carefully composed" Victorian special idea to lead star Benedict Cumberbatch, all the actor was concerned about was his hair.
"Can I have my hair cut?" Cumberbatch asked. Gatiss said that the actor is "obsessed" with his hair, but that was not all they discussed to make the Christmas special work.
They dealt with the period costume (deerstalker hat and cape for Sherlock) as well as the Victorian specific setting and language.
"There's a certain formality to how they speak," Gatiss said. "Benedict doesn't speak that differently to Victorian Sherlock Holmes anyway. It was a bit more formal for everybody else and there are certain tics from the original books, which was nice to put in. But really, we were very careful to make sure it wasn't suddenly a museum piece."
As formal as everything sounds, Gatiss said that the Christmas special will still maintain the same level of hilarity and brilliance.
"It's just as fast, funny, silly and exciting as the regular show," he said. "(But) there are obvious adjustments to make. The big difference is in how we approached the female characters because, obviously, in the Victorian framework, it's a different world. But we couldn't suddenly just put everyone in a box and have Mrs Hudson just nodding and disappearing once her function was complete. It was an interesting challenge."
"The Abominable Bride" will be available on January 2, 2016.
