Sherlock season 5: Martin Freeman updates fans on chance of new episodes

Don't expect to see the BBC show return anytime soon

Martin Freeman has given an update on the possibility of a new series of Sherlock.

The BBC show broadcast its most recent episode in January 2017 and the actor, who plays Dr Watson, revealed that discussions to bring it back for a fifth series are “few and far between”.

In an interview with Collider, he described the show “as a huge, huge, worldwide hit, and way beyond anything we could’ve imagined” and said writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss would have to dream up something very special for them to return.

“If it’s something really special, and if it’s something really meaty and interesting, then I think we’d all be open to that,” he said. “It always felt like an event, so if we do more, it has to be worthy of that. We couldn’t come back with something that was quite good. It would have to feel really, really special. It was that kind of show.”

He acknowledged that the finale of series four “felt like a pause” and said he’s a fan of “stopping doing something when you want to” as opposed to eking it out for the sake of it.

In 2018, he was forced to clarify his comments after it was claimed he said being in the show was “no longer fun”.

“My point was that those expectations can be heavy,” he went on to tell The Daily Beast. “There’s a certain aspect that some fans are going to run with the ball and make their own thing out of your show – which is completely fair enough, as long as we all acknowledge that that is what is happening.

Freeman was promoting his new film Ode to Joy, which is yet to secure a release date in the UK.