Sherlock Holmes could be a woman, says Steven Moffat

'You wouldn't even have to change the name, I don't think you’d have to change much of the dialogue'

(Hartswood Films/REX)

One major question surrounding the Doctor Who series is “will the Time Lord ever regenerate as a woman?” Steven Moffat, showrunner of the series, has been asked on countless occasions.

However, it was not the Doctor he was questioned about at the Radio Times Festival, it was another iconic character he helped popularise for the BBC: Sherlock Holmes.

Moffat, alongside Mark Gatiss, created the Benedict Cumberbatch starring show, and was questioned over whether he thought a female Sherlock could ever work.

He said: ”We would never do that because we’ve got our version but if someone wanted to do a quirky version of Sherlock Holmes and simply made Sherlock Holmes a woman – you wouldn't even have to change the name, I don't think you’d have to change much of the dialogue – I think it would fit."

He went on to detail how one of the characters on Doctor Who has proven that a female Sherlock could work: "There's a character called Madama Vastra in Doctor Who who's sort of a female, reptile, Sherlock Holmes, so I think it would work, because [Sherlock Holmes] doesn’t have any male or female or any kind of attributes that would limit that, so I think it would work.”

There is currently a Sherlock special set in Victorian London in the works. It has no release date yet but is expected around Christmas/New Year time.