Warning: contains major spoilers forHis Last Vow.
After the final Miss me?
Ad content continues below
Steven Moffat:Well its amazing.
Were thrilled by that, of course we are.
It shows the benefits of starvation [laughter] Put things on less often!
SM:You knew he was alive last time.
But still, the speculation.
Its always distressing when you remember that [laughter].
Amanda and Lars, what did it feel like coming into something so established?
Amanda first, did you have to audition?
Amanda Abbington:No, I didnt, no.
Steven and Mark and Sue asked me to play Mary which was a real honour.
SM:She shot him!
[laughter]
AA:I shot him and nearly killed him!
But it was quite daunting.
And they werent worried about the chemistry between you and Martin Freeman?
[Abbington and Freeman are partners in real-life].
AA:Which is awful isnt it?
[laughter] I wont be doing that again!
[laughter]
SV:We were secretly auditioning you every time we met you.
AA:Just seeing do they get on, really?
SM:Martin had auditioned you extensively in a way!
[laughter]
AA:For thirteen years!
And Lars, what about you?
ApparentlySherlockis just hitting Denmark at the moment.
Lars Mikkelsen:Yeah, were three years behind.
Obviously hes a brilliant actor, but why did you choose Lars?
Nick [Hurran,His Last Vowdirector], did you have a particular idea?
Nick Hurran:The minute Lars was a possibility, it became his part and what a fantastic performance.
With the Google Glasses that arent Google glasses.
LM:I peed in my barn [laughter].
So to be able to turn Charles Augustus Milverton into Charles Augustus Magnussen was actually great fun.
We had such an act to follow with Andrew Scott, who always turns up at the end!
[laughter and applause].
Hes so tall and hes so frightening, and scary weeing is rare.
The number of people who failed that!
Hes terrific, terrific.
And what about your East-End accent, Lars?
I did a bit of a Danish accent on the whole thing.
We had to do that, make him Scandi.
Nick, how hands-on are you as a director?
NH:Of course, I think every director is hands-on in informing what their vision is.
From Stevens starting point it was starting with a very good hand.
We worked long and hard to begin with about turning the character of Mary and that surprise.
Beautiful performances between the two of them in that revelation.
Amanda, hands on?
AA:Very hands-on.
A terrific, terrific project to be involved with.
Is that a humanising thing as well?
NH:In this, his humanising starts at the beginning and comes out as this episode goes on.
When he gets emotional, he gets blind.
He doesnt spot Mary as a fraud as he should have as she points out in that episode.
Ages ago, he should have spotted it.
He chooses to ignore it.
SM:Yeah, he suppresses it.
The drugs thing is interesting.
Its become far more famous than is present in the original stories.
Also, in Victorian times people used drugs in a very different way, didnt they?
SM:You couldnt have an aspirin.
You had to have something for your headache.
Cocaine in those days would have made you an aesthete.
But on that occasion, hes not actually taking drugs.
What drew you to it?
How could you possibly have foreseen the phenomenon?
SM:We didnt foresee this.
SV:The thing was, you and Mark knew everything about it and I knew nothing about it.
So youd never read it as a kid?
SM:Or as an adult.
Or as a producer ofSherlock.
SV:Ive read some!
If they could sell it to me I think they could then sell it to an audience.
Was the updating a very obvious conceit right from the beginning?
Its the first example really of the main character being more interesting than the story.
Theres plenty of detection in it but thats not what its about, its about the hero.
Are we to presume that theres going to be a fourth, maybe fifth series?
SM:Wouldnt it be fun just to end like that?
[laughter] Yeah, well be back.
Its fairly obvious [round of applause] weve been saying that for ages, nobody believes us!
Would you ever consider a feature film?
I know its a feature film length, but would you ever consider a standalone feature film?
You just have a producer breathing down your neck with less money.
SV:Same old, same old.
Hopefully the BBC have given you some more money as its become more successful?
SM:Well you never have enough.
There would have to be a pressing narrative reason to do a movie.
Were doing movies, were doing them on television.
Thats a TV programme, number two at the American box office with limited distribution.
So thats television handing cinema its own arse.
I think they should come to us and beg!
Its lovely seeing it on the big screen, its lovely having a huge, big television.
It would just be the question How does it make it better to go to the cinema?
[Over to audience questions]
Audience member 1: Maggie Brown from The Guardian.
I wonder how you would respond to that criticism?
[Big round of applause].
Audience member 2: Congratulations on a wonderful third series.
Youve got to do something new.
Audience member: This is for Amanda.
Sort of twisting the character of Mary Morstan, how did you feel like your character played out?
Were you daunted by it at all?
AA:I was quite scared, yeah, because youre shooting the hero.
But it was quite scary.
Was it fun to add in young Sherlock?
The parents should be there, and how marvellous were they?
You just want to see those things, its part of updating it.
Audience member 3: Does that mean well get to see baby Mycroft?
Dont tell him I said that!
[Oooh, get you-style noises and laughter from the audience]
SM:What have you been doing?
How many Sherlock Holmes films have you made?
[laughter] Ive made nine!
Audience member 4: Its just that everybodys waiting for it.
SV:Were working on it, were working on dates.
SM:Obviously Benedict and Martin are apparently in some movies?
[laughter] I know, who cares about movies?
I agree with you, I agree with your thinking there, who cares about their movie careers?
AA:[stage whisper] Martins free from April.
SM:Heaven knows what she actually means by that.
Bad news for Martin!
Tremendously available, possibly homeless!
Audience member 5: I was just wondering about the creative decision to bring Moriarty back.
Im thrilled, but you were very adamant he wasnt coming back.
SM:Because Ive always given this grand commitment to telling the truth!
You dont know whats going on there.
It must be hell watching this show.
Obviously, we enjoyed that we get to see more of the wonderful Andrew Scott as Moriarty.
NH:There was a marvellous intake of breath across the whole cinema when his face turned around.
How much was scripted and how much was improvised, and which was your personal favourite bit?
It was scripted, we didnt just get them drunk [laughter].
They wouldnt have turned up, theyd just have gone off somewhere!
and immediately you think, thats a terrible crime!
He does everything else, why wouldnt he be drunk?
And its never been done, so we had this brand new thing.
What is Sherlock Holmes like drunk?
Well hes like a pissed Sherlock Holmes [laughter].
It did work very well.
We were very, very happy with it.
Audience member 6: Little things like Martin doing the high five thing.
SM:Im struggling to remember it.
[Amanda Abbington does a good impression of the moment being described] There were loads of good bits.
AR: Just generally he finds it hard, so this has got to be a living nightmare.
SM:It is.
AR: Martin learns his lines like that [quickly] doesnt he?
AA:Oh, its pathetic [false scorn in her voice, laughter].
SM:I really didnt.
I dont know why that put me off!
Sorry, so I dont know.
No, we dont get our plot-lines from Tumblr.
Do you think that the future of television is more a combination of an interaction with fans?
SM:Its not how it works, it truly isnt.
Its hugely important, but its a one-way thing.
I find it exciting and thrilling and wonderful that you get that creative response to a TV show.
Its how I began I responded toDoctor Whoand Sherlock and look how far Ive come!
NH:It acknowledges it.
Do you have any control over where the breaks come?
Do we, Sue?
SV:Where breaks come?
If we needed to cut something down we could cut it down here.
I presume youll have to do it for Dave one day?
[laughter]
SV:We try not to look at it.
SM:We take a stab at end every scene on a cliff-hanger.
Every scene ends with somebody going And thats what they were supposed to think!
SV:Thats not where they cut it, probably!
I quite like that.
SM: To be honest, I think I would say thatThe Sign Of Threewas the most non-linear.
We dont even know if we saw the events in the right order even in the flashback.
In terms of how you do that, you just work it out.
Its designed perhaps successfully or unsuccessfully is up to you to look clever.
If you put the work in, its not as hard as it looks.
Its designed, as I said, to look clever.
If it wasnt a show about a clever man, you wouldnt want it to be like that.
Its a show about a clever man, so make the world look complex, yet clear he hoped!
You may be thinking It wasnt clear at all!
[laughter] but thats the ambition.
I dont know if that ramble was of any use at all, Im sorry.
SM: If budget wasnt an issue…
I never really worry about that, my wife worries about that [laughter].
So we have got plans, yeah.
The ideas we thought of that day I think we the best weve ever had.
There, bigging it up already!
The two best criminal minds ever.
NH:Is he dead?
How are we supposed to investigate murder if they all get up again!
Lars was brilliant but the first idea was to honour the story and kill him.
LM:You never know, do you?
SM:You never know!
[laughter] An endless procession of Did you miss me?
Phil Davis will be so happy, back driving that taxi!
Did it benefit from having three minds on it, that story?
Also, who signs off and says its done at the end?
SM:We sort of segmented the episode into the different bits we were doing.
When do you sign it off?
When they need it!
NH:Its never signed off.
SV:When it sounds round.
But I delayed the tone meeting for His Last Vow because I hadnt finished the script.
Read our spoiler-filled review of His Last Vow,here.
