"Sherlock" season 4's premiere date is yet to be confirmed and speculations are rife that the hit detective series would return in 2016.
The makers of the show have always maintained a two-year gap between the consecutive seasons. However, the long absence of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman's series has raised question about its survival. Industry insiders wonder about the fans' loyalty towards the show. Could three episodes per season and a two-year gap format go against the popularity of the show?
Interestingly, the creator of the show Steven Moffat, who recently appeared at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, feels that the show's unusual format works in its favor and ensures that the show goes on for a longer time.
"Had we done the conventional form of a TV series which is to do runs of six or twelve, it would be over by now without doubt, it would be finished. Because [the cast] would never again commit that amount of time that regularly to a TV show, they just wouldn't, why would they? But given the strange form of Sherlock which is every two-and-a-half years we get together and we make three, means that it can go on for a very long time," Moffat told The Gaurdian.
It is also understood that the two-year hiatus between each season lets the cast and crew follow other professional pursuits. The makers of the show do not want to pressurize the cast and crew for filming back to back, as per the reports.
Meanwhile, Moffat also suggested in his interview that the sudden rise in popularity of various British TV series including the ones created by him (Sherlock and Doctor Who) can be credited to varied cultural experience that people get to see on the television.
"The way you appeal to other cultures is to be yourself ... Americans like British shows. If they elect to watch a British show they want it to be terribly British. Why wouldn't they? Just as with watching an American show – we want it to be full-on American. The Britishness isn't amped up (in Sherlock and Doctor Who). It comes from being made by British people. There is something incredibly British about Doctor Who, but I couldn't say what it is, " Moffat noted.
"Sherlock's" main lead including Cumberbatch and Freeman are currently busy with the last and final film in the "The Hobbit" series,"The Battle of the Five Armies".
