Yes, Downton Abbey adherents, I've got a bit of a treat for you: not just one, but TWO, features about the hit British period drama today.
Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Brits' Surprising Emmy Hit," Part One of Two of my Downton Abbey features today, this time an Emmys feature on the British drama, recognized with 11 nominations this year, including Outstanding Made-for-TV-Movie or Miniseries. I talk with creator Julian Fellowes and the cast about Emmy nominations, the show’s insane popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, and what’s coming up on Season Two.
If that's not enough period goodness for you, there's my second feature, entitled "Inside Downton Abbey Season Two," in which Julian Fellowes and the cast of Downton Abbey (including Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, and Siobhan Finneran) provide me with some clues about what's coming up on the second season of the period drama, beginning September 12th in the U.K. and in January in the U.S. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Season Two of Downton Abbey begins September 12th on ITV in the U.K. and on January 8, 2012 on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know I spent yesterday in a lovely Downton Abbey dream, as PBS presented their session for Masterpiece (which included several announcements) and a 45-minute panel for Downton Abbey which returns to our shores in January. (I also spent the morning doing one-on-one interviews with cast members Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Siobhan Finneran, and Elizabeth McGovern, but you'll have to wait a bit to read the feature.)
The session--the most lavishly fannish of any TCA session possibly ever (we critics are huge Downton fans)--began with a hilarious sizzle reel from Season One of Downton Abbey set to the strains of "Downtown," (adorable) before executive producer Rebecca Eaton took to the stage to introduce the panel and get through some housekeeping issues. "To our audience, Anglophilia is not a dirty word," said Eaton. (It certainly isn't, this Anglophile thought, nodding sagely.)
Season Two of Downton Abbey, set to launch in September in the United Kingdom, will rejoin Masterpiece on January 8th. The nine episodes of the second season--the eight episodes in the regular series and the Christmas special (airing in the UK in December)--will air over the course of seven weeks on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. In even better news, Eaton promised that "not a single frame" will be edited out of the U.S. broadcast when it airs here next year. (Season One had roughly twenty minutes of minor cuts from the six-hour-plus running time when it aired Stateside. "I'm sure many of the UK adverts you can get on YouTube," Dan Stevens joke, when asked how to get the full Downton Abbey UK experience.)
(Unrelated: Three Sherlock episodes are expected in Spring 2012 (likely in May), and Upstairs Downstairs in 2013. Meanwhile, Masterpiece will premiere Song of Lunch and Page 8 in the autumn as part of their Masterpiece Contemporary strand. Eaton also announced the co-production of a mystery drama pilot called "Endeavour," the story of early life of Inspector Morse. ITV will announce the series lead on Wednesday, so stay tuned.)
But back to Downton. The action picks up in 1916, two years after the events of the first season and the advent of World War I. When asked how Matthew Crawley is different in Season Two to how he was portrayed in the first season, Stevens was candid: "In Series 2, he's surrounded by a lot of explosions." We'll find Matthew as a dutiful soldier "very active at the front" who will experience moments of heroism.
Rebecca Eaton said there's one character from Series 1 who doesn't return for Series 2. Easy: Gwen, a fact that Neame then confirmed, as Gwen was last seen leaving the series for a secretarial role. There's a chance she could turn up down the line as a professional woman, but we won't be seeing her in the second season. New characters this season will include new love interests for Mary and Matthew, the loathsome Mrs. Bates (played by The Tudors' Maria Doyle Kennedy), a new housemaid, new male servants, and several others.
As for the matter of the entail, which some audience members were confused by (but which is all too familiar to readers of Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice"), Stevens said, "I wish Laura Linney had been there to give us a lesson on the entail." ("It would be completely mistaken to think that the British audience had any idea what an entail was," added Neame.)
A random Downton Abbey fact--that Siobhan Finneran, who plays evil Miss O'Brien, has never been to Highclere Castle, where #DowntonAbbey is filmed--was later disproven, as I asked Finneran herself how this could be true. Finneran told me she's been to Highclere many times, carried stacks of linen up those steps more than she likes to remember.
Asked to compare the series to other current shows, Neame called Downton closer in feel to Mad Men, a period-set piece with modern writing, rather than other Masterpiece adaptations. Elizabeth McGovern said that audiences on both sides of the Atlantic responded to Downton Abbey because "it's historically accurate, emotionally true and a lot of fun."
Meanwhile, if that weren't enough Downton-related goodness for you, I've embedded the full Comic Relief 2011 spoof of Downton Abbey, entitled Uptown Downstairs (it's two parts in full) after the jump for your delectation. Carson, you can bring the tea in now...
Uptown Downstairs Part One:
Uptown Downstairs Part Two:
Downton Abbey will return in September in the U.K. on ITV and in January 8th on PBS' Masterpiece Classic.
After 36 years, beloved period drama Upstairs Downstairs returns to American television on Sunday with new characters and the original co-creators checking into 165 Eaton Place.
Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "Upstairs Downstairs Returns to PBS’ Masterpiece," in which I speak to Upstairs Downstairs' Dame Eileen Atkins, Jean Marsh, Keeley Hawes, and Ed Stoppard about the new series, set in 1936 and launching on Sunday evening. Among the topics under discussion: how the period drama relates to today's viewing audience, the character of Lady Maud (complete with monkey Solomon) played by Dame Eileen Atkins, the rivalry with ITV's Downton Abbey, and the broad-sweeping political and social themes of the three-episode season.
Upstairs Downstairs launches Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece. Check your local listings for details.
"Home is not where you live, but where they understand you." - Christian Morganstern
My, how time flies: It's been more than three decades since Rose Buck (Jean Marsh) walked out of the front door of 165 Eaton Place and into the future.
For those of us who grew up on Upstairs, Downstairs (created by Marsh and Dame Eileen Atkins) watching the repeats on PBS or on DVD later, the show--which depicted the lives of the wealthy Bellamy clan and their servants below stairs--defined the period drama, transforming the stuffy recreations of aristos into a soap opera teeming with the hopes and dreams (and failures and foibles) of both the masters and the servants of a great London house.
While there have been countless adaptations of period-set literature over the years (Austen and Dickens remain always in style), recently viewers have seen a resurgence in open-ended, serialized period dramas. Lark Rise to Candleford may have perhaps started the trend in earnest, but it was the double punch of ITV's Downton Abbey and the revival of Upstairs Downstairs that truly brought the trend into full bloom.
Upstairs Downstairs, which begins its superb three-episode run on Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece, sees the series return to the small screen after a sizable hiatus. Revived by writer Heidi Thomas (Cranford) and directed by Euros Lyn (Doctor Who), this new Upstairs Downstairs has Marsh reprising her role as Rose, the former parlormaid who now runs an employment agency for domestic servants. The house at 165 Eaton Place has fallen into disrepair in the six years since the Bellamys decamped, its staircase long covered in dust, much like the period drama genre itself. But, before long, the crystal chandelier at the heart of the home, will sparkle once more.
While Marsh returns to the 1930s for the series, she's the only original cast member to do so. The rest of the staff--and the well-heeled Holland family upstairs--are played by actors new to the franchise, including Atkins, who makes her Upstairs debut here as the deliciously quirky Lady Maud Holland, an eccentric widow returning to London following the death of her husband after living in India for years. She brings with her an irrepressible monkey named Solomon, a quiet Indian manservant, Mr. Amanjit (Art Malik), and a propensity for stirring up trouble. Atkins is at the top of her craft here, imbuing Lady Maud with a flintiness that belies unseen vulnerability. In short: she's a hoot, but there's an emotional core to her as well.
Lady Maud is invading a household that's already a bit on edge. Sir Hallam (Ed Stoppard) and Lady Agnes (Keeley Hawes), a childless couple, see the address as an opportunity for a fresh start and the place where their dreams can come true. But there's a hell of a lot of baggage they're dragging along with them. Lady Agnes' sister, the spoilt Lady Persie (Claire Foy), is a shadow thrown over the light and possibility of this new home, and she transforms, over the course of these three installments, from a naive land-rich-but-cash-poor heiress into a loathsome and mercenary creature.
Downstairs, Rose--now newly installed as the housekeeper--has her hands full as well, overseeing a staff that has very different ideas about what's acceptable than she did when she was below stairs as a girl. Ivy Morris (Ellie Kendrick) prefers singing in the bath to housework, chauffeur Harry Spargo (Neil Jackson) spends his time falling into the Fascist movement, well-educated housemaid Rachel Perlmutter (Helen Bradbury) seems in over her head, and Johnny Proude (Nico Mirallegro) conceals a troubling secret. Fortunately, Rose has found some professionals: snobbish cook Clarice Thackeray (Anne Reid) and teetotaler butler Warwick Pritchard (Adrian Scarborough).
The cast is top-notch, as one would expect from any iteration of Upstairs Downstairs. There's a nice emotional throughline to the series and while the plot appears to be episodic, there are strong narrative undercurrents that carry the viewer through all three installments.
With only three episodes at their disposal, there's a lot of plot unfolding here. Characters come and go, matters of life and death intrudes into the space of 165 Eaton Place, and there's as much movement, change, and briskness as you can shoehorn into three hours. (I did wish, upon watching this season, that Thomas and Lyn (whose direction is dazzlingly beautiful) had more than just three episodes to work with. There's an innate sense of grandeur and of recreated glory, but I only feel like we're just scratching the surface here. There's a fair amount of telling, rather than showing going on.)
There's also a sense that the personal and the political are deeply intertwined here, that what's happening inside 165 Eaton Place is both affected by the outside world and also affects it in turn. Real-life historical figures--from Ribbentrop to Cecil Beaton--mingle with the Hollands and their servants and the entire cast of characters--from Foreign Office diplomat Sir Hallam to the lowliest housemaid--is caught up in the changes afoot in 1936: riots in Cable Street, the abdication, rising tensions with Germany, the rumblings of xenophobia and the trumpets of war.
There's a sense that life is about to change in ways that the Hollands and their staff would never, ever expect. While the house may have been repainted, the chandelier restored to its stunning glory, those days that the house represented are long gone and what's about to arrive will change England forever.
Much of Upstairs Downstairs revolves around that sense of fragility and change, offering a view into the way in which people live both above and below stairs. Despite our stations in life, one can't escape the inexorable matters of heartbreak, loss, love, joy, friendship and family. Here, a child's marble becomes an aide-memoir, an emblem of loss and grief, of secrets long kept and heartache most deep.
All in all, the three episodes of Upstairs Downstairs airing this month (six more episodes are on tap for 2012) represent a tantalizing start for this revival, an elegant new beginning for a series that's about the old and outmoded just as much as it is about the bright spirit of hope for the future. Once more, a rose blooms within 165 Eaton Place.
Upstairs Downstairs launches Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece. Check your local listings for details.
Yes, spring is finally here (or thereabouts, anyway), and that brings warmer weather and, very fortunately, a slew of new and returning television series.
Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out my latest feature, "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring," which includes a look at such series as Mildred Pierce, Game of Thrones, The Borgias, The Kennedys, Camelot, The Killing, Body of Proof, Upstairs Downstairs, and returning series such as Nurse Jackie, The United States of Tara, Treme, Doctor Who, Top Chef: Masters, Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the NBC premiere of the final season of Friday Night Lights.
What are you most excited about that arrives on the airwaves between now and May? Head to the comments section to discuss.
"Never say you know the last word about any human heart." - Henry James
Logan Mountstuart, the central character of Any Human Heart, which begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Classic, has experienced the sort of life that is overflowing with love and loss. It's a portrait of not just a life lived, but also of England in the 20th century.
The three-part drama (which aired last year in the UK on Channel 4) is adapted from William Boyd's 2002 novel, "Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart," and recounts the extraordinary life of the central character, played throughout his life by Sam Claflin, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jim Broadbent. Told in a non-linear fashion, we witness key moments in Logan's life: his Oxford collegiate days, the blush of first love and fatherhood, wartime encounters, romance and death, success and failure.
It's the elderly Logan (Broadbent) who is sorting through the detritus of his life and, it seems, his memory, attempting to arrange events in a way that they can be understood, dreams standing side by side with painful memories, half-remembered ones giving way to brutally honest ones, moments of pride and of shame. As he recalls his life, he sorts through the numerous journals he kept throughout his life, the photographs and objects he held onto, as he starts a conflagration in his back yard, the follies of youth giving way to the sobering realizations of old age.
That Logan crosses paths with some extraordinary individuals--from Miro and Hemingway to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the latter played to icy perfection by Tom Hollander and Gillian Anderson)--and is at times at either the right place (or the wrong place, depending on your viewpoint) for some of the seminal moments of the twentieth century gives the gorgeously crafted piece some historical heft, but it's the portrait of one man's life that gives Any Human Heart its true emotional resonance.
This is a heartbreaking drama that uses the life of Logan Mountstuart as way of exploring the universal and the deeply personal. The multiple selves of Logan--represented figuratively by a toddler in a boat, a teenager, an adult, and an old man--are seen gathered on a lake, as Mountstuart attempts to come to grips with his life, the paths he took, the choices he made.
At times elegiac and heartbreaking, witty and droll, Any Human Heart makes us realize the patterns and stories in our own lives, as well as the passage of time that marches on as we too change and alter, marry or divorce, love and lose. Just as we see an England that changes over the course of nearly 100 years, we see the changes in ourselves as well. And that's the beauty and magic of this extraordinary piece of television, the way in which we can connect both to the other and to ourselves. It's not one to be missed. Just make sure you have some tissues nearby.
Any Human Heart begins Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.
PBS' venerable anthology series Masterpiece celebrates its 40th birthday today.
Over at The Daily Beast, in my latest feature ("Masterpiece, Icon of PBS, Turns 40 Today"), I talk with Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton, who has been in the top job since 1985, about the 40th anniversary, the 2008 rebrand, and looking toward the future of this franchise.
I also pick 12 of the best shows from the last four decades of Masterpiece, no small feat given the thousands of hours produced, co-produced, and acquired by the PBS series.
(I could easily pick 50 of my favorites, so, yes, there are quite a few worthy ones that didn't get selected.)
I am curious to know: what are your memories of Masterpiece (and Masterpiece Theatre)? What does the franchise mean to you? And what are your favorite Masterpiece programs from the last four decades?
In the U.K.'s smash hit Downton Abbey, coming to PBS Sunday, the period drama is reinvented for a new generation.
After all of the scrapes with The Daily Mail, the praise from yours truly, and huge ratings in the UK, Julian Fellowes' sumptuous costume drama Downton Abbey finally reaches American shores this weekend.
Over at The Daily Beast, I spoke with creator Lord Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville about Downton Abbey for my latest feature, entitled "Downton Abbey Comes to Masterpiece", in which I also look at the drama series as a condition-of-England piece and its relationship to another British import, the return of Upstairs, Downstairs.
Downton Abbey premieres Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.
The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.
Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it.
Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the project and the work done by creator Julian Fellowes and the series' cast and crew that I relented after several email exchanges.
The journalist in question--that would be Chris Hastings--wanted to talk about Downton's journey across the pond and specifically the cuts that had taken place along the way. When ITV aired Downton Abbey, it did so as seven episodes of varying length, while PBS was airing it as four 90-minute episodes. Which brings us to the main point of this post: despite the fact that I spelled out for Hastings that barely any cuts had been made to Downton Abbey, he wrote a now much-publicized piece for The Daily Mail in which he alleges, according to the hyperbolic lede, that "Downton downsized... by two hours because American TV executives fear its intricate plot will baffle U.S. viewers."
To put it bluntly: it's simply not true.
While I would be incensed about the article to begin with--given that Hastings took up my time on vacation, interrupted me incessantly while I was answering his questions, refused to listen to me, clearly had an agenda of his own, and then had the temerity to quote my review without proper attribution--I'm most angry about the fact that I actually did the math for Hastings during the interview, demonstrating in no uncertain terms that there weren't two hours missing from the US broadcast of the series.
The only thing missing here are, in fact, the commercials themselves.
Let's take a closer look. PBS is airing Downton Abbey as four 90-minute episodes, bringing it to a run-time of roughly 6 hours. Removing the ad breaks, ITV's run of Downton Abbey ran for--wait for it--roughly six hours. (Two episodes ran as 60 minute installments, while five ran for 45 minutes excluding the commercials, of course.)
I pointed this out to Hastings, who countered by saying that the two episodes were 90 minutes. Yes, I said, with commercials. And I countered again by saying that ITV received complaints after the first episode that there were too many ad breaks. The numbers that Hastings was using to make his case about widespread cuts failed to take into account the commercials, which don't air on PBS, even though he himself admits this in his piece.
But Hastings clearly already had an agenda and he clearly wanted to make a point about "simple" Americans "in the land of the notoriously short attention span."
Furthermore, comments made by executive producer Rebecca Eaton of WGBH Boston, which co-produced Downton Abbey, were taken out of context and misunderstood.
In reorganizing Downton into four installments, editors altered the episodes' structures in order to accommodate the altered timeslot. When Eaton said that heir Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) came into the storyline in the first episode rather than the second, she's speaking truthfully. He does now appear in the longer-running first 90-minute episode, but it's not that the first hour has been excised from the show. Rather, he appears in the last 30 minutes, which does, yes, quicken the pace of the entail/inheritance storyline by dint of his appearance in Episode One.
Small changes were made in order to get Downton to fit precisely into the running time allotted by PBS. Hastings goes so far as to admit this ("Ms Eaton insisted that any changes were minor and did not affect the quality of the programme."), even though it seems to be at odds with his thesis. And the internet comments that he quotes--again, unattributed--were in fact addressed to me over Twitter and I reassured those involved that it wasn't the case.
He even repeated Eaton's comments about having only made small cuts of dialogue to me on the phone.
Hastings went on to discuss the fact that Masterpiece host Laura Linney explains matters of the entail and of the Buccaneers (American heiresses who married into the British aristocracy during the Gilded Age), using it once again to attempt to slap U.S. viewers. Hastings writes, "PBS also believes its audiences will need an American to outline the key themes of the show."
First, Masterpiece's hosts typically do explore the historical and social contexts for the series. This would include the matter of the entail (which Hastings admits was confusing for British audiences as well) and Lady Cora's role as one of those Buccaneers. Nothing new there as Linney is performing the same role that all of Masterpiece's hosts ably step into before each episode of a program. Second, Linney might be American but her fellow hosts--among them, past and present, David Tennant, Alan Cumming, Matthew Goode, etc.--are not. So I'm not sure what to make of the "Americans need Americans to explain things to them" comment, which just comes across as ill-informed and mean-spirited.
But that seems to be the point of Hastings' piece as a whole, really. His insistence that "two hours" have been cut from the runtime run counter to our interview and mathematics as well. His attempts to get both me and Lord Fellowes to come up with a predicted audience number for Downton in the US failed as neither of us would offer him a guess as to how many people would be tuning in.
It's safe to say, however, that Hastings' wrong-headed article could actually cut that number, as readers of the Daily Mail piece have been up in arms about the (false) loss of two hours of material and the perceived brazenness of PBS executives for altering the show. (Again, untrue.)
But Hastings may have wanted to do the maths for himself, confirm his findings, or actually sit down to watch the imported version of Downton Abbey before writing his article.
His messy article is, in some ways, awfully similar to Mrs. Patmore's salty meringue, and just as unappetizing.
Downton Abbey launches Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.
“Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.” - Ambrose Bierce
A house might be a home, but it can also serve as an apt metaphor for an entire country. Numerous writers have offered portraits of the changing face of their nation in such condition-of-England novels as Charles Dickens' "Bleak House," Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited," and Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" and "North and South."
In the case of Julian Fellowes' extraordinary period drama Downton Abbey, launching January 9th on PBS' Masterpiece Classic, the titular country estate, home to the well-heeled Crawley family, is in turmoil. Great houses such as these are both relics of bygone eras as well as living, breathing organisms of their own right, humming along as they employ a staff of hundreds.
Everyone--from the lord and lady to the humblest footman and scullery maid--has their function and their duty to maintain. That holdover mentality from Victoria's reign--everything in its place and in its place everything--is what keeps estates like these running. Just as the servants have their duties, so too do the family, maintaining the spirit of noblesse oblige that marked the many centuries of England's aristocratic rule.
Set in the period between the sinking of the Titanic and the outbreak of World War I, Downton Abbey's first season--here presented as four episodes rather than the seven installments of this fall's UK run--offers a detailed representation of life both above and below stairs in the early 20th century, focusing on the lots of both the Crawley family and their servants.
Beginning just after the destruction of the unsinkable ship, Downton depicts the tragedy of the Titanic, keenly felt by the Crawleys as it claimed the lives of the two heirs next in line to inherit both the estate and the title of Earl of Grantham.
The current lord of the manor--that would be Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville)--has three daughters, which sets up the central conflict of succession and inheritance, as the daughters cannot inherit Downton and Robert has no direct male heirs. Furthermore, the estate and the fortune that Robert's American wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) brought into the marriage are all tied up in the entail. And the whole lot will, upon Robert's death, will be inherited by a distant cousin, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), a middle-class solicitor from Manchester whom none of them know.
The fates of everyone at Downton Abbey rests squarely on the shoulders of a distant relation who doesn't want the responsibility thrust at him. What follows is a most remarkable series which took the UK by storm when it aired this fall.
The unfairness of the Crawleys' position is keenly felt as they attempt to fight the entail with tooth and nail. This is especially felt by Robert's mother, Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Dame Maggie Smith), whose husband created the legal bind that they're in today. Cora's vast fortune cannot be separated from the estate, which means that the family will be ruined and lose their home should Matthew inherit. Their hope lies in a legal battle and in a matrimonial one: if their eldest daughter, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), should make an ideal match with a man of wealth, their fortunes could be reversed.
In an ideal world, Mary would marry Matthew and the estate and the fortune would stay in their immediate family. But Mary has no taste for the modern Matthew, who is brought to the estate with his mother Isobel (Penelope Wilton) and set up at Crawley House. Their lives are immediately transformed as they must adapt to a life of wealth and privilege... and leisure. The two are given a staff, including a gentleman's valet, Molesley (Kevin Doyle), and told to settle in for the long haul. But Matthew isn't a gentleman: he's a middle class professional with a more modern way of seeing the world.
Matthew doesn't need a valet to dress him or pour him his tea, not can Isobel--a doctor's wife--simply sit idly. But their intrusion into life at Downton shatters the ordered and rigid way of doing things, testing the social structure of the village and the estate, even as they represent a very real threat to Downton Abbey. (Progress is always viewed with uncertainty and suspicion.)
Not everyone at Downton is stuck in the past. Youngest daughter Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay) is a progressive firebrand, a politically motivated woman who strives for equality and change in everything that she does, seeing a housemaid as no better or worse than herself, a chauffeur as an equal, and the future as something malleable. (Middle daughter, Laura Carmichael's Lady Edith, is less interested in politics and more interesting in snaring a husband, overlooked by all as she is.)
The atmosphere downstairs is no less fraught with conflict. Butler Carson (Jim Carter), housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), and cook Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) attempt to keep their staffs in order, running a tight ship below stairs, but change is seeping into life downstairs as well. Housemaid Gwen (Rose Leslie) is secretly studying to be a secretary, wanting to leave a life of service forever; chauffeur Tom Branson (Allen Leech) is a socialist; and then there's the arrival of valet John Bates (Brendan Coyle), an acquaintance of Lord Grantham himself, who fought alongside him in the Boer War and was injured.
His arrival, echoing that of Matthew upstairs, sets in motion a series of intrigues, plots, and jealousies, as many take umbrage that this disabled man would be appointed as the lord's valet, rather than the First Footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier), who was angling for the job. Opportunistic Thomas and his partner in crime, sullen lady's maid Sarah O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran), are dangerous and cunning; they see an opportunity to send Bates packing and set in motion a series of events that has disastrous consequences for everyone at Downton, even as the secretive Bates is drawn towards Head Housemaid Anna (Joanne Froggatt).
It's fitting that things cut both ways at Downton: just as the family's lives--their sins, sexual dalliances, and failures as well as their triumphs--consume those below-stairs, so to do the goings-on with the servants spill over onto the family; each half is part of a greater whole, mirror-images of each other. (This upstairs/downstairs focus is summed up in the title's logo, which depicts the reflection of the Abbey below it.) Throw a spanner in the works of either, and you'll see the entire machine start to break down.
I don't want to spoil too much of the plot (there are some gasp-inducing plot twists ahead), because is really is one of the most exceptional and original period dramas ever to grace the small screen. Petty crimes mingle with great transgressions, romances flare up as do bitter rivalries, love and betrayal walk through these halls together, secrets and scandals bubble up. What follows is engaging, surprising, and intoxicating as well as beautifully crafted. Special attention must go to directors Brian Percival, Ben Bolt, Brian Kelly, the production team and designers, and the phenomenal cast.
Downton Abbey is not your standard costume drama. For one, it's not an adaptation of a period novel, which might explain the modern viewpoint despite the period settings. While the action might be unfolding circa 1912-1914, Downton Abbey is a modern creation concerned with modern mores and perspectives. As the year moves on for the Crawleys and their servants, the threat of doom and war hangs over the proceedings as the viewer knows just what the next chapter of life in England holds for these men and women.
Can Downton Abbey be saved? And should it? Has the era of the aristocrats come to and end? Just who should rightfully inherit the estate--and by dint England itself--its rule? Are the old ways or the new modernity necessarily better than one another?
Under the pen of the great Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), life at Downton Abbey springs to life with astonishing vivacity and depth, as he depicts in precise detail the lives of the aristocrats and the servants with equal weight. Each member of the sprawling cast gets their own storyline, their own burden to bear, their own moments of joy and grief.
Ultimately, Fellowes' Downton Abbey is transcendent television, offering both a creatively accomplished portrait of life at the turn of the last century and a timeless human drama. Once you fall under this series' rich and intoxicating spell, it is impossible to leave. Thank the Queen there's another season on tap.
Downton Abbey begins January 9th at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings for details.
It contained all of the elements that make Sherlock just gleeful fun: Mark Gatiss' Mycroft, the banter between Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman), creepy criminals like the Golem, a fantastically deranged performance from Andrew Scott as the terrifying Moriarty, and one hell of an intricate mystery. Or in this case, no less than five interconnected mysteries designed to test Holmes' mettle, a battle of wills and minds between the consulting detective and the consulting criminal.
All this and one hell of a cliffhanger, designed to keep us on the edge of our seats until the second season. Despite the fact that Holmes as Saved Watson's life and gotten that pesky explosive vest off of his partner, Moriarty returned to finish them both off... but Holmes had another idea, shifting his gun from targeting Moriarty to that explosive vest, removed minutes earlier. Will he pull the trigger? Is he that desperate that he's willing to put all of their lives at risk or is it a dangerous bluff? We'll have to wait to find out.
But now that the episode has aired, I'm curious to know what you thought of "The Great Game" and the season as a whole? Did you fall in love with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' take on the great detective? And with Cumberbatch and Freeman's performances as the famous sleuths? Were you glad that Watson may have found love with Zoe Telford's Sarah, rather than fall into the monk-like trap that most adaptations have placed him in? Did you gasp with appreciation at just how utterly insane this incarnation of Moriarty is?
And, most importantly, are you dying with anticipation for Season Two of Sherlock right now?
Talk back here.
Sherlock has already been commissioned for a second season by the BBC.
Now that Sherlock has premiered Stateside on Masterpiece Mystery, I'm curious to know what you thought of the modern-day version of Sherlock Holmes, from creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.
But now that the series premiere--"A Study in Pink" (so clearly an allusion to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet")--has aired last night, I want to hear what you thought of the mystery series.
What did you think of the partnership of Cumberbatch's Holmes and Freeman's John Watson? Did you like the way that Mssrs Moffat and Gatiss updated elements of both characters and included such technological advances such as iPhones, text messaging, and blogging? Did you love the way that director Paul McGuigan visually translated these elements to the screen with thought bubbles and the like?
What did you make of Gatiss' M? Or Rupert Graves' Lestrade? And of the mystery itself this week, that woman in pink, her coat, and that missing suitcase? And of the way that Watson came to Holmes' rescue?
And, most importantly, will you tune in again next week?
Talk back here.
Next week on Sherlock ("The Blind Banker"), Sherlock and Watson work on deciphering the deadly symbols that are covering the walls all around London and killing everyone who sees them within hours before any further victim succumbs to the mysterious Black Lotus.
Sherlock Holmes has an iPhone, Watson blogs: The 21st-century version of Sherlock, a BBC phenomenon, begins Sunday on Masterpiece Mystery.
Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Sherlock Comes to the U.S.," in which I talk to Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman about Sherlock and Watson, the similarities and differences between Holmes and Doctor Who's The Doctor, The Hobbit, and more.
Mention Sherlock Holmes and there are a great many things that immediately come to mind for most: that dearstalker hat (which the great detective never actually wore) and a magnifying glass, 221B Baker Street, "Elementary, my dear Watson" (a conflation of two separate quotes, actually), and that damned hound running around on the moors.
Of the seemingly infinite literary characters ever created, the human imagination has latched onto Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in a way that very few other creations have. Scores of adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's consulting detective have been launched in the years since Holmes was first created. We've see young Sherlock, Nazi-fighting Sherlock, and bare-knuckle brawler Sherlock, courtesy of Guy Ritchie.
We also now have a truly modern-day Sherlock Holmes (and I'm not counting House's Gregory House here, though the comparison is apt and the homage intentional) in Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' sophisticated and stellar Sherlock, which premieres Stateside on Sunday evening on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.
With the simply titled Sherlock, Moffat and Gatiss bring the consulting detective and his companion into the 21st century, to a London that's just as fast-paced and desperate as its Victorian counterpart and just as hung up on technology. But the magnifying glasses and Inverness capes have given way to iPhones and stylishly modern tailoring, text messaging and high-tech forensics labs.
The series, containing three feature-length episodes, stars Benedict Cumberbatch (The Last Enemy) and Martin Freeman (The Office) as Holmes and Watson and each is perfectly cast here. Finding actors to bring a famous partnership such as this to life is a delicate thing but together Cumberbatch and Freeman are so supremely balanced, so ideally matched, that it seems as though each was born to play the role.
Cumberbatch's take on Holmes is one of supreme arrogance bordering on hubris; he's so misanthropic, so utterly detached from the rigors of the real world that his interpersonal skills are appalling. Witnesses, victims, police officers are all mere ants under the shoes of this intellectual Goliath, who has sublimated his emotions to the point where his every interaction is based purely on analysis, with no consideration for the feelings or secrets or others. Every encounter is a chance to score another victory for his unrivaled intellect, to deconstruct the world to its bare bones, seeing connections and implications in the simplest of details. A wedding band's condition becomes proof positive of the strength of the marriage, a coat indicative of where the wearer has been and when. He's a loner in a long coat, a scornful curmudgeon who is so very bored with the antics of the stupid and sloppy. What Holmes wants is a worthy opponent.
For his part, Freeman's Watson isn't the rotund, clumsy sidekick that many might expect. Freeman infuses the former army doctor--recently returned from Afghanistan--with a vulnerability and humor but also a steely resolve. He's handy with a loaded gun and, unlike Holmes, geography. If Holmes sees the worst of man, Watson might represent the very best that the species has to offer: he's steadfast, loyal, and even-tempered. Here, he's once again cast in the role of chronicler, providing the narrative spine to Holmes adventure. Given that this is 2010, it's only fitting that he's a blogger, albeit a reluctant one, the blogging part of his therapy after he was injured in the war.
As in the original novels, he'll also cross paths with the ladies, the fair sex being, according to Holmes, Watson's "department." So too is Freeman's Watson no monk, as much as Sherlock would prefer that he tamp down his sexual needs and lead an ascetic life like him. But there's also an intriguing sexual tension between Sherlock and Watson and a continual recurring thread in which everyone they encounter naturally assume the two men--roommates and partners--to be lovers.
It's a modern view that's not played for belly laughs but rather an indication of the times we live in. And, in the eyes of Sherlock's observers, it might make the great detective appear just a bit more human. Holmes, after all, doesn't have a lot of friends or even sympathizers, though he has formed a working relationship with Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves), one of the few coppers who sees Holmes' deductive methods for what they are: the work of a genius.
In the hands of Moffat and Gatiss and directors Paul McGuigan and Euros Lyn, Sherlock's world leaps off of the screen in dramatic fashion. Text messages appear on-screen as thought bubbles in a comic strip, a great chase sequence is brought to life using maps, smash cuts, and slick cinematography. The effect manages to take us inside Sherlock's mind, to see the way that his brain processes data, and to be a part of his deductive reasoning. While the solutions are concealed from the audience until Holmes chooses to speak them aloud, the methodology is brought to live with a clarity that's not been seen before in other adaptations. His genius--and perhaps madness--made so abundantly vivid and clear.
As for the mysteries themselves, they are top-notch. Moffat's "A Study in Pink" and Gatiss' "The Great Game" (the third and final installment) are masterworks of suspense and gripping mystery. While the second episode, "The Blind Banker"--based on "The Dancing Men"--is still better than quite a lot of television mysteries, it fails to match the superb quality of the first and third outings, which introduce Holmes' world to the audience and, in the case of "The Great Game," leave us on a tantalizing cliffhanger until the second season of Sherlock, which will head to BBC One in Fall 2011.
Along the way, the creators of Sherlock layer in some of the most memorable things about the Holmes canon: Mrs. Hudson, Moriarty, the bullet-laden smiley face, and more. I don't want to give away too much about these three lusciously layered mysteries because they're really best experienced first-hand when your mind can attempt to be half as sharp as Sherlock Holmes'. (And, yes, that is Mark Gatiss himself as, well, that would be telling.)
But it goes without saying that behind the door of 221B Baker Street lies this irresistible gem of a mystery series, an intelligent, humorous, and incisive drama for the ages. It's far from elementary, really.
Sherlock begins this Sunday at 9 pm ET/PT on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. Check your local listings for details.
Every now and then a series comes along that features the perfect actor, the perfect character, the perfect scripts, and the perfect setting.
Right now, that series is none other than PBS/BBC's haunting and existential mystery drama Wallander, which returns for its second season on Sunday as part of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery (check your local listings). The series stars Kenneth Branagh as Ystad detective Kurt Wallander, a man gripped by his own concerns as he investigates the grisly and brutal crimes inflicted on the inhabitants of his Swedish port town. (For more on Branagh's take on the character, you can read my interview with him over at The Daily Beast.)
But Wallander's purview isn't just finding the perpetrators of these crimes--which include, in the first installment, the brutal murder of an elderly farmer and his wife--but in examining both the damage that such crimes cause and the fractured psyche that carries them out in the first place. So strong is his repugnance to these crimes that he takes on culpability for them, simply for being a member of the human race, turning a magnifying glass on his own failings.
It's hard not to love Wallander, even as he shoulders an increasingly heavy burden. In "Faceless Killers," the season's first episode, a stray remark sparks an all-out race war in Ystad, even as he comes to terms with the fact that his daughter Linda (Jeany Spark) is dating a man of Syrian origin. Is Wallander racist? Or is he just taken aback by his daughter's ability to surprise him?
Even as he attempts to grapple with his inner conflict, he's presented with further pressure: the condition of his father (the great David Warner) is greatly deteriorating and a series of inexplicable behaviors point towards his Alzheimer's significantly worsening. Can Wallander be the son that his father expects him to be? The father than he daughter wants? The man that he himself wants and needs to be?
Those questions loom large over the action and the wind-swept Swedish landscape, captured in a haunting blue hue that perfectly matches the detective's own psychic malaise.
What follows is an extraordinary season of turmoil, murder, and self-reflection, not to mention some of the smartest and tautest mysteries to air on television. You'd be wise to make room in your schedule for Wallander; once it has caught you in its somber spell, it's impossible to let go.
Season Two of Wallander begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. Check your local listings for details.
Kenneth Branagh has temporarily traded Shakespeare for serial killers in Masterpiece Mystery’s new Wallander installments and superheroes in his highly anticipated directing effort, Thor.
Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out my latest feature, "Kenneth Branagh's Twists and Turns," in which I talk to Branagh about Season Two of Wallander and its existential hero, directing Thor (and its connections to Shakespearean drama), and whether he'll play Sir Laurence Olivier in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn.
Season Two of Wallander begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. Check your local listings for details.
My fall TV preview--or at least part of it, anyway--is finally up.
Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest feature, "Nine Shows to Watch, Six Shows to Shun," where I offer up nine new series to watch this fall and six shows to avoid like the plague.
Just which ended up on which list? Hint, The Event ended up on my worst-of list, while things like Boardwalk Empire, Terriers, Nikita, Sherlock, Luther, Undercovers and others ended up on my watch list. (While The Walking Dead is on there, I still--like every other critic--have not seen a full episode, so there's that to consider.)
But while this is my list, I'm also extremely curious to find out what you're looking forward to this autumn. What are you most excited about watching this fall? Head to the comments section to discuss, debate, and tear into my list.
Yes, I'm back from my holiday-slash-birthday-weekend-extravaganza and catching up on what I missed while I was gone, including news about three of my favorite series, all of which happen to hail from the other side of the pond, and a fourth that is likely to become a new favorite when it launches next year. (Hint: it involves the creators of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes and novelist Kate Atkinson.)
Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has indicated that Season Six of the time-travel drama series will be split into two separate segments, with seven episodes to air in the first half of 2011 and six episodes to air in fall 2011.
"Looking at the next series I thought what this show needs is a big event in the middle," said Moffat. "I kept referring to a mid-season finale. So we are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything. The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series."
"What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back," he continued. "It's an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who. Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before."
Let the guessing games begin about just what the cliffhanger might be...
(It's not a surprise as the first season of Sherlock--which consisted of three feature-length mysteries--lured approximately 9 million viewers in the U.K. It launches Stateside next month on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.)
BBC One has ordered another three feature-length cases for Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman), set to launch in fall 2011. The creators have promised "baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies" when the series returns. (Holmesians will be happy to note that I put in a request for Irene Adler when I met with Moffat and Gatiss a few weeks back.)
Luther.BBC One has ordered two hour-long specials for psychological crime drama Luther, which wrapped up its sixth episode run earlier this year in the UK and which will launch this fall on BBC America. A co-production between BBC One and BBC America, Luther stars Idris Elba; the two specials will air in 2011.
Case Histories. Elsewhere, Monastic Production's Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah--the creators of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes--have announced their new project: an adaptation of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, beginning with "Case Histories." I'm a huge fan of Atkinson's novels and Graham and Pharoah, so I can't wait to see how they tackle her books and adapt them for television.
The duo will adapt all three novels--"Case Histories," "One Good Turn," "When Will There Be Good News," for the first season of Case Histories, with Pharoah set to adapt the first, Graham to adapt the second, and an as-yet-unnamed writer to tackle the third. Project, which will be produced by Ruby Television with Monastic, is set to air in 2011, with production slated to begin in Edinburgh this autumn.
But the best bit is who the guys have got to play Jackson Brodie: none other than Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood) himself. Isaacs was attached to play the lead in FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty (an adaptation of Scott Turow's novel), which was overseen by Bones creator Hart Hanson, but the project was not ordered to series.
FOX's loss is Case Histories' gain. Congrats to Ash and Matt for the commission and for landing Isaacs. Can't wait to see him as Jackson!
What do you make of the news? What's behind the splitting up of the next season of Doctor Who? Anxious for more Sherlock? Ready to have Luther put you on the edge of your seat again? Head to the comments section to discuss.
Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.
Sue Sylvester, SNL host? Moveline is reporting that Glee's Jane Lynch will be hosting the October 9th episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. No word yet on whether Lynch--who is nominated for an Emmy Award in the Supporting Actress in a Comedy category--will be packing Sue's ubiquitous track suits for the hosting gig. What is certain, however, is that Lynch will be bringing her acute comic timing to the host role for SNL's 36th season. (Movieline)
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the CW is planning to launch a crossover between One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected this fall, with One Tree Hill's Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and Mia (Kate Voegele) dropping by the October 12th installment of Life Unexpected, where they will perform at a Portland music festival that's sponsored by the radio station where Shiri Appleby's Kate works. "Haley and Cate are surprised to learn that they share a similar back story [as] mothers,” an unnamed insider told Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that FOX's action-comedy The Good Guys will get some retooling before it returns this fall with an eleven-episode run (which was ordered by the network before the series even premiered). "I hear the focus will be on attracting more female viewers," writes Andreeva. "The show is adding a new recurring female character, a young CSI, that could potentially become a regular. There also will be more emphasis on romantic relationships, with the new character part of that effort. Additionally, RonReaco Lee, who guest starred in the pilot and appeared in 2 more episodes this summer as bumbling criminal Julius, is expected to heavily recur in the fall." Two episodes of The Good Guys' summer run are being held back and will air as part of the series' eleven-episode autumn "season." (Deadline)
Good news for Sherlock fans: Auntie Beeb is in talks with producers Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and Sue Vertue about commissioning a second season of the mystery drama. Vertue indicated on BBC One's Breakfast that talks are about to get under way about more Sherlock and that the format--90-minute episodes--won't change. "There will be more. We're having a meeting to talk about how many and when really," said Vertue. "Steven and Mark are very busy – Steven is obviously doing Doctor Who as well - so it's just when we're going to do them." Moffat, meanwhile, appeared on Radio 5 Live to discuss the season finale and the possibility of more Sherlock. "We're going in for a meeting any second now about it," said Moffat. "But yes, of course it will [come back]. It's not officially confirmed yet but yes, it will – of course it will." (Guardian)
Ryan Devlin is heading back to ABC's Cougar Town this fall, reports Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Devlin--who was originally cast in CBS' $#*! My Dad Says--is set to reprise his role as Smith in multiple episodes of the Courteney Cox-led ensemble comedy. "We went into this year prepping for Ryan to be on [$#*!],” executive producer Bill Lawrence told EW, “so now we’re in the middle of trying to decide what we’re going to do. I enjoy him, so I think I want him to still be in our world. But I don’t know if [Laurie's] going to be [tied down] the whole year.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Oscar winner Jonathan Demme will direct two episodes of HBO's upcoming Mike White/Laura Dern comedy series Enlightened and may also direct a pilot for HBO, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. After posting the story, Andreeva received an email from White announcing who else would be taking turns behind the camera this season: "Demme is awesome - only wish you had included our other awesome directors We also have John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig) and Phil Morrison (Junebug), directing TV for the first time, as well as indie darlings Nicole Holofcener (Please Give, Lovely and Amazing) and Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Chuck and Buck)." (Deadline)
It appears that Levi Johnston won't be going away any time soon: Variety's Michael Schneider is reporting that Johnston will make a big for the mayoral race in Wasilla, Alaska, as part of a new reality series that is being pitched to networks by Stone and Co. Pilot, entitled Loving Levi: The Road to the Mayor's Office, has already begun shooting and follows Johnston as he both pursues a career in Hollywood and runs for mayor. [Editor: yawn.] (Variety)
FOX's time travel/prehistoric action drama Terra Nova is heading down under and has finally settled on a location. The drama--which will launch with a sneak peek in May 2011 before an official series launch in Fall 2011 and stars Jason O'Mara (Life on Mars)--will shoot in Queensland, according to Australian state premier Anna Bligh. "Fox Broadcasting has today confirmed Queensland as the location of choice for Terra Nova … and once again shows Queensland's ability to attract first rate productions to the state," said Bligh. "My government provided considerable incentives through Screen Queensland to secure this production which, in turn, will generate in excess of AUS$54 million ($50 million) in economic activity and create thousands of jobs." Location was previously one of two bases for Steven Spielberg's HBO miniseries The Pacific, the other being Victoria. (Hollywood Reporter)
TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Wayne Brady will reprise his role as James Stinson on CBS' How I Met Your Mother next season and will be bringing along his dad, to be played by Ben Vereen (Webster). "Since Ben, Wayne and Neil [Patrick Harris] are all song and dance men, I can't imagine the show not utilizing their talents for some kind of colorful production number," writes Keck. (TV Guide Magazine)
Shark Tank is returning to ABC next year, with production slated to begin on a new batch of episodes this fall. Joining the entrepreneurs: comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who has signed on to appear in three episodes. (Variety)
Comedy Central has ordered a pilot presentation for Dwaynebook, described as "a green-screen roundup show in the tradition of The Soup that will focus on social networking sites," according to The Wrap's Hunter Walker. Stand-up comedian Dwayne Perkins, who created the series, will host and present segments that shine a spotlight on various social networking sites. (The Wrap)
Reality giant Endemol has acquired a majority stake in unscripted production company Authentic Entertainment, the makers of Flipping Out, Ace of Cakes, Toddlers and Tiaras, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate, among others. The deal is estimated to be in the area of $60-70 million. (Variety)
"My name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221b Baker Street..."
The details might be the same but this is most definitely not your great-grandfather's Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective is given a modern-day makeover courtesy of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss with the new Sherlock, which launches on Sunday in the UK on BBC One and Stateside at the end of October on PBS as part of Masterpiece Mystery.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch (The Last Enemy), Martin Freeman (The Office), and Rupert Graves (Death at a Funeral), Sherlock deposits the titular master sleuth and his trusted companion Dr. John Watson to contemporary London, where they will use their deductive skills to solve all manner of bizarre, surprising, and just plain weird cases.
"Conan Doyle's stories were never about frock coats and gas light," said Moffat. "They're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes... and, frankly, to hell with the crinoline. Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has adventures, and that's what matters."
The full trailer for Sherlock can be viewed below, as well as an interview with Doctor Who head writer/executive producer Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss about the new series.
Sherlock launches Sunday, July 25th at 9 pm GMT on BBC One and October 24th on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.
