Sherlock trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman go to war

The BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson has gone back to the place it started from -- Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th century London.

Sherlock has gone retro on us. The BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson has gone back to the place it started from -- Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th century London -- but in its heart it stays contemporary. The two-hour Christmas Special set in Victorian England, which we will get to watch later this year, came up with its second promo and we do like what we saw.

Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock trailer.

Cars are replaced by horse-drawn carriages, policemen carry whistles instead of guns and smartphones and Dr Watson has a giant bush of a moustache, but it is still Sherlock as we know him. He has promised to keep someone safe but someone or something is thwarting him.

Beyond that, there are few clues regarding what is happening in the special. What we do see is a bleak and fog-filled London, hiding more than its fair share of secrets.

To emphasise how high the stakes are, Sherlock tells Watson at one point in the trailer, “Every great cause has martyrs. Every war has suicide missions, and make no mistake: this is war.”

Read: Mark Gatiss on Sherlock

And we are ready to go to war with him, as long as he has his deerstalker on and is giving us the benefit of his methods.