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The emotional heft came from Sherlock being drawn further into human relationships than this “high-functioning sociopath” ever intended.
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Will Lestrade’s bank-robbing Waters family return next week, or was that all an elaborate set-up for a single punch line? There was no sign of the spectacle-wearing mastermind glimpsed at the end of the last episode, and no mention of John’s bonfire adventure. The let-down, if it can be called that, is that threads left hanging in The Empty Hearse weren’t woven in. There aren’t enough good things in the world to say about Amanda Abbington’s Mary, who, after just two episodes, feels like part of Sherlock’s furniture in the best possible way. Seeing Alice Lowe ( Sightseers, Horrible Histories) as the ghost-dating client was a nice surprise, as was a brief appearance from Lara Pulver in her battle dress. In terms of supporting cast, Una Stubbs was tremendous this week. Pretty as the wedding venue was, we spent more time inside Sherlock’s mind than anywhere else, a place where – surprisingly given their outward frostiness to one another – brother Mycroft holds court. Holmes played a round of Take Me Out with a courtroom of ghost-dating women, then narrowed down his search for a potential victim in the wedding party eliminating them one by one in a snazzy game of Guess Who. Visually, the tricks were working overtime. In that respect then, The Sign Of Three shook up the status quo less than it may have appeared. Unlikely murders and locked room mysteries are of course the meat and drink of Sherlock Holmes stories. Major Sholto and Jonathan Small – Conan Doyle characters in name only – were given a less lurid backstory than their The Sign Of Four counterparts though the method of attempted murder (undetectable delayed-action stabbing) was as far-fetched as anything involving pygmy sidekicks and poison darts. Less solid than Cumberbatch’s performance was the murder plot, which arrived late, left early and didn’t achieve a huge amount in between. Lucky then, that the actor held the thing together. Being the ringmaster of The Sign Of Three’s particular circus, with its erratic leaps and timeline jiggery-pokery, was no small ask.
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The episode demanded clowning and a good deal more from Benedict Cumberbatch, who was rarely off-screen for the ninety minutes and ran things more or less single-handedly in that time. It was a warm-hearted, frenetic instalment that left you feeling punch drunk and loved-up: Sherlock Actually. No strangers to the wedding comedy genre, how might the British viewing public feel about watching one smuggled inside an episode of Sherlock? Fondly, is the hope, if initially disorientated and – depending on your belief in the powers of a tight belt – somewhat incredulous.