We’re only two months away now from the 90-minute Sherlock Christmas special and Amanda Abbington is bursting to talk about the film, which appears to show our heroes in Victorian dress.

Advertisement

But of course she can’t. She admits, though, that it has been hard to keep the plot points secret. And she has an intriguing little teaser for RadioTimes.com readers…

“It’s not what you think,” says the actress, who plays Mary, the wife of real-life partner Martin Freeman’s John Watson.

“People say the perfect thing was that Sherlock was modern day. But I know what’s happened. There’s more to this… Although I can say that it’s great.”

Sherlock fans have been searching the trailer for clues as to what’s in store.

In the clip, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman’s Dr Watson find themselves in danger in sequences which appear to be set in Victorian London, the traditional home of Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective…

Abbington, who begins filming series four of Sherlock in April, is the star of BBC1’s new Brighton-based police drama Cuffs, alongside Top Boy’s Ashley Walters and Broadchurch’s Shaun Dooley.

Her character, DS Jo Moffat, is a hard working detective with a lonely home life.

Abbington said of Cuffs “When I got the scripts, and when I got the part, I didn’t know it was pre-watershed so I was playing it post-watershed. I don’t think it makes a hell of a lot of difference. But it doesn’t feel like a pre-watershed show.

“You can swear a bit after nine o’clock and you can show a bit more flesh, but none of that really applies in Cuffs and I think it feels like a very grown-up attempt at a police drama.”

Peter Sullivan, most recently seen as Commander Laurence Stern in Abi Morgan’s award-winning The Hour, takes on the role of Chief Superintendent Robert Vickers, a married man who is having an affair with Abbington’s character.

“He’s a middle-aged guy having a mid-life crisis,” said Sullivan. “And there’s obviously been a relationship between him and Jo, which he’s tried to break off and he can’t. He’s trying to be good, he’s trying to be a good guy, and he isn’t pulling it off very well.”

Former So Solid Crew rapper Ashley Walters, who won acclaim for his portrayal of a drug dealer in Channel 4 drama Top Boy, plays policeman Ryan Draper, an intense and introverted single father.

Advertisement

Cuffs airs on Wednesday 28th October at 8pm on BBC1