I recall a holiday I once took to Dubai with my family, it is the only time all of us have gone on one together. We went to a lovely 5 star hotel, ate phenomenally well, sat about in the sun, and in general relaxed. I still hate the place. It feels like a soulless desert obsessed with consumerism, but it did give me one thing, and that was an utter love of Sherlock Holmes. I took two Penguin classics with me of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, and needless to say, I became obsessed.

You can imagine my excitement when I heard that Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat were to be making a modern adaptation. Gatiss I have followed since League of Gentleman, and I have also started to watch Dr Who (mainly due to Karen Gillan tbh). After the mild disappointment that was the Guy Richie Sherlock Holmes project (fun, but missing much of the stuff that makes Sherlock such a popular figure) I was slightly wary at first of this reinterpretation. But that was misguided, and I should have had more faith in the writers. It looked great, with lots of nice little modern touches and many tweaks on the Sherlock tropes were given a fresh flavour in the modern setting. As a self confessed geek, I loved spotting the little in jokes, the references to other titles of short stories. The Geek Interpreter being my personal favourite.

They got the perfect actor in Benedict Cumberbatch, with his slightly alien looks, and wonderful voice, to play Sherlock. I hadn’t seen him in anything prior to this, but you can see why he is in huge demand. He was brilliant in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and I am interested in seeing how he fairs as Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit, and as the principal villain in the new Star Trek film. In Martin Freeman the producers had the archetypal everyman, a cypher for all of us. People sometimes frown on actors like Freeman, as if what he does is a lower form of acting, but that is ridiculous. Watching the Office, he was all of us as Tim, and as Watson, he was like everyone else, in awe of Sherlock. And unlike camply suggesting that there was something ‘up’ with their relationship, or lampooning this, the writers wrote genuine affection for the two leads.

On an aside, for those who question whether Martin Freeman speaks for us all, look at his reaction here to the news that The Only Way is Essex wins a Bafta.

I am unashamed to say the final scene made me well up a bit, but I think that is because regardless of what anyone says, guys love a good bromance. We think of all our friendships, and wish that we could be back at school, where you knew you had at least one person who had your back. As you get older, you lose those people, they are whittled away, so to watch a programme about two adults in this scenario makes us all go a bit misty eyed. Or maybe I am just soft. Probably the latter.

Then you have the brilliant Louise Brearley playing Molly. Some would say it is a minor role, but I disagree, the moment she turned up in more than one episode, you kind of knew she would have a key part to play. And I am 100% certain she is the one who <REDACTED TO KEEP SPOILER FREE>

Basically, if you haven’t been watching these, go out and procure them. The dvd of the first series is out, pick it up cheap, and watch 3 lovingly crafted, intricate stories. If not you will be missing out on something that is really special. The new episodes are on BBC iPlayer so you really have no excuse.

Of course you could just watch Celebrity Big Brother.

- Anand