Moffat told IGN: “It’s interesting, when were we that mystery-driven? The only totally mystery-driven story I can think of is ‘The Blind Banker’. I mean, ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’, which is outrageous from that point of view, has a crime story going for about, what, 25 minutes? Then it’s about a boy and a girl missing each other. That’s it for now. Then the plot, more or less, wakens up towards the end.”

He explained: “I think we’ve always favoured the characters, because that’s the vivid thing in Sherlock Holmes stories. At the beginning of every Sherlock Holmes story, there are two or three pages of just Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson having a chat by the fireside. That’s what people fell in love with. So we’ve always favored that.”

The writer added: “As we keep proclaiming to anyone who’s not completely bored of it by now, it’s not a detective show; it’s a show about a detective. That’s why it’s a hit. That’s why it’s exciting.”

Moffat recently revealed that there would have to be “a pressing narrative reason” to produce a Sherlock movie for cinema release rather than for television.

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