All concerned with the smash hit show Sherlock have conceded that it’ll be a while yet before it returns to our screens, and that there’s going to be a bigger gap between episodes this time around.

It sounds like that might be something of a relief for Martin Freeman too, who plays Watson in the show.

In a new interview with The Telegraph, he’s admitted that the fun has gone out of making Sherlock, due to the pressures that come with it.

“To be absolutely honest, it [was] kind of impossible. Sherlock became the animal that it became immediately”, he said.

“Whereas even with The Office, it was a slow burn. But Sherlock was frankly notably high quality from the outset. And when you start [that high] it’s pretty hard to maintain that”, he added.

“Being in that show, it is a mini-Beatles thing. People’s expectations, some of it’s not fun anymore. It’s not a thing to be enjoyed, it’s a thing of: ‘you better f[rudeword] do this, otherwise, you’re a c[rudeword]’”.

He said some very rude words there.

He added that “that’s not fun anymore. I think after series four [it] felt like a pause. I think we felt we’d done it for a bit now. And part of it, speaking for myself is [down to] the reception of it”.

With Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat concentrating on their Dracula TV show next, there are no announced plans for Sherlock season 5. The full interview with Freeman can be read here.