Sherlock’s co-creator Mark Gatiss has told the Radio Times he would like to see a festive outing for the master sleuth.

“I love [the story] The Blue Carbuncle,” he said. “I’d love to use it as the basis for a Sherlock Christmas special!”

But if a Christmas special were to become a reality, the earliest we’d see it would be 2012 now. A long, long way off, obviously!

Gatiss also teased the second series which is set to air early 2012: “Sherlock [Benedict Cumberbatch] and John [Martin Freeman] are still in the early days of their immortal friendship,” he says, “and Moriarty is still out there, in the shadows…”