The waiting time for PBS broadcast in the United States was brought up, with Sue noting that if possible, that large gap would be reduced. And on a similar vein, it was asked how long Sherlock would run for, with Sue saying that the series would continue for as long as everyone is happy to keep making it. Mark again brought up the desire to see the pair age over years into the roles, something that hadn't really been seen before. That in turn led to discussion of the back story for Sherlock and Mycroft, with Mark extrapolating upon material partially revealed in the DVD commentary for The Great Game. In their invented back story, the sibling rivalry stems from a young Sherlock discovering that the pair's father was having an affair, creating a family rift. The material was cut out of the final version of the episode though, with Steven saying that ultimately they were not happy about including it as it was their own invention and addition to the characters,rather from the source material. There were however minor onset asides to Sherlock's isolation in A Scandal in Belgravia, during the Christmas scene -though they aren't really visible onscreen, all the cards on the mantelpiece
above the fireplace were addressed to John, bar one.
Next up on stage was Louise Brealey, who regaled us with some grim stories about filming in Methyr Tydfil morgue, not confined to finding brains in buckets, knife sharpeners, oddly out of place and thus disturbing implements - such as ladles - lying around, and filming in the location at 4am, or being snowed in there. At one point, when asked what it is like to work with three handsome actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott, Mark completed the question, before realising the implication of it and threw down the question papers in mock disgust and petulance, before resuming with a huge grin thanks to huge cheers for him from the audience.
Rupert Graves was next to arrive, and confirmed the famous story of him running away to join the circus as a sixteen year old. In actual fact, he answered an advertisement for apprentice clowns in the job centre, and ended up learning a variety of tricks ranging from juggling to turning water in a bucket into confetti. Rupert confirmed he currently has no plans to appear in theatre due to his young family - joking that arriving home in the late hours tired from work and accidently swearing at a small child isn't terribly conducive to a happy home life. Mark also rather devilishly brought up the fact that since Lestrade and Mycroft have yet to share a scene together there is a degree of fan fiction prevalent online that paired the two up romantically, leading to a genuinely surprised reaction from Rupert that he then rather amusingly played up, appearing quite open to the idea.
Last onstage was Martin Freeman, receiving the biggest welcome but also the most interesting audience interaction throughout, responding to laughter when he wasn't saying anything genuinely funny with an anecdote about his mother in law doing the same, where she ends up laughing when he simply said hello. Martin admitted that his previous knowledge of the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was actually rather low before he started the series, having only heard of them as part of
popular culture, and he was resistant to a modern version of the stories before falling in love with the script. He said he carried out some research for the role, meeting a pair of army doctors who gave him some insight, but didn't stretch himself as far as taking part in any firearms training. Martin also spoke about chemistry between actors, remarking that you recognise it relatively instantly when it happens, as well as being on the cusp of possible superstardom with the arrival of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in just over a month's time, and the uncertainty over whether it will end up changing his life. He said he hadn't seen the complete version of the film, only sections when he carried out some Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR), but affirmed that it looked fantastic.