Sherlock's Best Successor Is So Good, It's Already Renewed For Another Season

Credit: UKTV / Guillaume Van Laethem Published Sep 16, 2026, 2:31 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account BBC Sherlock's best successor is so good, it's already renewed for another season (and more). Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's groundbreaking 21st-century adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's work was a major moment in British TV history. It changed how audiences thought about the Sherlock Holmes mythos; Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman became definitive portrayals of their respective characters. Even now, nine years after the show's finale — and despite ending on a somewhat sour note — its legacy remains noticeable in other modern detective dramas. Gatiss and Moffat changed the game for an entire genre. Now, Gatiss has done so again with his stunning original detective series. Embracing his continued love of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, the creator, writer, and star has produced his own unique and equally impressive non-police sleuth: Gabriel Book, an antiquarian bookseller living in post-Blitz London, whose keen analytical mind and vast obscure knowledge help the police solve even the most confounding murders. Gatiss' Bookish is a genuine treat for fans of old-school detective dramas and murder mysteries, made even more so by Gatiss' carefully constructed, intriguing characters and the 1940s setting. Luckily, Bookish has proven to be a massive hit both in the UK and overseas. The first season, which boasts an undeniably rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics' score, is available to watch via PBS in the US, while the second season just aired in the UK last month. UKTV has also recently confirmed that a third six-episode season is in the works, with the additional bonus of a two-part Christmas special set to air this holiday season titled Bookish: The Crown of Destiny. There's arguably never been a better time to be a murder mystery fan. Like Sherlock, Mark Gatiss' Bookish Is Driven By Its Characters Credit: UKTV / Guillaume Van Laethem What made the BBC's Sherlock beloved wasn't just its exciting, fast-paced mysteries. Audiences genuinely fell in love with Cumberbatch and Freeman's Sherlock and Watson, both as individual characters and as a dynamic duo. They were the glue that held the entire show together, even when its storytelling became increasingly over-the-top. Other characters, even Andrew Scott's memorable version of James Moriarty, could come and go. As long as Sherlock and Watson were in sync, the show still worked. Gatiss' Bookish is similarly invested in its characters and their relationships, though the period detective drama has a bigger, more involved group. Gatiss' Book is a brilliant sleuth, a keen observer, and a genuinely caring man, forced to hide his true self during a time when homosexuality was still outlawed. His relationship and lavender marriage with Polly Walker's Trottie is the heart of the show. The first season establishes through a series of clever, moving flashbacks that their love is genuine; it's just not the kind of love the rest of the world thinks they share. From Baker Street to the Reichenbach · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Sherlock Holmes? “When you have eliminated the impossible…” 🔎The MagnifierObserve, don’t see 👼Pipe & TobaccoThree-pipe problem 🏯Baker Street221B 🕷️MoriartyNapoleon of Crime 📱Modern SherlockHigh-functioning sociopath THE GAME IS AFOOT → 01 Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887 and went on to feature in four novels and 56 short stories — a body of work fans call “the Canon.” The Edinburgh-born author who created him was a practising physician before fiction made him famous, and was knighted in 1902 for unrelated journalistic work on the Boer War. Name him. AWilkie Collins BSir Arthur Conan Doyle CEdgar Allan Poe DG.K. Chesterton ✓ Correct! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). He trained at Edinburgh under Dr Joseph Bell — whose almost theatrical diagnostic deductions were the direct model for Holmes’ method — before failing to make a living from medicine and turning to fiction. Doyle wrote four Holmes novels and 56 short stories between 1887 and 1927, plus a parallel career in historical novels and spiritualism advocacy. He was knighted in 1902 for his pamphlet defending Britain’s conduct in the Boer War, not for the Holmes stories. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone, The Woman in White) is the great Victorian sensation novelist and an influence on the genre, but didn’t create Holmes. Edgar Allan Poe’s Auguste Dupin (in Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1841) is the prototype for the rational-detective genre and an open influence on Doyle. Chesterton wrote Father Brown. Holmes is Conan Doyle’s. NEXT → 02 Holmes and Watson share rooms above Mrs Hudson’s lodgings at the most famous fictional address in literature — so famous that for decades the Abbey National Building Society employed a full-time secretary to answer letters sent to it. What is the address? A21 Baker Street B221B Baker Street C10 Downing Street D187 Baker Street ✓ Correct! 221B Baker Street — an address that didn’t exist when Doyle invented it (Baker Street numbering originally only ran into the lower hundreds). When the road was renumbered in the 20th century, the address fell within the Abbey National Building Society’s building — and so the bank employed a permanent “secretary to Sherlock Holmes” to answer the thousands of letters that arrived from fans every year. The Sherlock Holmes Museum now occupies the next-door property and uses the 221B address with City of Westminster permission. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 221B Baker Street. The “B” matters — it indicates the upper-floor flat above Mrs Hudson’s ground-floor rooms. Doyle picked the number when no real 221 existed; today, the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street is officially permitted to use the 221B address. NEXT → 03 Doyle’s first Holmes novel was published as the centrepiece of the 1887 issue of Beeton’s Christmas Annual, where Doyle was paid £25 for the full copyright. It introduces Watson, narrates the meeting with Holmes at St Bart’s laboratory and pivots into a long Mormon-Utah backstory. Name the novel. AThe Sign of the Four BA Study in Scarlet CThe Hound of the Baskervilles DThe Valley of Fear ✓ Correct! A Study in Scarlet (1887). Doyle wrote it in three weeks while waiting for medical patients who never arrived at his Southsea practice. The first half is the now-iconic introduction (Watson’s wound from the Battle of Maiwand, the chemistry lab, “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive”); the second half pivots without warning to a Western-set Mormon revenge backstory in Utah. Beeton’s Christmas Annual sold out, and only 11 surviving copies of the magazine are known to exist today — making them among the most valuable items in modern book collecting. ✗ Wrong. The answer is A Study in Scarlet. The Sign of the Four (1890) is the second novel. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is the third and most-famous — serialised in the Strand and frequently topped Holmes-novel polls. The Valley of Fear (1914–15) is the fourth and last. The very first Holmes work is A Study in Scarlet, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual 1887. NEXT → 04 John H. Watson narrates almost the entire Holmes Canon and is Holmes’ flatmate, biographer and friend. When the two meet in A Study in Scarlet, Watson is recovering at a London hotel from a wound received at the Battle of Maiwand — a clue to his profession in the British Army. What was Watson’s profession? ASolicitor (lawyer) BJournalist CArmy surgeon (medical doctor) DPolice inspector ✓ Correct! Army surgeon — specifically Assistant Surgeon, attached to the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers and then the Berkshires during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Watson took a Jezail bullet at Maiwand (July 27, 1880), was rescued by his orderly Murray and shipped home on a wound pension of 11 shillings and sixpence a day. The war wound is variously located in his shoulder or his leg across the Canon — Doyle famously didn’t keep his own continuity straight. Watson is a working medical doctor throughout the series. ✗ Wrong. The answer is army surgeon — Watson is a medical doctor (the “Dr” in “Dr Watson” is hard-earned). He served with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers in Afghanistan, took a Jezail bullet at Maiwand and shipped home on a small wound pension. He runs a private medical practice during much of the Canon, often near Paddington. NEXT → 05 In December 1893’s Strand Magazine, an exhausted Doyle attempted to kill off Holmes by sending him over a Swiss waterfall locked in mortal struggle with Professor Moriarty. Public reaction was apocalyptic; mourners reportedly wore black armbands in the City. After ten years of pressure, Doyle resurrected him in “The Empty House” (1903). Name the falls. ANiagara Falls BReichenbach Falls CThe Trummelbach Falls DThe Rhine Falls ✓ Correct! Reichenbach Falls, near Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland — which Doyle had visited the year before and chose specifically as a setting dramatic enough to retire Holmes. The story “The Final Problem” ends with Watson finding only Holmes’ cigarette case, alpenstock and a farewell note. Doyle was so determined to be done that he wrote “Killed Holmes” in his diary. Public mourning was so intense (over 20,000 Strand readers cancelled subscriptions) that he caved a decade later. “The Empty House” (1903) reveals Holmes survived by tossing Moriarty alone over the edge. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Reichenbach Falls. Niagara is American/Canadian. The Trummelbach Falls (also in Switzerland, in fact) and the Rhine Falls are real but not the Holmes setting. Doyle set the “death” specifically at the Reichenbach Falls near Meiringen — today a Sherlock Holmes pilgrimage destination with its own museum and statue. NEXT → 06 Holmes calls his arch-nemesis “the Napoleon of Crime” — a former mathematics professor with a treatise on the binomial theorem to his name, now operating an invisible criminal syndicate that runs through London like a spider’s web. He appears in just two stories of the Canon but looms over the entire mythos. Name him. AProfessor James Moriarty BColonel Sebastian Moran CCharles Augustus Milverton DIrene Adler ✓ Correct! Professor James Moriarty. He explicitly appears in just two Canon stories — “The Final Problem” (1893) and the prequel novel The Valley of Fear (1914–15) — and is mentioned in five others, but his cultural footprint is enormous. Doyle modelled the “Napoleon of Crime” phrase on Scotland Yard’s real-life nickname for Adam Worth, a 19th-century international thief who funded London’s underworld from a fashionable mews flat. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Professor James Moriarty. Colonel Sebastian Moran is Moriarty’s lieutenant — Holmes calls him “the second most dangerous man in London” — and is the trigger man in “The Empty House.” Charles Augustus Milverton is the blackmailer of his own self-titled story. Irene Adler is Holmes’ intellectual rival from “A Scandal in Bohemia” (memorably called “the woman” by Holmes). Moriarty is the explicit arch-nemesis. NEXT → 07 The BBC’s contemporary-set Sherlock — created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson — debuted with the episode “A Study in Pink,” updating Doyle’s first novel for a London of mobile phones and military Afghanistan. The show won 7 Emmys across its run. In which year did it premiere? A2008 B2010 C2012 D2014 ✓ Correct! 2010 — July 25, BBC One, “A Study in Pink.” The series was famously short-format-by-design (just three 90-minute episodes per season, four seasons, 2010–17, plus the one-off “Abominable Bride” special) and was the project that propelled Cumberbatch from supporting roles into Doctor Strange and Hollywood A-list status. The show’s “A Study in Pink” pilot was actually shot a year earlier in 2009 but was substantially reworked and reshot for broadcast. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 2010. 2008 is when Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat first pitched the show. 2012 is when CBS’s competing American adaptation Elementary (with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu) launched. 2014 is when BBC’s Sherlock Season 3 aired. The show’s first broadcast was July 25, 2010. NEXT → 08 One of the four phrases below is the world’s most-quoted Holmes line — and yet it never appears anywhere in the 60 stories of the Canon. Holmes does say each of its components separately, but the famous combined version was popularised by adaptations decades after Doyle’s last story. Name the phantom phrase. A“The game is afoot” B“You know my methods” C“Elementary, my dear Watson” D“A three-pipe problem” ✓ Correct! “Elementary, my dear Watson” never appears in the Canon. Holmes does say “Elementary” on its own (in “The Crooked Man”) and “my dear Watson” many times, but the combined phrase was popularised first by P.G. Wodehouse’s 1909 novel Psmith, Journalist and then cemented as a Holmes catchphrase by the 1929 Clive Brook film The Return of Sherlock Holmes — Hollywood’s first sound-era Holmes adaptation. Basil Rathbone’s 14-film cycle (1939–46) made it standard. The other three lines are real Canon quotes. ✗ Wrong. The answer is “Elementary, my dear Watson.” Holmes says “The game is afoot” (it’s a Henry V quote, used in “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”), “You know my methods” (in The Sign of the Four and elsewhere) and refers to “a three-pipe problem” (in “The Red-Headed League”). The combined “Elementary, my dear Watson” was popularised by adaptations — Wodehouse used it in 1909, the 1929 Clive Brook film cemented it — but Doyle himself never wrote it. REVEAL MY RATING → The Case File · Final Verdict Your Detective Standing 🔎 / 8 Master of Baker Street — or just a confused Lestrade? ⤴ INVESTIGATE AGAIN Book cares equally for Trottie and his protégés, Jack (Connor Finch) and Nora (Buket Kömür). Like Sherlock and Watson, they solve each crime together. Unlike Sherlock, though, who is generally irritated with Detective Inspector Lestrade, Book also genuinely admires and feels fond of his primary police contact, Detective Inspector Bliss (Elliot Levey). Bliss, in turn, respects him. Every character works together to create the larger whole. Bookish's stories aren't just about the whodunit. They also give the show a chance to explore its most important relationships with more depth. Mark Gatiss' Bookish Could Last Forever Credit: UKTV/PBS Where Sherlock and Bookish most obviously differ is that Bookish could, technically, last forever. The problem with Sherlock was that each new case needed to up the stakes. Someone as singularly brilliant as Sherlock Holmes required a bigger challenge with each episode. Once Moriarty was gone, the series needed to find him a new opponent, but it never succeeded. Neither Charles Magnussen nor Sherlock's long-lost and somehow even more brilliant sister Eurus Holmes could fix Sherlock's narrative problem. Despite all of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, the show was always destined to end. Bookish doesn't have to, however, not as long as Gatiss is willing to play and write for the character. Book is a clever detective, but nowhere near Sherlock Holmes' almost mythical level of intellect. Book's and Bliss' suspects and adversaries can be more personal, more grounded. The murderers can vary from overarching enemies to jealous lovers to everyday people who've simply made a mistake and have tried to cover it up as best they can. As long as the show weaves Book's and the other characters' personal journeys with the cases, there's no reason Bookish couldn't last as long as something like Death in Paradise or Midsomer Murders, especially since there are only three cases per season. Bookish's season 3 renewal and the addition of a Christmas special is a good sign. Let's hope there are many more seasons to come for Book, Trottie, and the gang, as the show leaves Book's gorgeous bookshop and ventures into the wider world beyond in season 2. Release Date July 16, 2025 Network U&Alibi Directors Carolina Giammetta Cast