BBCIs it possible that the BBC's 21st-century Sherlock Holmes will ever be more than married to his work?
Irene Adler already proved that Benedict Cumberbatch's super-sleuth could be seduced (somewhat) by more than the powers of deduction, but certain devoted fans will only ever hope for one thing.
And that's for Sherlock and Martin Freeman's Dr. John Watson to be together. Like, together-together.
So while he wasn't making any major revelation, we can't help but feel that Cumberbatch was being a bit cheeky today on Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast while laying out the many differences between Sherlock and another fictional character beloved among the Brits: Doctor Who.
Hardwick was relaying a story about the time he cracked to Sherlock creator Steven Moffat that the Doctor is "really just space-Sherlock."
"And he was like, ‘That is absolutely not true!'" the @midnight host continued, feigning a British accent. "The Doctor cares for everyone. Sherlock's a sociopath!'"
And Cumberbatch took the ball and ran with it, agreeing, "Yeah, yeah...That's kind of true. And one uses a sonic screwdriver and time travel, and the other uses his brain and isn't 900 years old, isn't reincarnated, isn't, you know...One doesn't solve crimes quite as much."
"He solves universal crimes," Hardwick insisted, to no avail.
"He talks fast and is clever," Cumberbatch said of the Doctor, who is now played by Peter Capaldi but around the time Hardwick was referring to was probably being played by Matt Smith. "That is literally the only bracket they share. They've got different dress senses, different taste in the sex of their partners..."
Wait, hang on.
OK, carry on. What he outwardly means is that Doctor Who always has a female, generally platonic companion, and Sherlock of course always has Watson by his side. (And he's always a guy, minus Lucy Liu's Joan Watson on Elementary). But if anyone can slip in a drive-the-fans-crazy double entendre, it's Benedict Cumberbatch.
Earlier in the chat, during a discussion about how great actors should really, er, stick more dick jokes into their work and gratuitously flash more penis (à la Ben Affleck in Gone Girl), Cumberbatch gave a nod to all the Johnlock shippers out there.
"He's got a long coat, a lot going on underneath that long coat," he said of Sherlock. "If the Internet had its way I'd probably do it to [flash] Dr. Watson. ‘And so the [fan] fiction was born.'"