Talking Telly: BBC to produce more ‘Sherlock’ next year – More Details Inside!

It was a foregone conclusion after a huge debut on BBC One that more episodes of “Sherlock” would be coming. But now it’s official that Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s retelling of the classic will be back on British television screens next fall.

At the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, BBC Controller Jay Hunt said that three additional 90-minute episodes of the show, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, have been commissioned. The first three episodes of the show aired on BBC One in July and will air in the US on PBS in October.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the warmth of response to our new Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and can’t wait to take them on three new adventures next year,” said Gatiss and Moffat in a statement. “There’ll be baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies – whether on two, or four legs. And we might well be seeing the cold master of logic and reason unexpectedly falling. But in love? Or over a precipice? Who can tell?”

Gatiss also took to his Twitter account with the news, although he later said to fans, “Hope you understand that the writing & production of 3×90′ films doesn’t happen overnight.” Presumably that was to squelch the frustration that there will be another year to wait now after one of the better cliffhanger endings on modern television.

At the festival, Hunt also said the network has commissioned two additional two-hour specials of “Luther” to air next year, a new comedy panel show headed by Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert, and yet another British cookery show, this one with food author Simon Hopkinson.