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Benedict Cumberbatch says mum thinks he's turning into Sherlock: "I do get affected by it"

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Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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Sherlock will be returning to our screens for its fourth series on New Year's Day, and Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed that his mum, actress Wanda Ventham, thinks he gets affected by Mr Holmes!

Chatting to Radio Times, the Doctor Strange star joked: "There is a kickback. I do get affected by it. There's a sense of being impatient. My mum says I'm much curter with her when I'm filming Sherlock." Wanda has seen Benedict in action as the genius detective after playing his onscreen mother in series three of the immensely popular BBC show.  

Speaking about the upcoming season, the 40-year-old actor hinted that fans could expect the show to become "very bleak." He said: "There are payoffs in this series that I know in some instances even the writers didn't realise were happening until they were starting to write it, which is just remarkable. The level of invention and imagination and darkness and joy just gets better and better. There's a lot of very serious stuff, and it's very bleak at times. But the writers also manage to do something very funny as well."

bene© Photo: BBC

Benedict will be returning as Sherlock on New Year's Day

The show creator Stephen Moffat also teased what was to come, telling Digital Spy: "Without giving anything away, this is about as tough a journey as he goes on… Sherlock and John both, actually. This is about as difficult as it gets for them. They kind of go to hell and back this time." The BBC have been teasing the return of the show with a series of mini trailers counting down the days until its return. The videos have shown a dramatic photo of a different character each day with a voiceover from Moriarty, Sherlock's greatest villain who made a shock return in the season three finale, who says: "Did you miss me?"