Doctor Who Vs. Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

The Crime Scene Magazine website
previewed the stand-alone Sherlock

festive special. Emma Dibdin wrote:
"Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss

pulled off the unthinkable. Modern-

ising Sherlock Holmes had seldom

been attempted before, much less

with any success, and initial reports

were met with scepticism from Doyle

aficionados and the general public

alike. How wrong we all were. Now,

what has become unthinkable is

placing Benedict Cumberbatch's

Holmes and Martin Freeman's Dr.
Watson back in the Victorian period
from whence they came, and so [the
writers] set out to do just that with
[The Abominable Bride].
"It's Holmes in his natural era [but
with the] modern version, he's a Victorian man out of time" says Gatiss.
Exactly two years on from Holmes' return from the dead in The Empty 
Hearse, Sherlock is back with this gothic mystery, swapping the modern-
day setting for late Victorian London. 1895: the iconic Deerstalker-clad
Holmes and the heavily-moustached Watson face a supernatural enemy
in the form of Mrs. Ricoletti's ghost.

Rupert Graves (as Lestrade), Una Stubbs (Mrs. Hudson), Amanda

Abbington (Mary), Louise Brealey (Molly), Jonathan Aris (Anderson),

Gatiss (Mycroft) and Andrew Scott (Moriarty) all returned for this

period drama. David Nellist and Yasmine Akram reprised the roles

of Mike Stamford and Janine, whilst the character of Billy [Wiggins]

debuted here.

The feature-length adventure (the title based on a quote from The
Musgrave Ritual, published in 1893) premiered on BBC1 (and was
simulcast in UK cinemas) on New Year's Day 2016. Consolidated

 ratings for the episode, including a BBC3 repeat, totalled over 11

million, and later won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding

TV Movie. Shown on Drama last night, the case featured thirty-seven Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

The Abominable Bride

(BBC TX: January 1, January 2 2016/Alibi TX: September 27, September

28, December 20, December 21 2017, June 2, June 3, July, 21, July 22

2018, January 1, June 15 2019/Drama TX: June 12 2022)

• Douglas Mackinnon was also director of The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, The Power of Three, Cold War, Listen, Time Heist, Flatline and The Husbands of River Song
• Tim McInnerny (Sir Eustace here; Clay in The Red Headed League) was Klineman Halpen in Planet of the Ood, and voiced Admiral Dolne for Big Finish's The Well-Mannered War (2015)
• Gerald Kyd [born Gerasimos Awkoumides] (Ricoletti) voiced Martin Regan, Sir Robert Devere and Stephen Mulryne for 1963: The Assassination Games (2013), and Lieutenant Maurizio Savinio for Aquitaine (2016) - he was General Logan in War of the Sontarans
• Damian Samuels (Giles) was Arthur Lloyd in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances
• Daniel Fearn (Newsvendor here; Man in Holmes & Watson) was Man in The Woman Who Lived
• Tim [born Michael John Leigh] Barlow (Wilder here; the Count in The Resident Patient) was Tyssan in Destiny of the Daleks
• Stephanie Hyam (Jane) was Heather in The Pilot and The Doctor Falls
• Antonio Bustorff [Silva] (Man) was Bodyguard in Face the Raven
• for Clem So (Chinaman), stuntman Dean Forster and design trainee Julia Jones see His Last Vow
• for Gordon Seed (stunt co-ordinator) see The Sign of Three
• stunt performers Crispin Layfield and Jo McLaren were stunt co-ordinators on the revived series
• Ian Pead was stuntman on Twice Upon a Time too
• Suzie Lavelle was also the cinematographer on Cold War, Listen, Time Heist and the 2015 Christmas special
• for Arwel Jones, Dafydd Shurmer, Julie Ankerson, Sarah Astley, Danny Hargreavs, Paul McFadden, Doug Sinclair, James Scott and John Mooney (crew) see A Study in Pink
• for Nandie Narishkin, Keith Barton and Benoit Leveau see Many Happy Returns
• for Heddi-Joy Taylor and Dave Kneath (assistant director) see Scandal in Belgravia
• Jamie Talbutt was also foley editor on ninety stories (from A Christmas Carol to the Centenary special)
• Jade Poole was also SFX assistant co-ordinator on eighteen stories (from In the Forest of the Night to Twice Upon a Time) and Class
• James Smith was also SFX co-ordinator on a dozen adventures (from The Time of the Doctor to Last Christmas)
• VFX producer Natalie Reid was VFX co-ordinator on twenty stories (from The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe to Revolution of the Daleks)
• Daniel Bishop was steadicam operator on The Husbands of River Song too
• production co-ordinator Helen Blyth was an assistant on fourteen instalments (from A Christmas Carol to The Wedding of River Song)
• Katrina Aust was also assistant editor on eighteen stories (from The Rings of Akhaten to Last Christmas) and The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot