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'Sherlock's return included so many nods to the show's fans, with red herring explanations for how he escaped certain death two years before, you could be forgiven for missing the biggest in-joke of all.

Writer Mark Gatiss pulled the biggest surprise out of his hat, when Holmes' parents turned up for a few minutes half-way through... played by Benedict Cumberbatch's own real-life parents.


Benedict Cumberbatch's parents Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham made a surprise appearance on the first episode of Sherlock Series 3

Some fans went crazy on Twitter, while others were a bit confused. HuffPost would humbly like to mention that they spotted it at the time... proof below...

Oh, wow - Benedict Cumberbatch's REAL parents playing his parents. Now that's class. #Sherlock

— Caroline Frost (@Frostalicus) January 1, 2014

When Cumberbatch's parents Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, both actors themselves, first appeared on screen, they appeared to be two clients of Sherlock's wasting his time with a case of a missing lottery ticket. Only when Dr Watson came calling did it transpire they were, in fact, Holmes' actual parents.

As they departed with a final "You never call, you never write," Holmes aka Cumberbatch bundled them out with embarrassment, speed and awkwardness… just like a proper son.

"They're so ordinary," said Watson. "It's a cross I have to bear," said Holmes.

Cumberbatch said of his parents joining him on set, he was "so proud of them" but admitted "it was kind of nerve-wracking".

He said: "They're Equity card carrying members but you know it was nerve-wracking because they are actors as well and yet they were brilliant and they were fantastic.

"We did the Baker Street scenes quite early so I think everyone was still getting back into it."


Benedict Cumberbatch said he was proud of his parents, but filming with them was "nerve-wracking"


It was a light touch, swiftly and wittily executed, and the kind of in-gag you can really only get away with if you are the acknoweledged star of a global hit, with fans hanging on every tag, reference and meta-allusion you can crowd into 90 minutes…

Gatis acknowledged the fans of the show from the start, including one of the many conspiracy theories that have been circulating since Sherlock apparently jumped to his death on the pavement at the end of Series 2.

The combination of a bungee rope, a Sherlock mask on a dead body and even Derren Brown's tools of mind-control turned out to be a red herring, as did a love affair between Holmes and Moriaty on the roof, AND Holmes stopping his pulse temporarily with a small ball. And there are 13 possible solutions apparently, according to Holmes's calculations, so we must expect a few more red herrings along the way before we're finally told the truth...

REVIEW: Sherlock's Return Full Of 'Deduction, Devotion And How He Did It'

Британското списание "Metal Hammer" често пъти радва читателите си, както и почитателите на метъла по целия свят, с уникални концептуални корици, на к

There is nothing better than having a good feed when you are hungry - and when you are a baby pygmy goat you tend to be hungry most of the time! These six little goats not so gruff indicate their pleasure with a furious wagging of their tales.

What is more the pygmy goat is a friendly little beast even when it is not being fed - and a whole heap of fun in to the bargain. Although they may not immediately spring to mind as the perfect suburban pet as long as you have a mid-sized garden at the back of your house they can make engaging pets.

Unlike their cousin the standard goat, pygmies are kept simply for the fun of having them around and of course, the goat gets to have a lot of fun at the same time. They are not what is known as a utility animal in as much as they are never kept for their milk. Really, how much milk are you going to get out of one of these mini goats anyway? As for their meat – no way! This is the goat that is kept purely as a pet.

We often read about people taking over the natural habitat of other species but it is rare to come across a case where the animals come back and reclaim their territory from us.  Yet this is exactly what has happened in San Francisco.  Local Californian Sea Lions have always been present in the city’s bay but had been pushed out to Seal Rocks, a small formation at the north end of the Ocean Beach.  Pier 39’s K-Dock was developed and opened in 1978.  Little did we know that the sea lions also had their eyes on this particular piece of seaside real estate.

They bided their time but their opportunity to move in (or back, if you argue that their presence along the Californian coastline predates human occupation by tens of thousands of years) came just over a decade later in 1989.  It was then that it was decided that the docks needed refurbishment.  In order to facilitate this all the boats had to be removed from Pier 39.  This left large open spaces inside the Bay.  A small number of sea lions saw their opportunity.  They metaphorically weighed anchor from the stony slopes of Seal Rocks and began to arrive at Pier 39.

The refurbishment was soon complete and the boat owners started to return their vessels to Pier 39.  No one tried to move the dozen or so sea lions that were now frequenting the docks – they were a popular new addition.  Their antics made regular visitors happy.  However, the numbers of sea lions soon increased – by the beginning of 1990 there were over 150 seals (as many San Franciscans call them) at Pier 39.

The owners of the dozen or so boats that were docked at Pier 39 started to become troubled at the burgeoning sea lion population.  Although the animals were not damaging the boats there was worry about collisions happening.  Sea lions can weigh up to half a ton and the boat owners were worried about both harming the animals and irreparable damage being done to their vessels. 

There was the additional issue of the unusual odor of the Californian Sea Lion not to mention their propensity to make a huge racket while conducting their daily routine. The rowdy and occasionally overexcited pinnipeds with their associated howling, yowling and growling do not make the best of neighbors – especially if all you want is a quiet life sipping a glass of white wine on your boat…

Yet even Californian Sea Lions have their quieter side. They love nothing more than a gentle snooze with their loved ones - or simply to take in a few rays of the Californian sunshine. They are quite the mañana mammal when the mood takes them.

Nevertheless, the owners of the pier took advice from the Marine Mammal Center.  Their best advice (probably with a shrug) was that it was probably better to relocate the boats and abandon the docks to the sea lions rather than displacing the sea lions (who would be unlikely to leave their new home willingly).  The boat owners were given new areas to moor in the other docks.

You might ask why the sea lions would choose to live in such proximity to us.  The Bay area is naturally protected from predators – the orcas and white sharks which find the Californian Sea Lion a tasty meal do not frequent the bay area. Plus there are plenty of fish (mostly herring) around in the summer months.  So, it is most likely that the sea lions moved to K Dock because they felt safer and fuller there. 

Moreover, it is against the law to handle, harass or feed them so although we can look, we cannot do anything else which might interfere from their natural lives. Just as well these rules are in place - although they love their own company they certainly do not like us to get up close and can bite if they feel threatened. Some say that it was the Quake of ’89 which precipitated their relocation to the pier but this claim has never been substantiated (the jury is still out on a definite reason in other words).

Nevertheless, a major docking area of a city of close to a million people became, effectively, a sea lion reserve.  The numbers have fluctuated over the years – back in 2009 they reached a peak of 1,701 animals at Pier 39.  It has become a popular tourist destination in its own right.  Yet although the sea lions delight the crowds of tourists which flock to see them at work, rest and play it has also proven an invaluable site for the study of the behavior of these fascinating marine mammals.

An aerial shot of K-Dock shows just how the sea lions have nudged their human neighbors to one side.

The sheer numbers of sea lions (and their often gargantuan weight) caused K-Dock to submerge before long.  Twelve floats were put in place first of all – then in the summer of 1995 even more were moved in to replace the dock altogether.  With a little help from their human friends the Californian Sea Lions now had a permanent home in San Francisco.

They are monitored by The Marine Mammal Store and Interpretive Center and some of their findings have led to a much greater understanding of the Californian Sea Lion – although there is still much to be learned.   It is still not known for sure why Pier 39 is a seasonal home for the sea lions but it is now thought that their departure signals the availability of an easier food source elsewhere – most likely anchovies and sardines.  An annual and substantial rise in the numbers of Californian Sea Lions up the coast at Oregon’s Sea Lion Caves is believed to be because of the arrival of thousands of Pier 39 sojourners.


Regular visitors to Pier 39 have got to know a large number of individuals – and there is always interesting behavior to see as California Sea Lions are renowned for both their cleverness and their mischievous friskiness.  The males can be easily distinguished as they can be up to four times heavier than their female counterparts and develop a crest (a bump, really, which can make them look like they have a crew-cut hair style) on their heads when they reach maturity.  Most of the Pier 39 visitors are male.

Although many locals refer to them as seals, the Californian Sea Lion can be distinguished from them by their external ear flaps – seals don’t have them.  They can live up to twenty five years so although the original sea lions have long since slipped off their mortal coil, Pier 39 has become a generational living space for these fascinating marine mammals. Most people agree that the sea lions are welcome to stay for many more generations to come.

First Image Credit Flickr User WallyG

Exuma, a district in the Bahamas is stunningly beautiful.  It consists of almost four hundred small islands, positioned languidly along 250 miles of the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba.  Many of the islands are uninhabited.  Yet one of them, Big Major Cay has a population that might surprise you.  There are pigs on the island and when they are not doing their best impression of beach bums they take to the water.  These are the swimming pigs of the Bahamas.

Many people dream of the Bahamas as their ultimate holiday destination.  For these lucky pigs, however, what was probably intended only as a brief prelude to their place on the dinner table has become a life of lazy leisure.  When they are not enjoying the beach they take to the water to retrieve food thrown from passing yachts.  They may not qualify for the next Olympic games but they know how to do a rather graceful piggy paddle.

There is no record of how or when the pigs got to Big Major Cay (or Pig Beach as the locals call it) – but they have made themselves very much at home there.  Reasons for their presence on the sun-drenched island abounds.  The first is that they were put there by some sensible sailors who thought that they would make a great source of fresh meat.  Yet if the sailors ever returned they were unable to catch the pigs!

Another, more dramatic, legend has the pigs as the sole survivors of a shipwreck who somehow managed to make is ashore, there to found their own porcine colony, a kind of Pig Family Robinson.  The truth is quite possibly that they are escapees from pens on one of the nearby islands and managed to get to their safe haven through sheer swinish stubbornness.  It is unlikely that the real explanation will ever be fully divined, though the pigs have now become something of a tourist attraction in their own right.

The pigs were rediscovered a few years ago by a passing yacht and their story soon spread around the islands.  Soon, boats were heading for Big Major Cay to catch a glimpse of the new denizens of the unpeopled island.  Binoculars were not, however, necessary.  These pigs are not shy of people - and show great interest in the arrival of the yachts. However, it is not a curiosity of visitors that brings the pigs paddling in to the clear blue waters of Big Majar Cay: it is the food that is brought along.

It seems they are not quite as content foraging on the forest floor of their new home for berries and roots.  These pigs have acquired an appetite for the more exciting fare brought along by their guests.  They are not the only ones who have worked out that visitors equal food - notice the gray shape in the water (first of two above)? Correct, that's a shark!

Yet these pigs are clever. They have calculated which time the boats are most likely to arrive at the island and await them patiently on the beach each day.  After all, they can always catch a few rays while they are waiting.


First Image Credit Flickr User Norm Lanier

"As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry," reports Joseph Menn at Reuters in an exclusive today:

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.

"Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer" [Reuters.com]

"My friend’s neighbor knows when to accept defeat." [x]

Revenge is sweet. [x]

technicoloresque:

fivelettered:

kellanium:

0littlefox0:

-everysecond:

people talking like “doge”

you have a mother fucking god damned brain in your head, use it, you sound like an uneducated little fuck who should go back to grade 1 jesus fucking christ

Very anger. 

Much yell

many loud

So insight

onlylolgifs:

 Puppy Reacts to Girl’s Crying

THE HAGUE: A Dutch rights group said on Monday it had identified over 1,000 paedophiles around the world by offering online sex with a computer-generated 10-year-old Filipina girl called Sweetie. (via 'Virtual' Filipina girl identifies 1,000 webcam sex tourists - Channel NewsAsia)

Filed under: Etc., Europe, Celebrities

In the pursuit of a big story, some journalists have tenuous relationship with things like ethics. For example, one such "journalist" in Europe has reportedly attempted to gain entry to the hospital room of injured racer Michael Schumacher... by dressing as a priest. While this reporter's blatant disregard for the Schumacher family's request for privacy is disturbing, attempting to gain entry to the room of a potentially dying man by dressing as a priest makes it a considerably more heinous act.

"Apparently a journalist dressed as a priest had tried to gain access to Michael's room. I wouldn't have ever imagined something like this could happen," Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm said.

Schumacher has been in Grenoble Hospital in France following a skiing accident in Switzerland over the weekend, where he suffered a traumatic brain injury after hitting his head on a rock. In speaking with the assembled media, Kehm also shed some light on how Schumacher's injury came about. According to his manager, Schumacher was probably not skiing at a high rate of speed when fell and hit his head - he had just helped a friend who had fall themselves and then began skiing into deep snow where it's possible the F1 champ hit a rock that caused him to tumble head-first into another rock.

Schumacher's progress towards recovery has been slow and uncertain, and he remains listed in critical condition and in a medically induced coma after a second surgery as of earlier today.

Journalist disguised as priest attempts to access Schumacher's hospital room originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Dec 2013 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2013 was a hell of a year for genre movies, and 2015 will be the big year of Star Wars and Avengers 2. But how about next year? Well, turns out there’s a lot of great genre stuff coming up as well.

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The year’s almost over, and it’s being called a record breaker at the box office, yet along with a number of big hits, including the Hobbit, there have also been a number of cinematic money losers as well. While The Hobbit may be ending the year on a high note, Ronin 47, the new Keanu Reeves movie, could end up becoming the biggest flop of 2013.

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Imagine someone saying, "Give me some money to make a movie about a Kung Fu cop who travels back in time to kill Adolf, aka Kung Fuhrer, but ends up with a machine gun wielding Viking and a buff giant Norse god and they ride dinosaurs and fly kick stormtroopers." You would not hesitate.

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Most large, clinical trials of vitamin supplements, including some that have concluded they are of no value or even harmful, have a flawed methodology that renders them largely useless in determining the real value of these micronutrients, a new analysis suggests.

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If you are one of the millions of people that use Snapchat, you will no doubt want to read this article. This information was acquired through the recently patched Snapchat exploit and is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue. The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it. Comments

As the year finally comes to a close, Peter Jackson once again owns December with the success of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. And it’s been a great year for Benedict Cumberbatch too, especially considering he’s not only played Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, but he’s also brought Smaug to life with the help of motion capture.

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Ever since the advent of the internet, the studios have been releasing photos from their upcoming movies before they get leaked by the geeks. This is a smart strategy, because you’re beating everyone to the punch, and satisfying the needs of the fans at the same time.

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We just did our upcoming 2014 preview of genre movies. It will be a big year for sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and dystopian future stories, and one site has weighed in on what’s the most anticipated movie of the year.

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The second episode of "Cooking Hostile" — the newly launched animated series based on a completely off-the-wall premise: PANTERA frontman Philip Anselmo hosting his own cooking show — can be seen below. The program takes snippets of some of PANTERA's best-known songs and changes the lyrics to ones that are more cooking-centric. "Cooking Hostile" is the brainchild of Gainesville, Florida's Joey Siler, who also fronts the PANTERA tribute band GOOD FRIENDS & A BOTTLE OF WHISKEY. Asked how he came up with the idea to do "Cooking Hostile", Siler told Vanyaland: "I was just joking around at band practice after we got done jamming '5 Minutes Alone' and I told the guys, 'What if Phil had his own cooking show and I changed the lyrics to '5 Minutes On Low?'' Everyone got a good laugh out of it. It was nothing more than a joke, but I had recently got into doing animation as a hobby at the beginning of this year and had messed around with making a few animations and decided to come up with some ideas for the 'Cooking Hostile With Phil Anselmo' [two-and-half-minute short] video. During the next week, I picked a few PANTERA songs and worked on changing the lyrics up and showed the guys and they thought it was hilarious, so we laid down the tracks and I started working on the animation. The whole project was probably done in about four weeks." Regarding the process of creating the first "Cooking Hostile" 10-minute episode, Siler said: "I can tell you I have much more respect for people that work in animation after working on this project. It's very time consuming, and I have real job with a 40-hour work week, so it all had to be done in my spare time. That's the main reason it has taken so long. After I saw the interest in the first one, I decided to take a lot more time on the next one and make it the best I could for what I have to work with. As for the process, I start with writing out the lyrics to the song I want to parody first and then record the music and vocals. Then I usually sketch out the scene to give me a general idea to help with the animation process." Anselmo reportedly told an interviewer that the found the original two-and-half-minute "Cooking Hostile With Phil Anselmo" short — which has received more than half a million views on YouTube so far — "fucking hilarious, fucking fantastic," and gave it "two big thumbs up." In addition, the short was shown in October at Anselmo's Housecore Horror Film Festival in Austin, Texas. "It was just great to hear he wasn't suing us!" laughed Siler. "But really, Phil seems to have a great sense of humor and it was awesome to just to know he had seen it and got a good laugh out of it. We couldn't have asked for a better response." He added: "Corey Mitchell, who created the [Housecore Horror Film Festival] with Phil, actually contacted me on YouTube asking me if I would be interested in allowing the original short for Phil and his film festival. I'm honored to be a part of it." "Cooking Hostile" episode 2 (release date: December 31, 2013): "Cooking Hostile" episode 1 (release date: October 2013): Original "Cooking Hostile With Phil Anselmo" two-and-half-minute short (release date: June 2013):

Former NIGHTWISH vocalist Anette Olzon has told Prog magazine that she believes she was fired from the band in 2012 because she became pregnant with her third child. Olzon's departure from the group came seven years after previous NIGHTWISH frontwoman Tarja Turunen was dismissed from the group by being presented with an open letter which was published on the NIGHTWISH web site at the same time. An official announcement from NIGHTWISH claimed the split with Olzon, which happened in the middle of a North American tour in September 2012, was made "in mutual understanding." Olzon, however, tells Prog that she did not leave NIGHTWISH of her own accord. She says: "I have been getting frustrated with people saying I left the band — because I didn't. I was fired exactly as Tarja was fired, but maybe in a more quiet way." According to Olzon, her pregnancy was a major factor in her former bandmates' decision to fire her from the band. "That’s how I see it," she says. "Why [else] should they kick me out when they got to know I was pregnant? "We, of course, had some problems in 2009, but we had a good tour and there was nothing else coming until then." Olzon, who will release her debut solo album, "Shine", in February, adds: "The reason I didn't say this a year ago is because I didn't want to state something so negative. I felt really bad about the situation — it was quite a big divorce." Anette recently gave an extensive interview to Finland's largest women's weekly magazine, Me Naiset, in which she accused her former bandmates of excluding her from the decision-making process and not splitting all the revenue equally, forcing her to start her own company and take a financial loss in 2010. The NIGHTWISH members responded in a statement on their official web site, accusing their former singer of making claims that were "full of twisted truths and defamation." "The split with Anette wasn't because of pregnancy or illness," they said. "We discovered her personality didn't fit this work community, and was even detrimental to it." They added: "Anette told of her pregnancy to the whole band already a week earlier in Montreal. Everyone was congratulative, and Anette herself offered an option of hiring a replacement vocalist if she couldn't manage everything, which was already agreed on. Later she took back her decision, and the difficulties really started."

Former SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison has released the following statement: "To my fans, friends, and associates… I would like to start the New Year by addressing the recent rumors and speculation regarding my departure from SLIPKNOT. "I want to make it very clear that I DID NOT QUIT SLIPKNOT. This band has been my life for the last 18 years, and I would never abandon it, or my fans. "This news has shocked and blindsided me as much as it has all of you. "While there is much I would like to say, I must remain silent to further details at this time. "I would like to thank you all for your unwavering love and support, and wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year." SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor posted a message on Twitter on December 29, dispelling rumors that the band is finished following the departure of drummer and founding member Joey Jordison. Taylor wrote, "For those who think the KNOT are falling apart, you are greatly and sadly mistaken. Bring on 2014. Great things are coming. Stay tuned . . . " Ironically, Taylor himself has often been cited as the member of the band most responsible for the delays in making a new album, as he wrote, recorded and toured three full records with STONE SOUR in the past three years. But Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that he thought 2014 would be the year that SLIPKNOT came back with new music. "I know everybody is pretty keen on getting together and seeing what happens next year, so I mean, if it takes us a year to write an album, so be it," he said. "The main goal is to just get us in the room and just see what happens, you know. If we can get past that first day, I think it'll come together. Now that we're all kind of in better places in our lives and whatnot, it's making it a little easier to be excited about it again. It's just starting to feel like it's time." SLIPKNOT announced that it was parting ways with Jordison on December 12, saying in a statement, "We understand that many of you will want to know how and why this has come to be, and we will do our best to respond to these questions in the near future." SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray, also a key songwriting in the band, died in May 2010. The band's last album was 2008's "All Hope Is Gone". SLIPKNOT is slated to begin work on a new album in January 2014.

Now this is how you respond to the age old "another video game made by men, for men and about men" load of crap. In The New York Times review of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, Chris Suellentrop criticized our studio for creating a poor representation of women in "another video game made by men, for men and about men." While I believe that Mr. Suellentrop had the best of intentions, I am concerned with his dismissal of both the women in this studio and the accomplishment of establishing the role of Ellie, one of the most complex, playable female characters in the medium. Comments

It's not as bad as you thought - it's much worse

Analysis  A leaked NSA cyber-arms catalog has shed light on the technologies US and UK spies use to infiltrate and remotely control PCs, routers, firewalls, phones and software from some of the biggest names in IT.…

Something's not quite kosher

Chinese scientists have created a pair of glow-in-the-dark pigs which shine with an eery green luminous light.…

Kaley Cuoco is starting off 2014 with a big bang!

The actress married fiance Ryan Sweeting in an intimate ceremony in Southern California on New Year's Eve, she confirmed on Instagram. Cuoco, 28, posted a photo of herself rocking a pink wedding dress, writing, "Yep :) #thesweetings."





The couple said "I do" at the Grand Vista hotel in Simi Valley, according to Us Weekly. Cuoco reportedly greeted guests in a red dress as they started to arrive around 4 p.m., but changed into a petal pink Vera Wang gown before the nuptials began around 10 p.m.

It has been a whirlwind romance for the "Big Bang Theory" star and her tennis pro beau, 26, who were engaged just three months after they were first spotted together over the summer.

"From day one, I just knew immediately and it's been magic. We have all the same family friends. We grew up with the same people, we just never met," Cuoco explained to Entertainment Tonight just a few days after their engagement. "So I kind of feel that I've known him my whole life. I know that it seems a little crazy on paper," she admitted. "But it's what works for us."

Congrats to the happy couple!

"Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" actor James Avery died in a Los Angeles hospital last night (Dec. 31), according to TMZ. He was 65.

His publicist confirmed the news of his death to CNN, as did his former co-star Alfonso Ribeiro, who tweeted, "I'm deeply saddened to say that James Avery has passed away. He was a second father to me. I will miss him greatly."

Avery had recently undergone open heart surgery and reportedly died from complications from the operation.

A classically trained actor and poet, Avery grew up in Atlantic City, N.J., where he was raised by a single mother. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and first appeared onscreen as a dancer in an uncredited role in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers."

Avery also voiced characters for many animated series, most notably for 1987's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and the 1990s "Iron Man" series. He will, of course, be remembered for playing Phillip Banks, the stern but loving uncle to Will Smith's character on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."

The most highly-awaited show of the year returned, and within one sharp, mind-boggling minute in the company of Sherlock and Co, it was all explained away… apparently.

We had a far-fetched (but possible!) combination of bungee rope, a Sherlock mask over a Moriarty body, a big grateful kiss for enamoured lab assistant Molly… oh, and Derren Brown???? Hang on a minute!

Ah, that'll be one big nod to the conspiracy theorists everywhere, then. No one listens to their fans like writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and plays with them a little in return. According to Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock on the roof, there are 13 possible outcomes in total. So looks like we might have to wait for the truth for a bit longer after all...


Sherlock's return was greeted with a welcome less warm than he would have perhaps liked

Cut to… Gatiss as weary Mycroft having to tap some numbers into his international speed-dial, brush up his Serbian, engage in some tiresome 'field work' to locate his errant little brother, and return him to his Baker Street fold.

And that, expectant viewers, was very much that. Two years' worth of all our wondering, tucked into a drawer for the time being. Onward…


Mary (Amanda Abbington) had (almost) replaced Sherlock in Doctor Watson's affections, but proved crucial to the restoration of their bromance

Into the up-to-date world of Dr Watson (Martin Freeman), complete with fiancee Mary (Freeman's real-life partner Amanda Abbington) and moustache, moving on with his life, much to the surprise of Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) - "So soon after Sherlock?" she asked guilelessly.

But this was a light appetiser for the serious business of his reunion with the much-missed Holmes who, despite his big brain, managed to misjudge such concepts as how grief can turn to resentment when it turns out to be misplaced for two sad, lonely years. Sherlock got a much warmer reception even from DI Lestrade (Rupert Graves), and that was even after Holmes got his name wrong.


Benedict Cumberbatch was on fine form as the loner detective

Fortunately for fans, it wasn't too long before Holmes and Watson were reconciled to combat an underground terrorism network operating on the underground network. From then on, it was all torches in dark tunnels, upturned collars and lots and lots of nifty editing as Holmes homed in on quite a bit of a bomb, and Watson continued to prove his peerless Everyman acting stripes, equal parts confusion, good intention, and deep indignation when said bomb turned out to have an off-switch. That Sherlock fella, eh? Such a wag.

Because of all of Watson's understandable, brooding resentment for much of the 90 minutes, a lot of the real pleasure in this episode in fact came from the jollier exchanges between the Holmes brothers, with both siblings proving that absence makes the heart grow more competitive... who can deduce more accurately? Who can say more more words in one minute? Who can enunciate more c-c-r-r-i-sply? Wonderful stuff from both Cumberbatch and Gatiss.

A challenge to keep up with, a joy to watch - there's a reason this kind of telly takes two years to make. But oh, how we've missed it, and oh, how it was worth the wait.

How DID he do it? Let us know your thoughts below, and what you thought of Sherlock's big return...