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SHERLOCK Special Gets Cinema Dates, Special Extras

Oh, how the news about BBC and PBS Masterpiece’s Sherlock special (once assumed to be Christmas, now confirmed for New Year’s Day) has been pouring out over the last few days. We learned that the 90-minute special will premiere on both BBC One and PBS on the same day, January 1, 2016, and we got an extended trailer for the special—now confirmed to be called “The Abominable Bride.” We also heard rumblings about the special being in cinemas, much the same way Doctor Who episodes have been. Well, we now have specific dates for those movie theater outings!

Fathom Events has once again teamed up with a BBC show produced by Steven Moffat to bring “The Abominable Bride” to over 500 cinemas nationwide. Mark your probably-not-yet-purchased calendars for January 5 and 6, at 7:30pm local time, because that is when the world’s greatest (and only) consulting detective and his stalwart, mustachioed sidekick will head back to Victorian times and solve a mystery in the style of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Though with a distinct flair that’s in keeping with the show we know, natch.

On top of the special—because folks love their extras—there will also be 20 minutes of exclusive, extra footage which will include a guided set tour of 221B Baker Street hosted by co-writer/executive producer Steven Moffat prior to the feature, and a “making of” short film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and many more immediately following.

Co-writer Mark Gatiss has been quoted as saying of the late-19th Century setting, “It’s not suddenly going to be a different show. It’s essentially our Sherlock as if we’d always done it set in 1895. It has the same sensibility. The language is obviously slightly different but we wanted it to feel as funny and as vivid as our modern-day one. Otherwise it would be a sort of dusty period piece which is not what we are interested in.”

We sure hope you’re locked (see what I did there?) in and ready to watch a holiday extravaganza, and it’s a couple days after the festivities are over, so you won’t have weird Aunt Ethel hanging around still. Why is she so weird, anyway? Let us know your thoughts on the special, and whatever else Sherlock inspires, in the comments below. And you can find information about tickets and specific theaters at the Fathom Events website.

Image: BBC/PBS

Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. He’s also real good at figuring out very minor mysteries, so ask him about it on Twitter!

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