No, one was poison, one was harmless. It was chance to us mere mortals but seeing as the cabbie was a genius he knew how people would think and knew they would take the poisoned pill. Think Derren Brown here.

Sherlock was disappointed because he'd never know if he outwitted the cabbie and would have taken the harmless pill or not. I want to know too!!

Wasn't going to watch tonight (recorded it for later) but ended up sitting through the whole thing. Brilliant stuff.

I don't think too many will have expected such a good quality performance from Martin Freeman, and as most have said, the two leads meshed excellently.

Nice twist with the brother, though you never know, he could yet turn out to be Moriarty (or part of a Moriarty Group!)

Top quality few hours on the beeb, with an excellent Top Gear earlier

I dont mind the license fee if we get more like this

As a fan of Sherlock Holmes, in his many incarnations, I was really looking forward to this for ages. it looked perfect on paper.
Moffat and Gatiss..check
Benedict Cumberbatch...check
Martin Freeman...check
Rupert Graves..check;

Would it live up to my expectations ?


Hell yes and then some. Fan bloody tactic.

My only criticism ..only two more episode. I demand that the BBC sign up the cast, writers and production team for a 13 part series...well they can do it for the likes of Dr Who and Merlin and on one outing alone, this is worth it.

Elementary! He's Sherlock Holmes...he would have taken the harmless one

Most homoerotic Holmes and Watson so far (including the Guy Ritchie film and that's saying something)! Loved it

I think I've only ever seen him in Charles II, so I haven't much to go on. I thought he was great in this.

All the actors were superb in my opinion. Some top notch talent there.

I was hoping Holmes would quickly grab both capsules and mix them up, and then see how confident the Cabbie was...

I knew something was missing from my TV life... this! When we lost DT as Dr Who I waved a sad bye bye as I didn't like the look and feel of the new series (too teenage - didn't really like Matt Smith, etc.)

I loved this. It was amazing how quickly 90 minutes whizzed by! Apart from the fact that I had to pee I would have gladly sat and watched for another 90 minutes!

Good grief - how unusual to see such a united thread with so many positive comments. I would agree - bleeding marvellous.

I liked it though maybe not to the extent of shouting from the rooftops. Some of the fastpaced showy deduction from Holmes was just a little bit overdone imo and Benedict somehow looks a bit too much like he should be attending a lecture at uni. The music and the camerawork remind me of the recent big screen effort and I have to say that, despite it being a modern version there was a very old London feel to the sets.
I thought the last half hour with the scenes involvlng Phil Davis was a notch above the rest. I will be watching next week hopefully.

I loved it! I was really worried about how they would potray Holmes but it was all brilliant I wish we could have known which pill was the harmless and which one was not!

Unfortunately for every British detective show like this we are given dozens of tosh shows like Paradox and Identity.

He rattled him a bit didn't he with all the family stuff, but the cabbie recovered well. Would have liked some kind of further poking at the cabbie's confidence, like you say.

Princess Bride is trending on Twitter. Is it because of Sherlock?

Apparently the pill thing was in the original study in scarlett story, but, having read it as a wee nipper, I don't remember that far back

Fantastic! I loved it! Sure it's got the Moff written all over it (a good thing!) but it's also got a style all it's own, it's set in modern London obviously but there's still a touch of that period feel coming through. Can't wait to see the next two episodes.

Baddie Cabbie coulda been lying about that though.

I also thought maybe the autopsies had revealed the poison used and our ever prepared Detective had taken the antidote earlier that day in preparation for this inevitable encounter.

Because obviously a commercial channel like ITV could never have produced a Sherlock Holmes series..

I really liked the portrayal of John Watson. He can tend towards being bumbling in some versions, but here he was very dark and I liked that he killed the cabbie at the end; it gives him a lot of depth I think.

Just wish Moffat got to Sherlock before Guy Ritchie

I suspect you will find that the reality is a little more complicated than this ...

Despite the BBC's press statement a couple of months ago, it is highly unusual for them to film a drama pilot and then not broadcast it. The BBC has done it only once in the last ten or so years - unlike ITV, which has entire series sat on shelves gathering dust because they're deemed too bad to broadcast.

The rationale behind the move to reshoot the pilot then add two more 90-minute episodes is, I would guess, more closely linked to the BBC's reliance upon Steven Moffat than on any faith they might or might not have in this project. Binning Sherlock completely would run the risk of alienating a writer they need on one of their biggest franchises - a writer who can get work in Hollywood - so it's a better bet to keep him sweet.

Choosing then to broadcast this high profile new series during July/August is a bit of a slap in the face: that's the time you use to bury projects you're not entirely happy with, in the hope most people will be on holiday. And given that this was good - and, indeed, miles better than anything ITV has served up recently - that decision can only be branded baffling. Unless it was a deliberate move to try and grow a new returning series away from the fiercer competition of the autumn/winter schedules?

I'd agree with many of the enthusiastic comments on here, and also with posters making (valid) comparisons with Doctor Who. The only thing I'd add is that the plotting was significantly better than some of Moffat's and indeed all of Gatiss' work on the last series of DW.

I await the overnight viewing figures with interest ...

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pleased gatiss was the prof. just about take him as mycroft, though I think Tim McInnerny would've been better. Freeman is good, though it would've been interesting to see an older actor (Carlyle? Eccleston?) as Watson. Interesting to see who is moriarty

Rupert Graves is odd choice, he is a brilliant charismatic villain but casting him as Lestrade is weird. My choice for Lestrade would have been Hugh Laurie in twit mode.

Now *that* would have been good. Imagine the cabbie's face if he thinks Sherlock has taken the poison, only to not have done, and left the cabbie with the harmless pill thinking it's poison. Mind f*ck time!