I think he sounds like graham norton trying to do other voices

For the next series Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have to write all the episodes.

Was a bit disappointed if truth be told, what a poor Moriarty.

Hands up all the people who thought that guy wasn't really Moriarty and then the uncredited voice came in at the end.

My hand is up. I seriously thought the uncredited voice would be David Tennant and he would be Moriarty

Aye, me to.

Loved that episode, back to excellence after a dodgy 2nd episode but....... Hated Moriarty, he's not meant to be loopy, he's meant to be the dark to Sherlocks light, the flip of the coin to Sherlock. Here, as played by that actor, he was all wide-eyed madness and bwahahaha.

Thank you. Thought i recognised the voice.

There will be another series but I dont think it will be more than three episodes -actually I can see this becoming an annual or bi-annual Christmas treat eventually. It has that feel about it.

Didn't think it would be Tennant, but I was waiting for 'that voice' at the end if I'm honest. I feel underwhelmed that that actually is Moriarty.

BIB your obviously entitled to your opinion but you seriously thought it was that obvious I must be very slow as I had absolutely no clue up until Jim sauntered in.

As for the 'channeling Graham Norton' I have to say I thought it was more him channeling a complete psycho...Moriarty came across as being utterly mad and capable of doing anything at anytime...I thought it was a fab ep!

Me me me me me me!

But Tennant would make a really rubbish Moriarty

It's on the verge of being renewed, I suppose series length, episode length and getting all the relevent people back in need to be confirmed first.

Well, cliffhanger, it's not like they can really kill off any of them.

Well the ending was based on Conan Doyle killing both Holmes and Moriarty in the The Adventure of The Final Problem.

Conan Doyle wanted to kill off Holmes to concentrate on more serious writing. He was pressured by fans to reprise the character.

Am I the only one who liked Moriarty. I have never followed Sherlock Holmes so no idea what he is meant to be like

Yup, 100% has that feel about a special xmas day 2 hour episode over the next few years.

I think the loopiness was put on by M to throw S off the scent of who he really is.

Sorry nearly a great episode until Moriaty turned up and was as unscary as Graham Norton with a bad Lloyd Grossman accent. I really hope he isn't Moriaty. Brilliant show though please recast M he has to be as charismatic as Sherlock he is his arch nemesis afterall.

Was the episode based on the Adventure of the Final Problem?

Any other show that would of been a brilliant cliffhanger. But you know none of them can die so a bit poor for this show

Ooh lots of stories. The telephone pips was a reference to the story called 'The Five Orange Pips'. The lost plans story, with the body on the train, was directly taken from 'The Bruce Partington Plans', although in the original story the plans are for a submarine. But then they took the motivation for stealing the plans directly from 'The Naval Treaty', where it's the brother-in-law who opportunistically steals the plans from his sister's fiance. The idea of forging a painting for money derives from Moriarty's plan to steal and then forge the Mona Lisa in 'The Final Problem'. Gatiss took all these little bits and made an overall story out of them.

It was much better than last week's effort. Much better.

Indeed! Eventually he grew to loathe the character he'd created.

My problem was with the way the actor played the character rather than the character itself. I think that Moriarty should be underplayed but he was so ridiculously camp and hammy that it jarred with all the other understated performances.

It can't be easy, developing and writing such complicated plots. They could hire an arny of writers to turn them out but it's better to concentrate on quality rather than quantity and stick with the original writers.

I think another 3 hour and a half episodes will be good