Sherlock Returns

The Golden Globe-nominated BBC series, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, will return Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET), following “Downton Abbey’s” time slot. Dates for the show’s U.K. premiere have not yet been announced. Based on the classic mystery stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, the series stars Cumberbatch (“Star Trek Into Darkness”) as the brilliant, socially inept detective and Martin Freeman (“The Hobbit”) as his long-suffering roommate and co-sleuth. The series has been on hiatus since January 2012, and fan anticipation has been growing after Season 2′s cliffhanger finale. In that episode, “The Reichenbach Fall,” Sherlock appeared to leap to his death from a tall building but was afterward revealed to be secretly and inexplicably alive.

The mystery of Sherlock’s survival will be unraveled in the Season 3 premiere, titled “The Empty Hearse,” co-creator Steven Moffat told Comic-Con International attendees during the show’s panel presentation this summer, promising a “rational explanation.” “There really are only a few ways you can fall from a roof and survive,” co-creator Mark Gatiss said at the time. “It’s not black magic.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llGXWICGsD4?rel=0&vq=hd1080]