Video: Interview with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on Sherlock series 3

The stars of Sherlock spoke about the show at the premiere of The Empty Hearse, the first episode of series 3 of the detective drama

It's been over a year since Sherlock fans watched the modern-day super sleuth plunge to his death off the edge of St Bart's Hospital in London, only to re-emerge very much alive.

Now as Sherlock prepares to return, the show's stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington talk about working on the third series.

Cumberbatch said it was "really hard" to play the modern version of Arthur Conan-Doyle's detective but added it was also "great fun".

When asked what he would do if he faked his own death and became anonymous for a week he said he would become a journalist, "turn the cameras around on other people".

The third series will pick up two years after the fateful events of series 2 and reveal just how Sherlock faked his own death.

Freeman explained what viewers can expect of his character John Watson: "Well, as far as he's concerned it's been two years since he lost his best friend. His best friend died in front of his eyes and he's had to move on or just be depressed.

He went on to say: "I think a part of him still does carry a bit of that depression or a bit of that sadness that you do when you lose someone. When we lose someone close to us, I don't think we every quite get over it and John, I think, will always have the residue of sadness but he's fallen in love and he's moved on."

A trailer for the forthcoming series was released last week in which we learn that there is another terror threat and Sherlock is back on the case.

We see a bearded Anderson, the forensics expert who bears the brunt of Sherlock's ire, who seems very much disturbed but we don't know just what is disturbing him so much.

Sherlock is heard ominously saying: "The one person he thought didn't matter to me was the one person that mattered the most."

Meanwhile Watson has got on with his life and has a fiancée played by Abbington. He is also sporting a fetching moustache which may be a reference to the original Victorian character.

In the trailer Watson refers to Sherlock's faked death: "I don't care how you faked it, I want to know why." 

Abbington who is Freeman's real-life partner described what it was like working with him: "I think it works. We get on very well. We've worked together numerous times before and I think that Mark [Gatiss] and Steven [Moffat] thought 'well, it's just an easy bet'."

"You're going to get that chemistry and we do have a nice chemistry, we have an ease on screen that I think is quite nice."

She added: "Working with both of them was a joy, it really was, it was fantastic."

Just like series one and two, the third series will be made up of three episode that take inspiration from Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes short stories.

The first episode The Empty Hearse was shown at a special screening yesterday and will be shown on New Year's Day. This will be followed by The Sign of Three written by Steve Thompson and His Last Vow penned by Moffat.

'Sherlock' will return on New Year's Day on BBC1

Video: Mark Gatiss on the return of 'Sherlock'

By default player size is set to 420 x 315px. But you can resize player width and height once you get the player code using player params.