Mark Gatiss shuts down Sherlock series 5 rumours

Last week, the owner of Bloomsbury's Speedy’s Café - a regular fixture in the series as part of the fictional location for the detective’s Baker Street flat - told Time Out that he had "heard they'll be coming back for a fifth season", leading many to speculate that the show would be returning sooner than Gatiss, who writes on the show and stars as Sherlock's brother Mycroft - and showrunner Steven Moffat had let on.

But Gatiss was quick to quell the rumour, calling it "utter nonsense" in a tweet posted on Friday night. Check it out below.

The duo have confirmed that a new series probably will happen at some point several times over the last few months, but with an already hectic schedule - Moffat has a new HBO series in the works, and is writing a series about Dracula with Gatiss - it looks like it could be some time before it hits our screens.

“Nobody has ever closed the door on Sherlock – we just say the same thing all the time and it gets quoted different ways,” Moffat told RadioTimes.com earlier this year.

"We haven’t got an immediate plan, but I would remain surprised, given the collective enthusiasm we have for it, if we didn’t do it again."

“When, I don’t know,” he continued. “I think maybe the time for a longer gap is upon us, I don’t know. A longer gap? They’re always long gaps!”

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