Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Gatiss are back as Sherlock and Mycroft as 'intercepted transmission' hints that a new game is on...
And another message from Gatiss and Steven Moffat provides further clues...
An "intercepted transmission" between Whitehall grandee Mycroft Holmes and his consulting detective brother Sherlock hints that the British government is considering enlisting the help of members of the public in a mysterious project.
Along with the usual sarcastic brotherly badinage, Mycroft tells Sherlock that "certain cells of the network have gone rather quiet... We are simply short of minds – no amount of quiet recruitment can compensate for our sheer dearth of numbers – we shall have to recruit... publicly..."
"Recruit... real people?" asks Sherlock, aghast. "Mycroft, you know you can't trust them, they're into all sorts of strange things – high protein yoghurts, photographs of food, voting."
"Yes, but at least they're replaceable," says Mycroft.
Exactly what this secret mission might entail remains to be scene but we suspect it has something to do with another duo, a certain Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and a video message they posted recently announcing a new Sherlock adventure to celebrate Sherlock Holmes Day (today, 22nd May).
The pair are at pains to point out that it's "not a new episode" of Sherlock, "and not a new series, and not a film" but it is "an actual new adventure – a proper one, involving the people that you'd expect to be involved in a Sherlock adventure..."
And, quite possibly, you.
Watch the message below for further details, then head over to www.thegameisnow.com to register your interest.
The game is on...