'Sherlock' coming back to PBS soon...ish

BEVERLY HILLS - The biggest mystery facing PBS's Sherlock is when will we see it.

The answer, says Masterpiece's series executive producer Rebecca Eaton, is nobody knows.

"We can't tell you when we're going to air it," Eaton said at the Television Critics Association press tour. "We must follow the BBC broadcast, and the BBC has not set its airdate…We stand and wait. But it will be on PBS soon. Ish."

So we have to wait, but there is good news. When Sherlock returns, says co-writer Steven Moffatt, we'll get four episodes instead of the usual "massive three." And the first one will send Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock and Martin Freeman's Watson back to Victorian London — which is where they lived in the Arthur Conan Doyle novels.

Why the time travel? "We checked the books and discovered we got it wrong," says Moffat. "We should have read them first. No, just because we can, really."

Don't expect any long explanation for the time shift. "We never bothered explaining what they were doing in modern London, so why bother explaining what they're doing in Victorian London, when that's where they're supposed to be?"

Moffat says the one temptation he had to fight in the Victorian version was not to go too "over-the-top" with the period setting: People, for example, did not really speak that differently in the Victorian age than they do now. Well, with one exception: "Sherlock Holmes has the manners of a Victorian gentlemen…He's a lot less brattish when he's back then."

Still, don't get too attached to that more mannerly Sherlock. Odds are, Moffat says, that when the Victorian special is done, Sherlock will return to its modern-day setting and stay there. "This is a sort-of one-off, unless we go mad and decide to have them fighting Hitler in the '40s. Nothing is inconceivable if you have no taste."

And speaking of odds, Moffat also thinks its a good bet the Victorian outing will air in Britain as a Christmas special. Which means it may air here soon after. Or not. Meaning, Moffat says, you'll just have to wait.

"You can never have too much anticipation, I find."