There are several reasons why people are hooked on the British television show "Sherlock," and one of these things is lead star Benedict Cumberbatch's mass appeal.
Prior to landing the role, many people have not even heard of Cumberbatch. Of course, things drastically changed for the actor and he now has legions of devoted fans.
When asked about Cumberbatch's popularity and sex appeal, showrunner Steven Moffat admitted that he is "hardly the person to ask."
"I'm many things but not a judge of Benedict Cumberbatch's sexiness," he told TIME. "He doesn't seem sexy at all to me. No, I never expected that. It's great when it happens and it helps. But I think people have lots of reasons for watching Benedict and lots of reasons for watching Sherlock besides his sex appeal."
Cumberbatch's rising star has made it difficult for the "Sherlock" crew to get him and co-star Martin Freeman together for the series, and that has gotten fans worried that the series will be put to a halt because the stars have better things to do. But Moffat assures "Sherlock" devotees that they are doing the best that they can.
"It's a problem to schedule them. They both have huge movie careers and the reality is financially or prestige-wise, they don't need to do it anymore. So it is difficult to get everyone in the same place but so long as everybody is willing to try to make it work, it will carry on," he said.
At the same time, they are also working hard not to let audiences' opinions shape their direction for "Sherlock," and given the fact that everybody is tech-savvy nowadays, Moffat said that he has to remind the crew time and again to switch off their accounts.
"I think there's a terrible danger in social media for writers. When writers come onto 'Sherlock' or 'Dr. Who' I always tell them, 'Close your Twitter account. Move away from all that. I don't want to see you on that.' They never listen to me, but what I always tell them is the criticism will hurt you and the praise will kill you," Moffat shared.
When people cave in to public pressure, Moffat said that they will get the wrong voice inside their heads.
"You're no longer addressing the audience at large, you're addressing a tiny little niche. And that's the beginning of the end of your show," he explained. "It's like if a comedian only catered his act towards the one heckler. It doesn't make sense."
