Benedict Cumberbatch in a spot of bother over CBS' Elementary

By Sean O'Neal  |  August 30, 2012 | 9:07pm
Aux Features TV

Despite the fact that the upcoming CBS show Elementary went to the trouble of making Watson an Asian-American woman and therefore is totally different, the cast and crew of the BBC's Sherlock continue to express their suspicion that the network is attempting to copy their own modern Sherlock Holmes show, simply because CBS tried to copy their own modern Sherlock Holmes show. Until now, however, little has been heard about it from Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, as he has not been seen in many a fortnight since Whit Monday. This led some to suspect he'd slipped away to become a mountebank, quacksalver, and all-'round charlatan along the Borough, or possibly been felled by the croup.

But thanks to a slumgullion-bribed steward, the U.K.'s Shortlist found Cumberbatch in a Common lodging-house and was able to ask him what he thought of his Frankenstein co-star Jonny Lee Miller basically doing his show, only with New Yorkers and Asian women. And while Cumberbatch at first offered his partially backhanded support ("I think there’s room for us both to coexist. I don’t feel threatened by it and I wish him the best, which is as diplomatic as I can be"), he soon enough switched to using the full, gloveless backhand:

I did say, “Well, I’d prefer you didn’t do it but you’ve got a kid to feed, a nice house in LA and a wife to keep in good clothes.” When you get used to a certain standard of living and they waft a paycheck at you, what are you going to do? I think Jonny was like, “Mate, I’ve got the fucking mountain to climb here [to reach the acclaim of Sherlock], you’ve got nothing to fear.” I wish him the best of luck, but I’m a bit cynical about why they’ve chosen to do it and why they cast him.

Upon receiving this pitiless tongue-lashing, Jonny Lee Miller exploded in a tempest of handkerchiefs.

 
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