Cumberbatch open to play an old Sherlock
Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch said he could still be playing the super sleuth as a pensioner.
The 38-year-old actor, who is one of Hollywood's most in-demand stars, plays the detective in the BBC One drama.
Cumberbatch and his co-star Martin Freeman are set to return to the drama for a Christmas special next year followed by a fourth series.
He has told Empire magazine he would love to continue to play the popular detective well into his twilight years.
"As long as the ideas are still there and the audience still wants it and as long as Martin and I are not so infirm we can no longer remember the lines and shuffle round the set. I'd love to do it into old age, I really would."
Cumberbatch would not be the first actor to play a more elderly Holmes. Sir Ian McKellen is currently working on a new film playing the ageing detective grappling with the loss of his powers.
The film, called Mr Holmes, sees the 93-year-old sleuth living in seclusion by the sea with his housekeeper and her young son who help him attempt to solve his final case.
The story, based on the novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin, is directed by Bill Condon, who worked with Sir Ian on Oscar-winning Gods and Monsters.
Holmes has also been played in recent years by Robert Downey Jr in two film outings and Jonny Lee Miller has portrayed him in US TV series Elementary.
