“Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”

Great line.

The end.

Hang on, you want me to write an entire INTRODUCTION to Hound?

(If this was to be a musical that’s how we’d talk of it. “Hound!” A musical… Now there’s an idea… CONCENTRATE, Cumberbatch!)

Is this a ploy by Martin Freeman – who is determined that the series will be renamed “John” before long? After all, this is the most popular and horrific of all the original stories and yet Holmes is notoriously absent for six of its fifteen chapters. Why?

Because it’s obviously a dog! Sorry, I suppose that was a spoiler…

But Sherlock would get it too quickly by snooping about for the biggest dog in the neighbourhood and we’d be back at 221B in time to crack open the tantalus and slip another cigar from the coal scuttle. And anyway, shouldn’t Mark Gatiss be doing this? He wrote our version, and he has a dog! Bunsen! Though to be fair to Mark (and Bunsen), fire does not “burst from its open mouth” (unless he’s had some foul kippers the night before) nor do his eyes glow “with a smouldering glare” nor are his “hackles and dewlap” outlined “in flickering flame”. He does drool as he rolls over and lets you tickle his tummy…

I came late to Sherlock Holmes. I arrived about three years ago and am still arriving. I have read them all now, but at the beginning I was a beginner and I had to trust the two biggest Holmes fanatics I know – Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. I let them guide my instinct for playing the world’s greatest (consulting, but I think all-round) detective. Luckily for me, they weren’t bluffing and happen to be two of our country’s best writers. I began at the beginning, and in A Study in Scarlet I realised the books are a blueprint for any characterisation and make playing Sherlock a gift.

Dr Watson is, as his occupation would require, a very observant person. (Well, he sees but does not always observe, as Holmes frequently reminds him.) But as someone who brings Holmes to life on the page, Watson is brilliant. So my reading as research gained pace. As did my love for all things related to these amazing stories. It’s a joyous thing to be able to say reading the Holmes canon was homework. Ah, an actor’s life for me!

Watson provides a wonderful early description of Holmes’s physicality: As I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded, well-trained foxhound as it dashes backwards and forwards through the covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent. Holmes later describes himself as “one of the hounds and not the wolf” and, while like an overexcited hunting dog when on the trail of a scent, he sometimes exhibits the other side of canine behaviour in his lethargic, depressed dreaminess by the hearth of 221B. Unlike man’s best friend, though, he often gets there with the help of injecting a seven per cent solution of cocaine.

There are many canines in the Holmes canon. Dogs that bark in the night and those that don’t. In “ The Gloria Scott” it is revealed that, while at university, Holmes was bitten by a bull terrier and it took him ten days to recover! Then there is the curious mixed-breed Toby, the trusty half-spaniel, half-lurcher (which makes that last half one-quarter greyhound and one-quarter Irish wolfhound, doesn’t it? CONCENTRATE, Cumberbatch!). Anyway, think less of the prospect of a spaniel being impregnated by a lurcher (presuming that it was that way round… I think size does prevail in this instance) and think instead that Holmes would “rather have his help than that of the whole detective force of London”.

But there is only really one important dog in the Holmes canon. And it pads balefully through the mists of Dartmoor – the ancient curse visited upon the Baskerville family!

I remember this ripping tale first as being read to me. Either by a teacher or my brilliantly entertaining father. I remember being genuinely scared at the ghost-story element but feeling reassured that our hero would blow away the cobwebs of superstition with his tireless pursuit of logic. But wait! Dr Watson is sent down to Dartmoor… alone! In our  recent version for the BBC’s Sherlock, we spent several days on location, escaping London to find the other lead character in the story: Dartmoor. It’s a stunning landscape. Rolling hills and valleys breaking into the open majesty of the moors, and views that went on and on in the dying sunlight. Once the sun set, though, it got cold pretty fast and the landscape was somehow transformed, becoming utterly alien and deserted. This is the bleakly beautiful place that Conan Doyle masterfully turns into a nightmare landscape of rocky tors and fog. Noises sound closer. Your chest tightens as you fear what may lie beyond the distance of your outstretched hand. And then a faraway howl… Spine-chilling in it’s pain and despair. The cry of a hungry, vengeful beast!

So if it is your first time, welcome, and I envy you the thrill that awaits you in these pages. If you are returning to an old friend, forgive me for taking up your time! Ladies and gentlemen, the most famous, beloved, scary and atmospheric of Sherlock Holmes’s cases, The Hound of the Bakervilles.

Was that all right? Can I do it again? What do you mean it’s not like filming…?

Oh!

Martin Freeman’s introduction to The Sign of Four.

• Crocus: This flower is one of the first you’ll see in the spring, and it’s often associated with newly blooming love. The crocus is also known to enhance visions and bring about intuitive dreams.
• Daffodil: The bright petals of the daffodil are typically found in shades of white, yellow or even pale orange. This flower is associated with love and fertility — place fresh ones in your home to bring about abundance. Wear this flower close to your heart to draw love and luck.
• Cowslip: The fragrance has healing properties.
• Dandelion: The leaf of the dandelion is used for healing, purificaiton, and ritual cleansing. To bring positive change about, plant dandelions in the northwest corner of your property. The bright yellow flowers can be used in divination, or placed in a sachet to draw good energy your way.
• Echinacea: Also called purple coneflower, this garden mainstay adds a little bit of magical “oomph” to charmes and sachets. Use it for prosperity related workings. Burn the dried flowers in incense, and use on your altar during ritual as an offering to deities.
• Goldenseal: This sunny yellow flower is often found growing in the wild, alongside roads and in fields. Use it in money spells, or for business dealings. Work it into charms connected to matters of financial gain or legal issues.
• Hibiscus: This lusty flower incites passion — use it to attract love or lust, or for prophetic dreams about your lover. Burn in incense, or carry in a sachet to bring love your way. Red Hibiscus flowers are used in love potions and placed in wreaths in marriage ceremonies.
• Hyacinth: This flower was named for Hyakinthos, a Greek divine hero who was beloved by Apollo, so it’s sometimes considered the patron herb of homosexual men. Hyacinth is also known to promote peaceful sleep, and guards against nightmares. Carry in an amulet to help heal a broken heart or to ease grief when a loved one dies.
• Lily: The Easter lily or Tiger lily is associated with all kinds of Spring connections — fertility, rebirth, renewal and abundance.
• Marigold or Calendula: Add calendula to your bath to win the respect and admiration of your peers. String garlands of calendula around the outside doors to stop evil from entering the house.
• Morning Glory: Morning Glory seeds under your pillow will stop nightmares. Grown in the garden, blue morning glories will bring peace and happiness.
• Narcissus: Named for another Greek figure, the Narcissus helps promote polarity and harmony. Its calming vibrations bring about tranquility and inner peace.
• Passion Flower: Placed in a house, it calms problems and troubles and brings peace. Carried, it attracts friends and popularity. Placed beneath the pillow, it aids in sleep.
• Rose: Used in love and harmony spells. Roses planted in your garden will attract fairies. Rose petals sprinkled around the house will calm stress and reduce household upheavals.
• Snapdragon: Place a vase of fresh snapdragons on the altar while performing protective rituals. If someone has sent you negativity energy (hexes, curses, etc.), place some snapdragons on the altar with a mirror behind them to send the negative energy back to the sender.
• St. John’s Wort: wards off fevers and cold when worn; burn to banish evil spirits; gather it on a Friday and wear it to cure melancholy — (also known as Hypericum).
• Sunflower: Sunflowers growing the garden guard it against pests and grant the best of luck to the gardener.
• Tulip: The tulip appears in many different colors and varieties, but is typically connected to prosperity. You can use the different colored variations in color magic — use a dark strain such as Queen of the Night for full moon rituals, or bright red flowers for love magic.
• Violet: in Roman myth, the first violet sprung from the spilled blood of the god Attis, who killed himself for Cybele, the mother goddess. However, today the violet is associated with tranquility and peace. The leaf offers protection from evil, and can be sewn into a pillow or sachet for a new baby. Carry the petals with you to bring about luck and enhance nighttime magic.

Benedict was brought up in posh Kensington, west London, and was sent to board at Brambletye Preparatory School in West Sussex at the age of eight.

He then went on to £29,000-a-year Harrow — whose former pupils include eight PMs.

Generations ago the family had made a mint as owners of a sugar plantation in Barbados.

Tracy says it was a struggle for dad Timothy to send Benedict to private schools — a privilege about which the actor has often seemed uncomfortable. Tracy said: “His father had to scrimp and save to pay for Benedict to go to private school.

“He set up a trust fund even before he had the idea of having Benedict.

“Timothy gets a little annoyed when Ben decries the benefits of independent schooling, because he struggled like crazy to pay for it.

“He shouldn’t forget the benefits of Harrow because they did a lot to encourage drama and the arts.”

Even as a youngster at his previous prep school, Benedict had already caught the acting bug.

As a 12-year-old he stole the show in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Brambletye’s 300-seat theatre — opened the previous year by none other than Judi Dench. He played clownish Bottom the weaver, the over-ambitious wannabe actor who has his head magically replaced with one from a donkey.

The Shakespearian role gave the actor his very first review, in the school magazine.

It declared: “Benedict Cumberbatch’s Bottom will be long remembered.”

Brambletye’s deputy headmaster Andrew Callender, who taught the youngster and was also his housemaster, is not surprised by his former pupil’s career success.

He remembered: “Benedict was a remarkable young pupil.

“He was not only very talented at sport — particularly his rugby and cricket — but his acting came to the fore very early on. He had boundless energy.”

Tracy recalls that some of that energy was also taken up with spot-on impersonations of some his teachers as well as family members.

She said: “He’s such a good mimic — he can imitate someone in a minute. He would mimic me, mum and dad — and quite a few teachers.

“He would take the mick out of the headmaster.”

Benedict has previously said that, after Harrow, he was determined not to hop aboard the traditional public-school conveyor belt and head to Oxford or Cambridge.

Instead he went to the University of Manchester to study drama — after taking a gap year to teach English at a monastery in Tibet.

Set designer Michael Holt, who supervised Benedict’s dissertation at Manchester, told The Sun that it was obvious from the start that he was a sensation-in-the-making. Mr Holt recalled: “He certainly came to us as a very accomplished actor.

“I remember one of his Masters from Harrow calling me to tell me what a great talent was arriving. And indeed he was.”

He adds that unlike cold fish Sherlock, Benedict made plenty of friends — even if he stood out from his mates in his seriousness about acting.

He said: “He had a lot of friends, he was a very pleasant, thoughtful chap and could be quiet.

“He had a professional attitude, he wasn’t starry-eyed.

“He knew it was something you had to work at.”