Sherlock (BBC series) Trivia
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140 free Sherlock (BBC Series) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Sherlock trivia quiz covers the BBC series created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, which ran for four three-part series and a Victorian special between 2010 and 2017 (for questions on Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, see our Sherlock Holmes quiz). It follows Benedict Cumberbatch's modern-day consulting detective and Martin Freeman's Afghanistan veteran John Watson from their first flatshare at 221B Baker Street to the fall from Barts, the return, John's wedding, the shooting of Magnussen and the secret sister locked away at Sherrinford. The easy questions are ones any viewer knows: who plays Moriarty, what Sherlock calls himself instead of a psychopath, where the special is set and what Irene Adler's phone password turned out to be. From there it works through every episode: the pink lady and the cabbie's pills, the Black Lotus cipher, the pips of The Great Game, the Baskerville hound and its acronym, Richard Brook, the thirteen scenarios on the roof, the Mayfly Man, Mary's A.G.R.A. stick, Culverton Smith the 'cereal killer', Redbeard and the girl on the plane. There are behind-the-scenes questions too: the unaired 60-minute pilot, why Baker Street was filmed on North Gower Street, Matt Smith's audition for Watson, Cumberbatch's real parents playing his fictional ones, the Emmys and the Royal Mail stamps. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its episodes and its cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Fans of British crime drama may also like our Doctor Who and Broadchurch quizzes.
30 of 140 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock?
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch, the only actor the producers saw for the part. His fans call themselves the Cumbercollective, and the show made him a star at 34.
Q 02Who plays Dr John Watson?
Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman, whose Watson is a war-damaged doctor with a blog rather than a bumbling sidekick, and who won an Emmy for the role in 2014. Tim in The Office had been pining for Dawn a decade earlier.
Q 03Which two writers created Sherlock?
Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss
Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, both Doctor Who writers, plotted their modern-day Holmes on train journeys between London and the Doctor Who set; the first episode aired in July 2010.
Q 04How many episodes of Sherlock were produced in total?
13
13: four series of three episodes, broadcast between 2010 and 2017, plus a one-off special shown on New Year's Day 2016.
Q 05On which channel did Sherlock originally air in the UK?
BBC One
BBC One, the corporation's main channel; the show's New Year's Day 2014 return drew 12.7 million viewers. Co-creator Steven Moffat was running Doctor Who for the same channel at the time.
Q 06In which city was Sherlock primarily filmed?
Cardiff
Cardiff, where the production was based and the 221B interior was built in a studio; Welsh streets doubled for London, which was far costlier to film in.
Q 07Which real London road stood in for the exterior of 221B in Baker St?
North Gower Street
North Gower Street: number 187 plays the exterior of 221B because the real Baker Street has heavy traffic and Sherlock Holmes Museum signage that would spoil the shot.
Q 08Which American station co-produced Sherlock for its Masterpiece strand?
WGBH-TV Boston
WGBH-TV Boston, the public station that produces PBS's Masterpiece strand, co-produced the series, which is why Sherlock aired on PBS in the United States.
Q 09From which war has John Watson returned when he meets Sherlock?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, 'the same unwinnable war', as Mark Gatiss put it: Conan Doyle's Watson was wounded there in 1880, and the modern one in the 2000s. The psychosomatic limp disappears once the chases start.
Q 10Who plays Sherlock's nemesis, Jim Moriarty?
Andrew Scott
Andrew Scott, whose sing-song, whispering take on Moriarty made him the show's signature villain and won him a BAFTA TV Award in 2012 for series two.
Q 11What is Molly Hooper's job?
Pathologist at Barts Hospital
Pathologist at Barts Hospital: Molly works in the hospital morgue, where Sherlock flogs a corpse in the first episode and later borrows body parts; Louise Brealey plays her in all four series.
Q 12Who plays Mrs Hudson, the landlady?
Una Stubbs
Una Stubbs, who had worked with Cumberbatch's actress mother and known him since he was about four; she played Mrs Hudson across all four series before her death in 2021.
Q 13Which co-creator of the show plays Mycroft Holmes?
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss, who co-created the show and cast himself as Mycroft, the 'minor position in the British government' official; he also wrote The Hounds of Baskerville and The Empty Hearse.
Q 21Who plays Mr and Mrs Holmes, the brothers' mother and father, from series three?
Cumberbatch's real mum and dad
Cumberbatch's real mum and dad: his parents, the actors Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton, play Mr and Mrs Holmes, first appearing in The Empty Hearse in 2014.
Q 22Who plays Irene Adler in A Scandal in Belgravia?
Lara Pulver
Lara Pulver, previously seen in the BBC spy drama Spooks, played Irene Adler in the January 2012 series-two opener, which drew more than 100 complaints to the BBC.
Q 23Who plays Henry Knight in The Hounds of Baskerville?
Russell Tovey
Q 14Who plays DI Greg Lestrade?
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves, whose Lestrade is a decent, put-upon Scotland Yard inspector; his first name, Greg, is only spoken aloud in The Hounds of Baskerville.
Q 15Which Conan Doyle story's version of Lestrade did the writers choose to follow?
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, in which Lestrade tells Holmes that Scotland Yard is proud of him; Mark Gatiss cited that frustrated-but-admiring Lestrade as their model.
Q 16Which 2007 film made Moffat and Vertue want to cast Cumberbatch as Sherlock?
Atonement
Atonement, the 2007 Ian McEwan adaptation in which Cumberbatch played the predatory Paul Marshall; Moffat and producer Sue Vertue saw it and considered no one else for Sherlock.
Q 17How does Sherlock describe himself instead of a psychopath?
A high-functioning sociopath
A high-functioning sociopath, 'do your research', though psychologist Maria Konnikova disputed the label, and so would most psychiatrists. He also styles himself the world's only consulting detective.
Q 18What replaces Holmes's pipe in the modern series?
Nicotine patches
Nicotine patches: Sherlock calls the first episode's puzzle 'a three-patch problem', updating Conan Doyle's 'three-pipe problem' because he cannot smoke indoors in modern London.
Q 19Which future Doctor Who star auditioned unsuccessfully for Watson, judged too 'barmy'?
Matt Smith
Matt Smith, the first actor to audition for Watson, was turned down as too 'barmy' for the straight-man role; Moffat then cast him as the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who.
Q 20Who plays Mary Morstan?
Amanda Abbington
Amanda Abbington, Martin Freeman's real-life partner at the time, joined the cast in series three as Mary; the couple announced their separation in 2016.
Russell Tovey, the Being Human and Him & Her actor, plays Henry Knight, who as a boy watched his father die on Dartmoor and believes a gigantic hound did it.
Q 24Sherlock was first announced in 2008 as what kind of production?
A single 60-minute drama
A single 60-minute drama: the BBC commissioned a one-hour pilot in 2008, then reshot and expanded it into a three-film first series and never broadcast the original version.
Q 25Roughly how much did the original unaired pilot reportedly cost?
£800,000
£800,000: the reported cost of the hour-long unaired pilot, which the BBC chose to reshoot at feature length; the original version later appeared on the series one DVD.
Q 26Which director came up with putting text messages on screen instead of showing phones?
Paul McGuigan
Paul McGuigan, who directed A Study in Pink and three more episodes, devised showing texts as floating on-screen captions rather than cutting to a phone screen.
Q 27What is the name of the sandwich shop beneath the flat used as Sherlock's home?
Speedy's
Speedy's, the real sandwich bar next to the front door used as 221B; its owner reported a sharp rise in customers, many of them fans, after the series aired.
Q 28Which brand made the £1,000 coat Cumberbatch wore in the series?
Belstaff
Belstaff: Sherlock's heavy wool Milford coat had been discontinued, and the brand put it back into production because of fan demand after the first series.
Q 29Who composed the music for Sherlock?
David Arnold and Michael Price
David Arnold and Michael Price, whose score pairs a solo violin with electronic pulses; the duo went on to win a Primetime Emmy for their Sherlock music.
Q 30Which film franchise had David Arnold scored before Sherlock?
James Bond
Five Bond films between 1997 and 2008.