According to a recent research , current Sherlock actor and author of Sherlock Holmes may be distant relatives to each other. As per a website, Ancestry.com, Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch and Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are 16th cousins to each other. Although this information was removed from the website twice, perhaps for validity and reliability reasons but it’s still news.
The common ancestor between the two was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of King Edward III and the father of Henry IV. Cumberbatch is currently 40 years old and Sir Arthur passed away in 1930, whereas, John of Gaunt passed away in 1399. John of Gaunt was the 15th great grandfather of Sir Arthur and the 17th great grandfather of Cumberbatch, this is as per the website.
Sherlock returned to TV screens on Sunday 1st January 2016 for three new episodes aired in the UK on BBC and in the US on PBS. This might be the last time we see these two actors of Sherlock side by side i.e. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. This is mainly because the two have witnessed a lot of limelight in the big screen as well, by now; with Cumberbatch in Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Freeman in the Hobbit trilogy.
The co-creator of Sherlock are Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat; told journalists and fans at an event this week that,
“We would love to do more, but we are not lying, we absolutely don’t know. It’s up to all kinds of factors, scheduling. Willingness to do it is all all here, but we are just not sure.”
Cumberbatch spoke to the Daily Mail on Saturday and here is what he had to say about the series;
“This new series goes to a place where it will be hard to follow on immediately. We never say never on the show, but in the immediate future we all have things we want to crack on with, and we’ve made something very complete as it is. So I think we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Although the website, Ancestry.com, was not requested to research the backgrounds of the two but a spokesman for the website had enlightened the audience that the researchers of the company find interest in researching for puzzles of both, the series as well as characters. Here is what Lisa Elzey, a family historian from the website had to say:
“Making family history connections is similar to piecing together a mysterious puzzle, one that the great Sherlock Holmes himself would be intrigued to solve.”
