How you can watch Sherlock season four in Australia

TIME really does fly. Before you know it, a new season of Sherlock is almost upon us. Here’s how you can watch it the same day as the UK.

TIME really does fly. Before you know it, a new season of Sherlock is almost upon us.

The popular series known for its long breaks between instalments will serve up three new episodes as a New Year’s treat. The first episode of the fourth season will be available to stream in Australia on January 2 on Stan, the same day as it screens in the UK and the US.

While it’s actually been three years since the third season, it’s only been one year since the Sherlock special, The Abominable Bride, creeped us out with its gothic horror and complex time jumps (dream sequence?).

The fourth season will be back in the present day after Sherlock’s Victorian diversion and will pick up where the last series left off, with Moriarity’s mysterious return.

A teaser trailer released in July revealed a maniacally laughing Toby Jones, who is expected to feature as a villain this season, most likely as Culverton Smith.

It also looks like Watson’s wife Mary, unveiled in season three as a master spy, will be back on the job as she’s seen in something akin to a disguise and brandishing a gun.

The first episode, titled “The Six Thatchers” is based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” and written by Mark Gatiss, one of the series creators and Mycroft on screen.

It certainly looks like the fourth season will be much darker than previous episodes with heightened stakes and deeper intrigue. But be sure to make the most of it because Steven Moffat, the other series creator, has warned that it may be Sherlock’s last given how busy Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s film schedules are.

“I don’t know how long we can keep it going,” he told The Telegraph in the UK. “I’m personally willing but I’m hardly the main draw. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be.”

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride last month won the Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie.

Originally published as How you can watch Sherlock season four in Australia