The new series of Sherlock will start in the UK on Wednesday 1st January - with the first and second episodes being shown inside a week, it was announced today.

As a publicity stunt, a hearse was driven around London this morning via location filming sites, with the BBC One show's title and date of broadcast of the first episode - entitled The Empty Hearse - spelled out in flowers.

Producer Sue Vertue started the ball rolling yesterday evening with the following tweet, alerting fans to the fact that something was going to happen:


The BBC subsequently confirmed to website Sherlockology that episode 2 - The Sign of Three - will go out on Sunday 5th January, just four days after the first one, with the third and final episode, His Last Vow, airing on Sunday 12th January. The broadcast times of all three are yet to be confirmed.

A sell-out preview screening of The Empty Hearse is to be held at the BFI on Sunday 15th December.

The series will start in the USA on Sunday 19th January on PBS at 10pm ET.

UPDATE - WEDNESDAY 4th DECEMBER: The first episode will air in the UK from 9pm to 10.25pm.

A new teaser trailer for the third series of Sherlock has been uploaded by the BBC for general viewing.

It initially aired on BBC One on Saturday immediately after The Day of the Doctor, the 50th-anniversary episode of Doctor Who, and has now been posted on both the BBC's YouTube channel and the programme's official website.


This is the second teaser so far for the forthcoming series, with the first one being released in August.

A date for the start of the third series in the UK is yet to be announced, although a sell-out preview screening of the first episode - The Empty Hearse - will take place at the BFI on Sunday 15th December. The new series will start in the USA on Sunday 19th January at 10pm ET on PBS.

The surviving members of Monty Python's Flying Circus are to reunite on stage.

Terry Jones, one of the iconic group of comedians, told the BBC: His announcement ended speculation following tweets by fellow Python Eric Idle yesterday and today in which he said:


and


It is understood that John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam will join Jones and Idle for the press conference, which is expected to be held at The Playhouse Theatre in London, where the hit stage show Spamalot is playing.

The sixth member of the comedy group, Graham Chapman, died of cancer in October 1989.

The five surviving Pythons last appeared together at the 1998 Aspen Comedy Festival.

The comedy group started life as a BBC television sketch show that ran for four series between 1969 and 1974, spawning five films as well as various books and albums, and proved to be a massive influence on comedy.

UPDATE - FRIDAY 22nd NOVEMBER: The show will take place at the O2 Arena in London on Tuesday 1st July 2014, and will see the team performing some of their best-known sketches "with modern and topical Pythonesque twists", as well as new material. Tickets go on sale on Monday 25th November from 10am, with prices starting at £27.50 and going up to £95 (plus fees). More details are available via this link. The performance will be filmed and released commercially.

The first official picture from the third series of Sherlock was released today by the BBC.

Taken by Robert Viglasky, it shows Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character and Martin Freeman as his flatmate, friend, and colleague Dr John Watson.

The BBC One show's start date in the UK is yet to be confirmed, but in a press release the BBC said: Speaking about the return of the series, executive producer, writer, and co-creator Steven Moffat said: Fellow executive producer, writer, and co-creator Mark Gatiss, who has written the first episode The Empty Hearse, added:

As previously reported, series 3 will start in the USA on Sunday 19th January as part of PBS's Masterpiece strand.

Sherlock is inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It has been made by Hartswood Films, with Sue Vertue as the producer. The executive producers are Beryl Vertue, Gatiss, and Moffat for Hartswood Films, Bethan Jones for the BBC, and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece. The drama was commissioned by Danny Cohen, former controller of BBC One (now director of BBC Television), and Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning.

UPDATE - 3.48pm: The BFI will be holding an exclusive preview screening of the first episode, followed by a question-and-answer session with cast and crew members, on Sunday 15th December at 1pm. Tickets go on sale to members tomorrow at 11.30am, with public booking opening on Tuesday 12th November from 11.30am. More details via this link.