Sherlock

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' Sherlock launched on BBC One in July 2010 as a three-feature-length-episode mini-series and ran across four series and a Christmas special through 2017, with thirteen episodes total. The original commission was for a single ninety-minute pilot in 2009; the BBC's reaction was strong enough that the entire structure was redesigned around feature-length episodes, an unusual format choice for British primetime drama at the time.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman play Holmes and Watson; the role launched Cumberbatch into the international career that would take him to Marvel and the Oscars within a few years, and reactivated Freeman's profile after The Office ahead of his casting as Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit trilogy. Andrew Scott's Moriarty, introduced in the first-series finale, became one of the most discussed performances in 2010s British television. The supporting cast (Una Stubbs, Rupert Graves, Mark Gatiss himself as Mycroft, Louise Brealey) held across all four series.

The show won multiple BAFTAs, including Best Drama Series in 2011 and 2014, and earned Emmy wins for Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Lead Actor for Cumberbatch. It was sold to broadcasters in over 200 territories and is widely cited as the most internationally exported piece of British scripted television of the 2010s. Moffat would go on to Doctor Who showrunning, Dracula and Inside Man; Gatiss has continued as a Doctor Who writer and a regular Christmas-ghost-story director for the BBC.