The Sherlock Series 4 Interviews: Rupert Graves

Rupert Graves plays Inspector Lestrade and Sherlock Series 4 Premieres 1 January 2017 on BBC One.

What can we expect from Lestrade in series four?
I think this might be my favourite series! It sees Lestrade become more of a procedural copper. I don’t understand anything about what’s going to happen but it is mind blowing. Lestrade in his own lovely little way is struggling to understand what’s happening.

Do you think that Lestrade’s presence makes Sherlock show off more?
I can imagine that Sherlock probably couldn’t resist, the thing about Lestrade is that it’s quite easy to shine in his presence. I don’t think someone’s of Sherlock’s capacity needs to strain too many mental muscles to preen in front of Lestrade.

Does Lestrade wish he was more like Sherlock?
Lestrade has a double reaction to Sherlock. He’s obviously phenomenally impressed and marvels at his super brain, and at the same time jealous that Sherlock is infinitely better at his job than he is.

How different was it playing a Victorian version of Lestrade?
It was fun doing the Victorian Sherlock because I had to reconfigure the character of Lestrade. I enjoyed making the choices about what he wears in the modern incarnation but what would be the Victorian equivalent? That was fun, doing that. What was most interesting was the fact Lestrade and all the characters were projection – it was like looking through the prism of Sherlock’s mind, reinvented not only in a time difference but also through somebody else’s eyes. Lestrade only existed through Sherlock’s eyes, that’s kind of fun to do.

How is Sherlock different to working on other shows?
We’ve done four seasons and a special – it’s not very often that you do a job – a play or a film or even a TV series that you finish but to keep coming back and see the same people, same art department, same productions, same actors that’s the big difference for me.