Sherlock is a British television series that presents a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. It was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson. After an unbroadcast pilot was produced in 2009, the first series of three 90-minute episodes was transmitted on BBC One and BBC HD in July and August 2010. A second series of three episodes premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2012.