--- title: Sherlock Has a Dog Sidekick in First Season 4 Photo description: Sherlock reveals first look at a new character canonical: https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-15T15:38:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:26.230Z og:title: Benedict Cumberbatch Has a New Sidekick in First 'Sherlock' Season 4 Photo og:description: Unfortunately, it's not Andy Murray og:url: https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39c0bbf96d0a69a/69889c16bc6cfc6c4c3ddcfc/dog.jpg?branch=production&width=620&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 620 og:image:height: 349 og:image:alt: Dog og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Benedict Cumberbatch Has a New Sidekick in First 'Sherlock' Season 4 Photo twitter:description: Unfortunately, it's not Andy Murray twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39c0bbf96d0a69a/69889c16bc6cfc6c4c3ddcfc/dog.jpg?branch=production&width=620&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Benedict Cumberbatch Has a New Sidekick in First _Sherlock_ Season 4 Photo > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b64838de-d513-4d95-9758-c90f7d8e34f7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 15, 2016 3:38 PM UTC  Courtesy of Sherlock, BBC One by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 15, 2016 3:38 PM UTC When Sherlock returns for a fourth season, he may have a new canine friend. In a [new first-look image](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36804603) from the fourth season of the series, we see Sherlock in London explaining his deep thoughts to a hound who looks sufficiently impressed. Sherlock has previously gotten his head straight by spending time in his “mind palace” at home with Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman), but Watson may now have some best friend competition: as we can see in the photo, Freeman isn’t anywhere to be found. The new three-part [series](http://time.com/4165328/sherlock-benedict-cumberbatch-steven-moffat/) is due to premiere in 2017, but the show is still making news long before the premiere. On Thursday, the _Sherlock_ Christmas special “The Abominable Bride,” scored six Emmy nods, including one for Cumberbatch as best lead actor in a limited series. \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36804603)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/"},"headline":"Benedict Cumberbatch Has a New Sidekick in First Sherlock Season 4 Photo","datePublished":"2016-07-15T15:38:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:26.230Z","description":"New leash on life","url":"https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Sherlock","Benedict Cumberbatch"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39c0bbf96d0a69a/69889c16bc6cfc6c4c3ddcfc/dog.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39c0bbf96d0a69a/69889c16bc6cfc6c4c3ddcfc/dog.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dog","caption":"","creditText":"Courtesy of Sherlock, BBC One","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4407897/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-dog-season-4-photo/","name":"Benedict Cumberbatch Has a New Sidekick in First Sherlock Season 4 Photo"}}]}] ```