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"Warning: This article contains spoilers that some readers may prefer to avoid. Steven Moffat has described Sherlock as a &amp;quot;phenomenon&amp;quot; following last night&amp;#039;s ratings success. The BBC One drama&amp;#039;s third series finale &amp;#039;His Last Vow&amp;#039; pulled in overnight figures of 8.8m, with a 32.1% audience share.  &amp;quot;It isn&amp;#039;t supposed to be like this,&amp;quot; said Moffat - the show&amp;#039;s co-creator - in a statement. &amp;quot;Sherlock began life as a surprise hit, and now in its third series, it&amp;#039;s rating higher than ever.&amp;quot; The writer - who devised Sherlock alongside Mark Gatiss - admitted that he initially thought of the detective series as a &amp;quot;vanity project&amp;quot; when it launched in 2010. &amp;quot;This show, which we all thought would be our vanity project destined for 3 million in the ratings and possibly an award from an obscure European festival, has become a barnstorming international phenomenon,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;If I live to be a very old man, I might be able to explain how any of that happened - drop me a line in about 40 years, I&amp;#039;ll do my best. &amp;quot;Till then, on behalf of Mark and [producer] Sue [Vertue] and myself - who started all this, not so very long ago - thank you all for the very best of times!&amp;quot;  &amp;#039;His Last Vow&amp;#039; saw Sherlock seemingly exiled to Eastern Europe after killing villain Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), only to be recalled to London to deal with an apparently resurrected Moriarty (Andrew Scott). A fourth and fifth series of Sherlock are currently in the planning stages. Sherlock series 4: We&amp;#039;ll make it as quickly as we can, says Moffat Watch the stars of Sherlock talk the latest series with Digital Spy below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/sherlock/news/a543501/steven-moffat-on-sherlock-ratings-its-an-international-phenomenon/>