It’s just typical, isn’t it? You wait ages for a juicy Sherlock news story and three of them come along at once. After the highs of seeing Sherlock with a loveable pooch and the lows of the warnings that Series Four might spell the end for Sherlock (at least for a while), we now have some info on the shape of the stories that are on the horizon.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the show’s co-creator Steven Moffat revealed that, in a break of tradition, the episodes of Series Four will be inspired by more obscure Conan Doyle stories. He said:

“There are stories that we are making use of in different ways. We’re using stories that people don’t know so much. Now we are getting into equally good, but far less well known, Conan Doyle stories.”

This makes a lot of sense, considering that the first three series have run through nearly all of the most famous Sherlock Holmes stories. If you need reminding, Series One drew inspiration from debut story A Study in Scarlet and cipher mystery ‘The Dancing Men.’ Series Two borrowed from ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, The Hound of the Baskervilles and ‘The Final Problem’ while Series Three tackled ‘The Empty House’, The Sign of the Four, ‘Charles Augustus Milverton’ and ‘His Last Bow.’

So what stories could we be seeing adapted in Series Four? Well, due to the name of Toby Jones’ character we can be quite sure that – spoilers! – ‘The Dying Detective’ will be one of those being brought to the screen next time around. As for the others, it’s hard to say as yet.

Read some of our suggestions for Conan Doyle stories Sherlock should adapt here.