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As Irene Adler, Lara Pulver matches wits with Sherlock Holmes. (� HARTWOOD FILMS 2012)

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Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch, below left) and his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman). (� HARTWOOD FILMS 2012)

It isn't love, and it isn't lust, and it isn't outright loathing, either -- but there's something pretty spectacular that sets hearts all a-fluttering when the world's greatest detective has his at-first-sight moment with London's most cunning and clever female criminal.

"I think it's because he meets a like mind; that's the fundamental attraction for him," says British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who returns for a second season of PBS/Masterpiece Mystery's modern-day reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes whodunits. The first of three new instalments, A Scandal in Belgravia, airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on Prairie Public TV.

"He meets someone who is a challenge, who is rather good, and it takes him by surprise. Not because he's a misogynist, not because he views women as any lesser of a species -- he views them as equal -- it's just that pretty much all people, apart from him, are a bit stupid, so the fact he meets somebody who is a worthy opponent, of either sex, is of great intrigue."

In this new adaptation, Holmes, deeply bored by the case files coming his way in recent months, finds himself summoned to Buckingham Palace to apply his investigative skills to a situation that requires extreme discretion. At first, he refuses the case, unimpressed by the supposedly regal pedigree of the principals involved. When he learns that the messy predicament involves a high-class dominatrix named Irene Adler (played by Lara Pulver), and that the she is already a couple of steps ahead of Holmes before he's even begun his sleuthing, the Baker Street detective can't resist the lure of the chase.

With trusty companion Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman) in tow, Holmes sets out to find Adler and the files of apparently rather compromising photos she is presumed to have in her possession.

In a satellite-connected interview session during PBS's portion of the U.S. networks' semi-annual press tour in Los Angeles, both Cumberbatch and Pulver agree that there's a special challenge and a huge, unique payoff in playing mystery-movie foes who happen to be among the smartest people on Earth.

"It is a rare challenge, for an audience and for an actor, to take part in something with this level of intelligence and wit," said Cumberbatch. "You have to play with it, (and) you have to really enjoy it. It is hard. It's sort of a form of mental and physical gymnastics.

"It takes a lot of effort to play clever. It takes very little effort to look clever, as I've found out through this character, for some reason. But it's the sort of challenge that you just have to run with, and I really do. I absolutely love every minute of it, as hard as it can be. It's a thrill to bring something to an audience that isn't patronizing... (and) to be received with so much love, it's a validation from the audience."

Pulver (True Blood's Fairy Queen) said she received the script for A Scandal in Belgravia last year, just before boarding a flight from England to Los Angeles, and wished immediately that she'd found a way to miss the plane.

"I remember thinking, 'We have to turn the plane around, because it's the best piece of writing that I've read in a long time,'" she said. "As for playing the most intelligent people on television, I think Benedict set the precedent with Season 1, and coming in as his counterpart for Season 2 was a gift, and absolute gift.

"I think Benedict and I allowed ourselves to play within this tapestry that Steven (Moffat) has written and to develop a physical, emotional, mental, sensual relationship."

Added Cumberbatch: "It's no mean feat to come in and try to be the female equivalent of Holmes, and that's really what Adler is.... But this isn't going to be 'love,' where we get boring and mushy... They're an even match for each other."

Two other new Holmes adaptations follow -- The Hounds of Baskerville (May 13) and The Reichenbach Fall (May 20).

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 3, 2012 E7