"I remember asking Steven very early on “What’s his story? How did Sherlock become Sherlock? Is there..."

“

I remember asking Steven very early on “What’s his story? How did Sherlock become Sherlock? Is there trauma in his background, is there some form of backstory I should know about? Something I should have bubbling away as a subtext?”

And he said (Does an excellent Steven Impersonation) “No. He’s just Brilliant! He’s just really really clever.” And that was it!

So in my head I imagined maybe that his intelligence came out of some kind of insecurity. That he needs to prove something. Because it’s so relentless. And at times in-human and unfeeling and insensitive. And it’s taken Watson to bring him out on this journey. And… well, we’ll see, won’t we. Maybe there’s more to him than what we’ve seen so far.

”

-

Benedict Cumberbatch talking about Sherlock’s character on stage at Sherlocked 2016 -

(From notes taken during the talk, so there might be slight errors in wording)