It depicts the characters of the show in an alternative timeline: the Victorian London setting of the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The title is based on the quote "Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife" from "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" (1893), which refers to a case mentioned by Holmes.

The episode won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, the first win of the series in that category.

In 1895, Inspector Lestrade arrives and presents Holmes and Watson with a puzzling case: Emelia Ricoletti, a consumptive bride, had fired on by-passers in the street from a balcony before fatally shooting herself.

Sir Eustace is uncooperative, describing his wife as "hysterical"; Holmes and Watson stake out the house for the evening.

A ghostly-looking bride appears and disappears in front of them, and the pair hear the sound of breaking glass, followed by screams from both Sir Eustace and Lady Carmichael.

In the present day, it is revealed that the events of Victorian England are actually occurring within Sherlock's drug-laden Mind Palace.

Holmes explains that they used a double to fake Emelia's death, allowing her to kill her husband and create the persona of the avenging ghost bride.

Sherlock reawakens in the present, where he insists on finding Emelia's grave to prove that her body-double was buried under the coffin.

The episode ends with Victorian Holmes describing his visions of aeroplanes and mobile telephones to a cynical Watson, before looking out the window onto Baker Street in the present day.

Scenes were also shot in the cellars of Colston Hall and at Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol, and other locations in Bath, Somerset.

The final scene of the episode puts forth a possible concept that all of the series in its modern-day setting are actually playing out from within Victorian Holmes' Mind Palace.

[5] In the UK, "The Abominable Bride" pulled in strong ratings overnight, scoring more than 8.4 million viewers on New Year's Day for BBC One.

[6] The final, official consolidated rating after seven days was 11.6m viewers[7] making it the most watched programme of the week in the UK.