Martin Freeman has said it “wasn’t that much fun” to film Sherlock with his former partner Amanda Abbington while they were in the process of splitting up.
The couple, who were together for 16 years and have two children, star together in the BBC show as married couple John and Mary Watson.
Freeman confirmed the end of their relationship in December 2016.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “We met on a set in 2000, we met on a Channel 4 drama called Men Only and we clicked immediately.
“We just hit it off, we went on a date a day or two later and we were together for 16 years.
“She was and remains one of my favourite actors, I think she’s a fantastic actor.”
Asked how it was to work with her on Sherlock, he replied: “Awful! No, it was good, I really love working with her.
“By the time of the last Sherlock that we’ve done we were sort of in the midst of splitting up, so that wasn’t that much fun, but when we weren’t in that midst it was great.”
Freeman said he thinks they are co-parenting “pretty well, really”, adding: “I always knew that people who split up can be civil and do it for the kids, it’s all right.
“I didn’t only want to be civil for the children, I wanted to be civil for us, because when you’ve loved someone for that long and they have been such an integral part of your life, what – that is supposed to not count now?
“That just didn’t make sense to me so we do we get on well and I think the kids see us getting on well, they are just loved by the same two people in different geography now.”
Freeman has starred in Sherlock, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, since 2010, and said the chemistry the pair share is “fairly rare and certainly even rarer for it to be picked up in the public in that way”.
He added: “Probably nothing I’ve done, maybe nothing I ever will do, has resonated with certain parts of the world’s population the same way Sherlock has, it just hit a lot of buttons for people.
“The reaction can be quite intense. So by the time we filmed the last ones there were some fans who were so adamant that John and Sherlock were gay, they knew it and they knew that Steven (Moffat) and Mark (Gatiss) were going to write an episode where we held hands off into the sunset together, and so when that didn’t happen there was a chunk pf people going, ‘This is betrayal’.
“Put it this way, they invest a lot in it and up to a certain point, that is delightful. Beyond a certain point, it’s more challenging.”
Desert Island Discs is on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11.15am.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article