The BBC is trying to establish whether an episode of Sherlock was deliberately leaked from within the offices of a Russian state broadcaster, after last night’s hotly-anticipated series finale was circulated on the internet ahead of transmission, the Telegraph reports.
A Russian-language version of the 90-minute episode, entitled The Final Problem, appeared online on Saturday, featuring a three-second continuity announcement identifying it as having originated from Channel One, which holds the rights to air Sherlock in Russia.
BBC Worldwide, which sells the corporation’s content overseas, said it had “initiated a full investigation” into the leak, which analysts suggested could have been deliberately orchestrated to damage the British broadcaster.
The Kremlin is thought to have been angered by a recent decision to expand the BBC World Service’s Russian language output, and also threatened reprisals against the corporation after a short-lived attempt by NatWest to close bank accounts linked to Russia’s English language broadcaster, RT.
In October a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry said that the abortive attempt to close RT’s accounts “reeked of” the BBC, claiming that state-owned Natwest was acting to help Britain’s national broadcaster.
Western security officials have warned of Russia’s increasing use of cyber-attacks, which have included the hacking of Democratic Party emails in the run-up to the American election.
Analysts suggested that the Sherlock leak could form part of Russia’s threatened retaliation against the BBC.
