Russian broadcaster on Monday blamed hackers for the leak of the final episode of BBC drama Sherlock's fourth season, just two days before it was supposed to air.
The episode, which has been dubbed into Russian and was to be aired on Russia’s Channel One on Monday, was reportedly leaked online on Saturday and shared on various websites.
As reported by news agency AFP, Channel One spokeswoman Larisa Krymova suggested that, “the cause was a hacker attack”. She added that the channel “has been in close contact with the BBC from the moment it learnt of the leak and is carrying out an investigation to identify the source of the material uploaded to the internet.”
According to The Telegraph, BBC revealed that it launched a complete investigation on Sunday and claimed that the leak was “more than just an accident”.
(Read also: BBC's 'Sherlock' hits all-time low ratings following leak)
Sherlock producer Sue Vertue informed Twitter fans on Saturday by posting, "Russian version of #Sherlock TFP has been illegally uploaded. Please don't share it. You've done so well keeping it spoiler free. Nearly there."
Russian version of #Sherlock TFP has been illegally uploaded.Please don't share it. You've done so well keeping it spoiler free.Nearly there
— sue vertue (@suevertue) January 14, 2017
Hashtags and jokes about the leak were posted and trending over the weekend on Russian-language Twitter.
The tweets ranged from, "The moment when the Russians watched your show before you," posted by @zaz1995, to “I kindly ask all of you not to blame Russia for everything in the world, just because the final episode got leaked,” remarked @nocturnalsora.
Russians' fondness for Sherlock dates back to a televised version with Soviet actors filmed in the Baltic state of Latvia in the 1980s, which remains popular until today. (nik/kes)
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