Photo: BBC One

Who needs Watson?

In the first photo from the fourth season of BBC’s “Sherlock,” Benedict Cumberbatch is pictured with a large bloodhound (or at the very least, a bloodhound mix). Whether the pooch will be a permanent mainstay or just lending his nose for one case, we can’t say.

The Telegraph did some sleuthing of its own to determine which case the canine might be helping with:  “There is a fleeting reference to the breed in one of Conan Doyle’s short stories about the detective, ‘The Adventure of the Creeping Man,’ in which Holmes is engaged to discover the cause of the strange behavior of a university professor.”

The fourth season, which executive producer Steven Moffat says might be the last one, is expected to air in early 2017.

Says Moffat: “I don’t know how long we can keep it going. I’m personally willing but I’m hardly the main draw. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be.”

Yesterday, the Victorian-set special “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride” picked up six Emmy nominations, including one for Cumberbatch as lead actor in a limited series.