Did you spot who played the dead Viking at the end of the Sherlock finale?

It may have escaped your notice but there was a dead Viking in the living room of 221B Baker Street at the end of Sherlock series four finale The Final Problem.

Not much to shout about there, you might think, just part of an amusing montage showing our heroes Sherlock and John tackling future cases and showing what they're made of.

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Only, this is no ordinary dead Viking. This is – as eagle-eyed viewers studying the credits may have spotted – a dead Viking played by music legend Paul Weller.

The former frontman of Mod revival legends The Jam is a friend of Sherlock star Martin Freeman, who brought Weller onto the set during filming, revealed director Benjamin Caron (he also urged viewers at a preview screening to “pay a bit of special attention" to the character).

The fact that it was Weller was confirmed by the BBC.

Quite why he wanted to play the part is anybody’s guess – but perhaps it was a thank you to his friend Freeman, who starred in the video to his 2015 track Pick It Up...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G55Qm78WQu8

This article was originally published on 18 January 2017