Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch appears in Sesame Street video with 'Murray-arty' and Count von Count

Having made his name on Baker Street as Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch has now appeared in a video alongside characters from Sesame Street.

The actor appears with a pair of Sesame Street Muppets from the children's show, Murray Monster and Count von Count, in a video spoofing his TV series.

Cumberbatch taped the spot in January, when he joined actress Amanda Abbington to promote the new Sherlock season to a TV critics meeting in Pasadena, California.

In the two and a half minute clip posted on the YouTube channel of American TV network PBS, Murray Monster mistakes the 37-year-old actor for the character he plays in Sherlock, and adopts the persona of Murray-arty – a parody of Sherlock’s arch-nemesis Moriarty.

The segment also alludes to the recent finale of the BBC1 series in which Moriarty appeared to return, with Murray Monster repeating the line “did you miss me?”

 “I’m not really Sherlock," Cumberbatch tries to explain in the clip, adding: "I just play him on the television."

The Monster then poses the actor a “brain-bending challenge”.

“On this table are some fruit, are there more apples or are there more oranges?

“You’re the super sleuth, figure it out!” he says.

“I’m really just an actor,” replies Cumberbatch.

“I’m going to need more help for this” Cumberbatch says, to which Murray Monster replies “from Watson?”

Cumberbatch then calls on the Count, who pops up from under the table where the fruit is laid out.

“Drat, you win this time Benedict Sherlock!” Murray Monster says when Cumberbatch and the Count work out together that four is a greater number than three.

Cumberbatch is expected to return in the series fourth season, after its creator Steven Moffatt confirmed that the next two seasons have already been plotted out.