According to Martin Freeman, filming Sherlock "was not much fun" during the split of Amanda Abbington

Martin Freeman revealed that it was "not very fun" to film Sherlock by separating from co-star Amanda Abbington.

The couple who play together in the famous BBC show, John and Mary Watson split in 2016, after 16 years together.

Freeman, who has two children with Abbington, told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs: "We met on a set in 2000 during a TV series called Men Only and immediately clicked.

"We got along well, went to a meeting a couple of days later and had been together for 16 years.

"She was and remains one of my favorite actors, I think she's a fantastic actor."

When asked how it was to work with her on Sherlock, he replied: "It's horrible! No, it was good, I really like working with she.

"At the time of the last Sherlock we created, we were separating, so it was not so much fun, but it was great when we were not among us."

Freeman said that he thought they were co-parenting "very well, really," adding, "I've always known that people who separate can be civil and do it for kids, everything is fine.

"I did not just want to be civilian for children, I wanted to be civil for us, because when you love someone for so long and that it is an integral part of your life, what – which is supposed to be do not count now?

"It did not make any sense to me, so we get along well and I think the children see us well, they are just loved by the same two people from different geographical areas."

Freeman has played in Sherlock alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role since 2010, and said the pair's chemical makeup is "quite rare and certainly rarer for it to be retained by the public in this way."

He added: "Probably nothing that I did, maybe I will never do, touched some parts of the world population in the same way as Sherlock, he just hit a lot buttons for people.

"The reaction can be quite intense, so by the time we filmed the last ones, there were fans who were so categorical that John and Sherlock were gay, they knew it and they knew that Steven (Moffat) and Mark (Gatiss) ) were going to write an episode where we were standing together at sunset, and when that did not happen, there was a chunk of people saying, "This is treason."

"In other words, they invest a lot and up to a certain point it's delicious, and beyond a certain point, it's more difficult."

Desert Island Discs is on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 Sunday at 11:15.