The Adventures of Shirley Holmes



""You cops just keep getting younger and younger!""

- Some homeless woman to Shirley.

A Canadian kids' show from The Nineties about Shirley, the great-grandniece of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, who solves crimes in the fictional town of Redington, where she lives with her father Robert, a British diplomat, and her grandmother Peggy.

Shirley's Dr. Watson is Bo Sawchuck, a street-smart former gang-member whom Shirley meets in detention; she helps get out of trouble and they become best friends and sleuthing partners. Likewise, her Moriarty counterpart is Molly Hardy, a scheming, sociopathic mastermind of a teenage girl that is admired by everybody who doesn't know her true nature.

The show aired for four seasons in YTV. It was well received by both the audience and the critics, winning several awards during its run. It aired in over 80 countries, and was dubbed in eight languages. There was buzz of a movie possibly being made, but it never materialized. As of now, there hasn't been an official DVD release.

The Adventures of Shirley Holmes provides examples of:
"Bart: Do you know what that means?
 * Alien Abduction: "The Case of the Alien Abductions" featured a faked one.
 * Amateur Sleuth: Shirley.
 * Blondes Are Evil: Molly.
 * Born Detective: Shirley, by virtue of being a Holmes. Even her father Robert tries to get in on the sleuthing action a few times.
 * The Chessmaster: Molly, in many of her plots and plans.
 * Clear Their Name: Shirley has to do this two times. In the pilot, she has to prove against the belief of police and school that Bo isn't the arsonist in the neighborhood. She does it again when her father gets accused of abusing his diplomatic status to sell information to another country.
 * Con Man: Brian in "The Case of the King of Hearts."
 * The Ditz: Alicia, but she can be quite smart sometimes, too.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The only time Molly genuinely cares about someone is when she learns that her horse has to be put to sleep. The look on her face is gut-wrenching.
 * Everybody Hates Mathematics: Bo and Parker, especially. In "Calculated Crime," Sussex Academy suddenly eliminates math from its curriculum...

Bo: Yes. I'm having the luckiest day of my life, possibly of anyone's life, ever."

"Bo: Some geniuses! They can't even count.
 * Good With Numbers: Matt. He went to a special school for genius kids and everything. Bo is a complete aversion, Matt even helps him with the answers in a math-based Game Show so he'll be able to get in as well.

Matt: They're calculating pi.

Bo: Oh."


 * Kid Detective: Of course. Even more so in the Winklemania books, where Shirley is eight.
 * Lovable Nerd: Bart has quite a few admirers among the fandom. Also Matt.
 * Love Martyr: Stink for Molly, at least in the beginning.
 * Missing Mom: Shirley's mother, Joanna, went missing in Rwanda before the show started.
 * Nice Hat: Shirley has a plethora of them, they're her signature look.
 * Not Allowed to Grow Up: The producers named a growth spurt in the cast as a reason for cancelling the show.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Peggy Holmes has shades of this sometimes. Some other times, she's more of a Bunny Ears Lawyer. Also Shirley often "disguises" herself as a ditz when she's trying to find clues.
 * Official Couple: Shirley and.
 * The Prankster: Stink.
 * Punny Name: Molly Hardy. Say it fast enough, and you'll get it. Incidentally, the Winklemania books had Molly Harty.
 * Not to mention Shirley herself - of course she could have been as good a detective even if her parents had named her Jane or Sarah or whatever, but that wouldn't sound as punny.
 * Recap Episode: "The Case of the Puzzle from the Past."
 * Screwed By the Network: In the United States, FOX Family Channel (now ABC Family) only aired the first two seasons on Saturdays and Sundays before it stopped airing the show. To add insult to injury, the episodes were usually aired out of order.
 * Sidekick: Bo.
 * Spin Offspring: Shirley is Sherlock Holmes' great-grandniece, presumably descended from one of Sherlock's older brothers.
 * Stuffy Brit: While he's far from being emotionless, Shirley's father is a quiet, reserved man who enjoys his morning tea, some posh activities and never goes overboard with showing his emotions. Come to think of it, Shirley herself sometimes has shades of this as well. Well, considering their family history..
 * Those Two Guys: Parker. Well, he's only one guy but he doesn't really fit in that other trope as much as he does in this one.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Shirley
 * Viewers Are Morons: A possible reason why "Detective" was added to the show's title when the series was broadcast in the U.S. Because no one would assume anyone named Holmes could be a detective.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Molly. Up to the very end she's got everybody convinced she's a model student. Only Shirley and Bo see her sociopathic side, initially.
 * What Would X Do: In "Mysterious Message," Shirley gets herself locked inside a safe while looking for her grandmother. Bo, Bart and Alicia think she's been kidnapped and set out to look for her, and to decide how to go about this, they wonder "What would Shirley do?"
 * Wicked Stepmother: In "The Case of the Rising Moon", a princess was fearing for her life and believed her stepmother was the culprit..