Holmes Sweet Holmes

While playing the role of Sherlock Holmes in a school production Danny falls and hits head. He then believes he really is Sherlock Holmes and starts to investigate strange happenings at the school, which looks like someone wants the school to close down forever!  

Oh Dear, here we go again with another rip off of another film/book. This time it's Sherlock Holmes! Some of the other episodes in this season I can forgive for stealing from other sources as they do work quite well, but this one isn't one of them. We seem to be drifting into complete farce here and have lost touch with all reality!

The story of the school closing isn't actually a bad idea but sadly it is thrown away here and made into a joke. The school is suddenly plagued by malfunctioning lighting heating etc and the bids from contractors are all too high so the school is to be closed and moved elsewhere in just two weeks time. Surely in any normal reality it would take months to plan a school's relocation and it would normally take place over a summer vacation period so as not to dispute people's education. Still what do the kids and the students concentrate on in this period? Is the packing up of all their stuff? No, it's rehearsing a show! A show that is being directed by a hygiene teacher because Miss Grant is away!!  How long is she away for and who is teaching all her classes? This season shows us another dance teacher and a dram teacher, why wouldn't they take over as director? Instead of using an unstable hygiene teacher.

As the school carries on with normal activity the students are studying and rehearsing by candle and torch light!!! Oh and there's no heating either. Surely the students would be sent home and not expected to carry on in these conditions?

Then we get into the story proper Miltie Horowitz is back as a student at the school and acting suspiciously as his father is one of the prospective contractors looking to do the repair work at the school. Ralph the custodian is also acting suspiciously but only because he's being staying late in his own time to do some of the essential repairs but doesn't want people to know!

We have pipes that have been sawn in half leaving metal filings  and some mysterious person who is always hanging around in various disguises as well as the school being closed and all of this is before Danny hits his head. Then things take an even more bizarre turn as he wakes up thinking he's Sherlock Holmes and has a mystery to solve. He imagines Ralph the Custodian has been murdered by Milite's father and gets Kate to spy on Miltie to try and find out the truth but she just ends up falling for Miltie.

The stand in director guy gets naked and stands on the roof tops to protest the school's closure. Dyrenforth states he had to rescue him from being locked up in a mental institution but hey he's still allowed back to teach and direct the blasted show! However all of this is a dream and Danny wakes up to find none of it really happened. Miltie's father has stepped in to do the repair work at a cheaper price and the school is saved!! All in time for the show to go on!

To me it just seems that they threw in any old rubbish for this story as they were explaining most of it away as a dream but it's this kind of lazy writing that gives the show a bad name and stops people taking it seriously.  Also the episode feels very empty as Debbie, Gene, Loretta and Carrie are all missing and the cast that are present it's only really Carlo, Billy and Page that have very much to do. The rest of the cast just appear to be hanging around most of the time.

If you can totally suspend your belief then parts of this episode are actually quite funny and the main saving grace for me is the music. I like the "Moriarty" song  but particularly like "Is There Anybody Out There" and think that the staging of it and Nia's performance are excellent.  It's just a shame that they keep talking over the end part.   

Original  air date in U.S.A 15th February 1986

Original  air date  in U.K. on The Children's Channel  Broadcast early 1993.

Original air date in Italy 23rd September 1987

Original  air date in France 27th February 1996