Sherlock & Daughter...what is it offering?

The series Sherlock & Daughter is now running.

But what is it offering that’s different? I am yet to see it but that doesn’t matter as this post is not a review. I just wonder what slot this series is fitting into. We’ve done the clever, female, Holmes twice already on screen (BBC Sherlock and Enola Holmes) and many more times in books.

So, what is it about? Is it about giving young girls on-screen role models? Or is it just the case that, out there in TV land, there is the view that classic Holmes and Watson is no longer worth doing?

I fear a lot of it is the latter. Look at the variations of late. The above mentioned series, the modern day Watson and so on. We seem to go through phases where the original, Victorian-set, world doesn’t get a look in and other characters enter at the expense of the originals. Worse still, new characters, who would not get an audience otherwise, ride in on the back of a famous name.

You could say the same about pastiche writers, I suppose. We write stories featuring Sherlock Holmes because we know the name will get an audience that would not be there if we invented our own Victorian detective. But, for the most part, we do try and be authentic.

And it’s not the easy road some people think. By writing a pastiche you set the quality bar high for yourself as readers will be a lot more judgmental when you use Holmes. They expect him to be used well and will pounce harder on you than they would had you created an original character.

I guess what I’m asking for is that Victorian-set Holmes and Watson be given a chance to shine once more without being upstaged or replaced by new characters.