Auf den Spuren von Sherlock Holmes

This series ran for just one season I think, and centred on the band of street-dwelling orphans who occasionally assist Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in the solving of their cases. In this series they get the chance to do some detection of their own, as well as dealing with the Conan Doyle regulars (Lestrade, and Moriarty - confusingly played by Colin Jeavons, who was of course Lestrade in the long-running Granada Holmes series).

The gang of boys are presented as something similar to Fagin's boys in 'Oliver Twist', and their nominal leader, Wiggins (Jay Simpson), is a typical Artful Dodger type, a wannabee toff. Others playing prime roles include Adam Woodyatt (before his twenty year plus run in soap EastEnders) as Shiner, and David Garlick as Sparrow.

Holmes and Watson (Roger Ostime and Hubert Rees) were peripheral characters and fairly forgettable, but this series was a particularly good children's hour yarn. A novella was produced just after the series aired which presented a number of crime-busting stories involving the boys of Baker Street.