Baker Street Irregulars
The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters who appear in three Sherlock Holmes stories, specifically two novels and one short story, by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are street boys who are employed by Holmes as intelligence agents. The name has subsequently been adopted by other organizations, most notably a prestigious and exclusive literary society founded in the United States by Christopher Morley in 1934.
Fictional profile
The original Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The group of street urchins is led by a boy called Wiggins. They run errands and track down information for Holmes. According to Holmes, they are able to "go everywhere and hear everything". Holmes also says that they "are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organisation." In The Sign of the Four, which takes place in 1888, it is shown that Holmes pays them each a shilling per day, and Holmes offers a guinea prize as a reward for the one who locates the steam launch that he wants them to find.The group appears in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel A Study in Scarlet, which is set in 1881. When Watson meets the group, he describes them as "half a dozen of the dirtiest and most ragged s that ever I clapped eyes on". Holmes introduces them as "the Baker Street division of the detective police force". The group enters 221B Baker Street together, but since they upset Holmes's landlady, Holmes tells them that in future, only their leader Wiggins should report to him. He pays them each a shilling to track down a certain cabman. They find the cabman, Jefferson Hope, successfully. Wiggins brings him to 221B Baker Street where the cabman is apprehended by Holmes.
They also appear in the next novel, The Sign of the Four, set in 1888, in which one of the chapters is titled "The Baker Street Irregulars". In this story, Holmes describes them as "the unofficial force — the Baker Street irregulars". As in A Study in Scarlet, the group enters 221B Baker Street together and Holmes instructs them to only have Wiggins report to him in future. Wiggins receives three shillings and sixpence from Holmes for expenses in addition to his regular wage. Holmes directs the Baker Street Irregulars to search for a steam launch called the Aurora. However, they do not succeed and Holmes ultimately joins the search by disguising himself as a sailor. Though approximately seven years have passed since A Study in Scarlet, Wiggins is still the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars. He is described as being taller and older than the others, and has an "air of lounging superiority".
One of the group appears in the short story "The Adventure of the Crooked Man". In the story, Holmes has a member of the group, named Simpson, watch Henry Wood. As Holmes says, "I have one of my Baker Street boys mounting guard over him who would stick to him like a burr, go where he might". Simpson, whom Watson describes as "a small street Arab", briefly appears in the story to report to Holmes.
Though not one of the Baker Street Irregulars, a similar character named Cartwright appears in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Cartwright, who works in a district messenger office, secretly runs errands for Holmes on the moor and keeps him supplied while disguised as a country boy. At one point Watson sees the disguised Cartwright running errands, and describes him as "a small urchin" and a "ragged uncouth figure". Cartwright is described as a "lad of fourteen" in the novel. Another similar character, a pageboy named Billy, assists Holmes in "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone".
According to Daniel Smith in his book The Sherlock Holmes Companion, Holmes was skilled at developing a network of agents who could assist him in any situation, and this network included multiple "outsider" figures such as the Baker Street Irregulars as well as Cartwright, Billy, and former criminal Shinwell Johnson. Smith wrote that this shows that Holmes "realised the value of reliable assistants and was humble enough to look for them in places where others of his status might have never deigned to tread".
Adaptations
Television and film
- A BBC television series starring the Irregulars titled The Baker Street Boys aired in 1983.
- The Baker Street Irregulars appear in the 1988 film Without a Clue. There is a running gag in the film whereby they pick the pocket watches of everyone they meet.
- The animated sci-fi television series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century features a trio of children who aid Holmes as the new Baker Street Irregulars, and are even led by a boy named Wiggins.
- A BBC television film featuring the group, titled Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, aired in 2007.
- The modern-day series Sherlock re-imagines the Irregulars as a "Homeless Network" devised of the destitute of London, rather than specifically homeless children.
- In the modern-day adaptation Elementary, the "Irregulars" are an assortment of experienced adults in certain fields that Holmes calls on for insight when his own knowledge of a subject proves inadequate to the current case.
- Netflix announced in 2018 that they were producing The Irregulars in which Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a drug addict who takes the credit for cases solved by a group of children.
Other media
- Four actors played the Baker Street Irregulars in a 1963 BBC radio adaptation of The Sign of the Four, with another actor, Glyn Dearman, playing Wiggins.
- Wiggins and the Irregulars appeared in the 1965 musical Baker Street. In the musical, they perform the songs "Leave It To Us, Guv" and "Roof Space".
- Terrance Dicks wrote a series of children's novels titled The Baker Street Irregulars. The ten books in the series were published between 1978 and 1987.
- The Irregulars perform the song "Anything You Want To Know" in the 1989 musical '. They also perform three other songs alongside other characters.
- In the video game ' and its two sequels, the Irregulars can be directed by the player to visit people and locations.
- Wiggins and the Irregulars assist Holmes in the 1992 video game ' and its sequel '.
- Wiggins and other Baker Street Irregulars assist Holmes in some titles in the Sherlock Holmes video game series by Frogwares, such as the 2004 game .
- A series of four graphic novels released in 2011, titled Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, features the Baker Street Irregulars. The series was written by Tony Lee and illustrated by Dan Boultwood. It was adapted into a play, also titled Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, by Eric Coble.
- The Baker Street Irregulars appear in Anthony Horowitz's 2011 novel The House of Silk.
- In "The Adventure of the Irregular Client", a 2013 episode of the American radio series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes's client is a former member of the Baker Street Irregulars.
- A member of the Baker Street Irregulars appears in the Audible audio drama Sherlock Holmes: The Voice of Treason.
In popular culture
- The name was used for the literary society The Baker Street Irregulars founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley.
- The Special Operations Executive, tasked by Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze" during World War II, had its headquarters at 64 Baker Street and was often called "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group.
- Hazel Meade's troop of children serve as couriers and lookouts in the "Baker Street Irregulars" during the lunar revolution of Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
- The group is mentioned briefly in the 2013 Doctor Who episode "Hide" as the Eleventh Doctor discusses the involvement of Professor Palmer in the Special Operations Executive.
- The Baker Street Irregulars are mentioned in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Agent Pendergast novel, White Fire. During the plot of the novel, Agent Pendergast teams up with a fictional member of the group to find a "lost" Sherlock Holmes story entitled "The Adventure of Aspern Hall".