The mental image of Sherlock Holmes stories one usually has are invariably located in a stuffy, fog-bound Victorian London – a million miles away from 21st century France. But France is exactly where we are here in this admittedly preposterous, and yet remarkably engaging, comedy crime series focused on Holmes’ fictional descendant – his great-granddaughter, Charlie Holmes.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
Charlie (played by the fabulous Lola Dewaere, who also played Inspector Raphaëlle Coste in another Walter Presents favourite, ‘Astrid: Murder In Paris') is a dowdy police officer in their Complaints Department, regularly over-looked and ignored by her more glamorous and dynamic colleagues. She lives a quiet life at home playing chess with her grandfather. That is until one day she is hit by a car, and the bump on the old noggin gives her a new lease for life – not least because having been hospitalized, it meant she was unable to take her medication, which had the effect of dulling her senses.
She is partnered with a new officer – the Watson to her Holmes, if you will – in the shape of Samy Vatel from the Forensic team (Tom Villa) and together they form a formidable alliance, fighting crimes and unearthing criminals, just like her great-grandfather did all those years ago.
Each of the six episodes is a stand-alone story, starting with the tale of a missing child, Anna, who disappeared from school. Charlie wants to be involved in finding the girl, but instead she and Samy are asked to look into the bizarre case of someone throwing onions at children in the same school Anna attended. However, when Charlie uncovers the culprit, this leads to her discovering a vital clue in tracking the girl, and because of that, she and Samy are enrolled into the team to find the child.
Along the way, various other clues – including, would you believe, Megan Fox’s peculiar thumb deformity – lead them to finding the child and returning her to her mother.
If you enjoy the likes of ‘Professor T' and similarly quirky cop shows – Judge Marianne, another comedic French crime series just released by Walter Presents, is a similar example – this will be right up your boulevard. Yes, it’s silly in the extreme; but Charlie is an endearing character, and Dewaere is superb in the title role, reminding me a little of a modern-day Alyssa Milano in looks.
The series was commissioned for a second season, which was released in France earlier this year. So clearly the show has done well enough to warrant that confidence, and it appears fully justified. Elementary, my dear reader – elementary.
Walter Presents: ‘Mademoiselle Holmes' is available as a boxset on C4 Streaming now.
