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The Irregulars is a new Netflix supernatural drama set in the 19th Century, the time of Sherlock Holmes, and with two sisters in the leading roles.
Bea (Thaddea Graham – Us (2020)) is turning 17, is rather awkward-in-love and “doesn’t have time for men”, while sister Jessie (Darci Shaw, Judy, The Bay, and above right, with Ms Graham) is regularly having horrendous nightmres, but do they have a purpose, or is it just as a result of eating all that cheese before bedtime, which she found under the cooker?
As the series begins, they’re still trying to get over the death of their mother, but before long, Dr John Watson (Royce Pierreson) offers Bea a job of finding information for them, into the four newborn babies whihch have been stolen. This is the sort of thing which would be a job for Sherlock Hol… but, they’ll need help since they only Bea & co. have access to what Watson calls “the disreputable parts of London“, and a certain Susan Shipley (Marli Siu) might just have some info that they need.
The rag-tag bunch, known as The Irregulars, also include a lad called Billy (Jojo Macari), who’s been fighting, and also in the opener, there’s enter Leopold (Harrison Osterfield), a posh lad based on the real life Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria, and clearly from the opposite side of the tracks, but sometimes, a jigsaw puzzle comes together based on many different parts.
At this point, I’ve only seen the first episode and at times, it does take rather a while to get to the point since the characters do far too much talking while just standing around, rather than investigating anything. The first ep is also almost an hour long, and that could easily have been cut down to about 40 minutes.
Hence, so far, for me, it doesn’t really hang together, but if you’re into drama with supernatural elements – and there’s a great number of these on Netflix – then it’ll fit the bill perfectly.
However, it’s nice to see The Wire‘s Clarke Peters as “The Linen Man”, and you’ll see when he pops up. I’m not saying when or in what capacity.
Finally, I would expect this is a 15-certificate as some of the violence is quite graphic, but in a supernatural style, so if you have kids of 12 or up who are into this sort of thing, I would say that’s fine. For parents of anyone a bit younger, you may want to check the episode out first.
Many thanks to our friends at Netflix for being able to check this series out prior to release.
The Irregulars is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from today, Friday March 26th.
Episode 1 Score: 3/10
Series Directors: Joss Agnew, Johnny Allan, Weronika Tofilska
Producer: Rebecca Hodgson, Michael Ray
Writers: Tom Bidwell, Sarah Simmonds
Music: Paul Haslinger
Cast:
Bea: Thaddea Graham
Jessie: Darci Shaw
Billy: Jojo Macari
Spike: McKell David
John Watson: Royce Pierreson
Leopold: Harrison Osterfield
The Linen Man: Clarke Peters
Arthur Hilton/Bird Master: Rory McCann
Susan Shipley: Marli Siu
Sherlock Holmes: Henry Lloyd-Hughes
Tooth Fairy: Sheila Atim
Bookie: Mark Hugh-Williams
Lower Class Stall Holder: Grant Crookes
Olive: Maud Druine
John Cooper: Ansu Kabia
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.