Sherlock: 10 Ridiculous Plot Points Lifted Straight From The Books

10. Billy

John Watson wasn't the only sidekick to team up with the great detective this series. Along with a rather sweet sequence in which Sherlock gave unrequited admirer Molly a chance to play Watson for the day in gratitude for helping him cheat death, we were also introduced in third episode His Last Vow to Bill, or "Billy" as Sherlock calls him, a sort of junkie savant who becomes a bit of a Sherlock protege with his own Holmesian deductions about John's shirt creases. While this extra associate, who appears more instantly capable with Sherlock's methods than John is after all this time, seems to have sprung from nowhere, Doyle fans will recognise him as a version of Holmes' occasional page Billy. Billy is of interest to fans of Holmes adaptations because he is, like Harley Quinn in Batman or Jimmy Olsen in Superman, a canon immigrant from an adaptation in another medium. Billy originally appeared in the Edwardian stage play adaptations of Holmes stories, played by a young Charlie Chaplin no less, because the plays, like a TV series, needed more named characters for Holmes to play off. Later Doyle would make Billy part of the story canon with appearances in The Valley of Fear, The Mazarin Stone and The Problem of Thor Bridge. And Another Thing: Billy gives his name as "Bill Wiggins". Wiggins is the name of the bright leader of Holmes' gang of street kids, The Baker Street Irregulars (the inspiration for the show's Homeless Network), in The Sign of Four.