Deke Wilson's Mini-Mysteries

On Saturday, I found out a great fact: all episodes of the TV show Deke Wilson's Mini-Mysteries are now available on YouTube! Deke Wilson's Mini-Mysteries was a Canadian kids show that revolved around teenager Deke Wilson solving mysteries around his neighborhood and school. It was kind of like a Canadian television version of Encyclopedia Brown as Deke had his own detective agency, friends, and cases.

You may be asking yourself: how could a kid who grew up in Cleveland even know about a Canadian kids show? In middle school, our cable provider had the Encore network's package of channels, which included WAM!, a channel devoted to programming for children. WAM! was in its earliest incarnation and other than family films that Encore had the rights to, they clearly had some space to fill, which they did with Canadian shows from the late 80s and early 90s. This included both Deke and Kerrisdale High, a show most well known for kicking off the careers of now recognizable actors Devon Sawa and Sarah Chalke.

The show's premise was pretty simple. Deke has a detective agency where kids can ask him to help solve a mystery for them. With his humorous sidekick Arthur, Deke looks for clues and solves the mysteries. There's also their mutual friend Zane, who is perhaps most memorable for being kidnapped in one episode. In addition is Deke's pesky younger sister (because it can't be a children's show without an annoying sibling) and Jennifer, Deke's main squeeze.

Deke Wilson's Mini-Mysteries lasted only one season. It was filmed in Windsor, Canada, and contained local child actors in the leads. None of these actors have gone on to careers in the field. Check out this episode of Deke as he exposes who sent a threatening message to a teacher and a suspicious new kid who is trying to pick up Deke's date to the dance. This episode is particularly awesome because it contains plenty of cheesy scenes in a 1980s middle school dance!

As a fan of the show, I can't help but sit back and ask, “Where Are They Now?” so I of course spent way too much time for this blog post trying to find that out.

Eddie Hawkeswood, who played Deke, is now known as Edwin Hawkeswood. He appears to have continued to work in theatre and film in some capacity, but according to this article, he then moved on to be the floor director for games for various Toronto sports teams. He also went bald (we have something in common!) and has a family (we don't have something in common!). He also seems to like beer as he's participated in a beer race. Simply put, I want to hang out with Edwin Hawkeswood.

James Brejcha, who played Arthur, was a lead singer for a popular band in the underground Windsor scene according to this site. The same article claims he moved West, and this still shows that he has a mySpace page for some reason (I'm not sure why anyone still has a mySpace page).

Zane Handysides, who played Zane, is now a lawyer in Windsor. Also, his brother Brook recently got married. Congratulations Brook and Sarah! This is where the Internet has made things insane. By just doing research, I ended up on the wedding website of the brother of a supporting character in a short-lived Canadian children's TV show. That's ridiculous. I have no business knowing this information, but now I know this information, and all of you do, too.

I couldn't find any other information about anyone from the show. Strangely, the episodes of Deke that have been posted that I've watched do not contain credits, and so I don't recall the names of the other actors on the show.

But, if you love mysteries, being a kid again, Canada, and the 1980s, it's worth checking out Deke Wilson's Mini-Mysteries.

Wow. This makes me really want to go up to Windsor, gamble at the casino, hit up the bars, and hang out with the entire cast from this show. Let's solve the mystery of how much money we can blow at our favorite place across the border!