Classy Uneducated Kids

My husband brought home a DVD of the "Baker Street Irregulars" from our library- a trite movie based on the gang of street kids that helped Sherlock Holmes in a couple of stories written by Sir Authur Conan Doyle. The movie is NOT recommended by me. I can't begin to go into all the things we both disliked about it, but here is one literary point of disturbance. The children of the group (3 girls and 3 boys aged about 12-18) live together, but have no family, parents, or home other than some possibly abandoned building they live in. Several times they mention they cannot read. They debate spending the group's money for food on buying beef (expensive) vs Pigs' heads. Yet when they receive some reward money near the end of the story which is then invested by Sherlock Holmes for their futures(?!) one girl says "It's always jam tomorrow for us..."
This is an allusion to Alice Through the Looking Glass- the queen says -we have jam every other day, and Alice says she doesn't want any jam today. The queen replies, "You couldn't have it if you DID want it. The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day." "It MUST come sometimes to 'jam to-day,'" Alice objected. "No it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every OTHER day: to-day isn't any OTHER day, you know."
I seriously question whether this is something an unparented, uneducated, unread, illiterate child would drop into a conversation about hunger and disappointment. At least they got the dates right- I make Through the Looking glass as published in 1871, and the Holmes stories 1880s and onward, so the idea existed on paper at the time. But how long would in take in years past for information and general ideas in childrens books to become popular enough to become allusions in common speech anyway?
Ugh -now if you want GOOD Sherlock Holmes, see anything (AND everything)with Jeremy Brett. He is (was) a genius. He does Holmes differently than anyone you have ever seen, and yet it is the best and most faithful interpretation of the original stories. Watch the incredible protrayal of the relationship between the Holmes and Watson character. And we also love Mrs Hudson's role and the darkness of the whole production. It will color anything Holmes you ever watch again.