A thread to discuss Father Brown

I read several of the C.K.'s original novels... I knew the author was Catholic, but didn't realize how Catholic. Whoa.

The British TV show with Fr. Brown in the 1950s is a very watered down version of the Catholiscism. I do love the character Bunty and appreciate how they cast a truly full-figured actress.

Father Brown and Doc Martin, 2 of my favorite British TV series.

I used to live next door to Mark Williams, who plays Father Brown on the TV series.

Lovely guy.

I've seen every episode of the current (Mark Williams) series, but not a single one of the '70s version. Is it worth watching?

Kenneth More played him, didn't he in the 70s series?

The current dopey, cliched, anachronistic, painfully-Politically-Correct show has nothing to do with the evangelising Catholic G. K. Chesterton.

I say anachronistic because there was one episode where the 1920s Catholic priest was praising homosexuals for being homosexual.

I liked Kenneth More in the role - more of a murder mystery drama than a soap opera. Other than his wearing priest duds, it wasn't particularly RC.

r6 The current show is set in the '50s.

I can't remember the 1970s series at all.

R8 But the man was born in the 1920s. And Catholics do not keep up or condone current immoral behaviour.

I got the 70s DVD from the library a couple of years ago.

This Catholic commentator seems to be saying it's mindless pap.

[quote] the show has little in common with either the letter or the spirit of Chesterton’s yarns…the show is very much of its cultural moment, with themes of feminist and gay consciousness and the failings of the Church and Christian society woven into the stories. …, this show wants only to be loved.

R11 Did you like it?

[quote] Created by the excellent storyteller G. K. Chesterton

OP; what other G. K. Chesterton stories have you read?

The 70s More vids are closer to Agatha Christie than the modern ones that seem closer to Agatha Raisin.

I guess r6 would rather see homophobic Catholic shit than anything (gasp!) politically correct

R12, who cares what homophobic, conservative religious fanatics think?

Yes, R17, we want mindless entertainment in lovely color with atresses wearing nice skirts.

I wish I could remember the episode in which Father Brown was being held against his will. His captor was waving around a glass of wine and perhaps going to offer it but instead cruelly whisked it away. Poor Father Brown's crestfallen face! I loved that little moment showing his very human greed for a tipple.

Mark Williams had that great scene in Shakespeare in Love: “T-t-t (pause) Two households! Both alike in dignity…”

I admit it, I cried.

Father Brown knows.

I only watch it for Jack Deam who I have loved ever since The Life and Times of Henry Pratt .

Is he the dishy chauffeur?

“Cum detective?”

r22 No--he's the police guy.

Hugo Speer, from "The Full Monty" was the original police guy. And also hottie Tom Chambers.

I enjoy the show (never touched the novels)... they're a nice bit of revisionist fluff. Father Brown is basically a hippy priest, ok with anything that's not harming anyone else.

I can’t believe Bunty didn’t return to Albert Square when her mother Tina died.

Glad this thread got started. I am here for John Light, the country house porn and all the village nutters!

R28 - When did Bunty's mother die?

The police guy doesn’t fit in the ensemble acting. It’s like he’s from another show.

R30, I agree... he's far too broad in his comedy and written as a fool. Not the actor's fault, he's been doing it for ages... show runner and others want him to perform in this manner.

R29 In her early 20s Emer Kenny spent a year playing Danny Dyer’s niece, Zsa Zsa, on EastEnders. Her onscreen lesbian mother was murdered and her body hidden over Christmas/New Year by a domestic abuser turned serial killer.

She doesn’t just have the body of a bombshell, she’s a writer too. She was the youngest person admitted into the BBC Writers Academy and has written for several TV shows including an upcoming Val McDermid adaptation.

I’ve only watched a couple of episodes, but it struck me as odd as it seemed to be set in some sort of alternative universe 1950’s England where everyone seemed to be Roman Catholic.

R30 and R31 I like Insp. Mallory because he hates everyone equally. I think Jack Deam plays him really well and the times when his hard exterior belies a soft side are a nice treat.

I like Jack Deam too. The episode where Hugo Speer and Tom Chambers returned and he complained about their handsomeness and square jaws was so funny.

Jack Deam manages to play both the humanity of the character and the melodrama villain. I loved the episode where it appeared that Father Brown and Inspector Mallory were going to die and Inspector Mallory confessed that he still hated Father Brown's guts. I would really love to see him in some of the old Todd Slaughter melodramas.

The episode where the Nazi She-Devil was going to shoot them and she dies. The look on Mallorys face when he thinks Father Brown summoned the vengeance of God to save them cracks me up every time I see it.

Did anyone else find the books disappointing? I tried a couple, and "The Man Who Was Thursday", and was underwhelmed.

R38 That's probably because you expected the original to be as mindlessly saccharine and simplistic as the TV show.

I just watched the first of the modern Father Brown episodes, which bears NO resemblance to the Kenneth More ones at all! Possible, but hard to believe that there'd be enough RC to support a parish in a town that size. The More ones were on filmed, not video, and more or less stood on their own without a group of recurring characters.

The policeman here was definitely good looking, but the blacksmith was hot AF!!! Fr. Brown's pro-gay bit seemed really out of place for now, let alone 50s Britain!

It’s a confection, not unlike Agatha Christie, and isn’t meant to represent the world as is/or even as was.

There weren’t that many grand houses with scores of servants and so many people living in houses they owned and existing on a private income and doing nothing but roam around the village all day gossiping even in the 1930s.

But Agatha Christie’s universe has entered the collective unconscious and we are all the better for it.

I tried reading a compendium of the stories, but as an atheist, I couldn't get into a priest who knows all.

[quote] I tried reading a compendium of the stories

So are you enjoying the current colourful, simple-minded comedy series?

R39 I've never seen the TV show, but will take your profoundly un-saccharine and erudite word for it.

The Murdoch Mysteries is in the same vein. Every public figure you have ever heard of visited 1890s-1900s Toronto and became involved in a murder investigation. There are high ranking female scientists including multiple women of colour, police act with compassion and sorrow to gender-non-conforming victims, barely bat an eyelid at quietly gay lovers and treat sex workers with clear eyed respect. The lead detective is also a Catholic. It’s perfect rainy day, tea-time viewing.

There is a touch of the High Anglican Barbara Pym to the Father Brown TV series. And one of their regular writers adapted the Agatha Raisin books for radio, starring Penelope Keith, which is as funny as but snappier than the books. Fun fact: standing in for Kembleford is Blockley, which was the Cotswolds home village of Agatha Raisin author M.C. Beaton.

The show is a lot of silly, kind of fluffy fun, but I would say read the books too. They are a little stranger than you might imagine.

And of course the modern show is one of those peaceful and lovely English villages that just happens to have a murder every week. They are fun though.

I don't remember seeing any of the 1970s version with Kenneth More. But I know he was 60 years old and getting fat as he slipped into illness and Parkinson's disease. So I guess in that way he resembled G. K. Chesterton’s intention that Father Brown be 'pudding-faced' , unthreatening and unlike Sherlock Holmes.

Coincidentally, my partner got it in his head last night that season 8 was a new series; so, we have started to watch them again. Originally, I could not get through a single episode of the new season. I found them just tooooo twee. However, my partner enjoys the series. It was the choir sabotage episode. The writing was dreadful and the plot incredibly slim, but it was worth it to see Inspector Mallory finally listen to his daughter sing.

Kenneth More was not fat as Father Brown; you're confusing him with the modern actor.

I hate Inspector Mallory. He was introduced as a nasty bully and stayed that way (except for a few moments where the story required him to show a bit of humble personality). I mean, he's on the show for most of the show's run and still freaks out whenever "the padre" shows up. He didn't mellow down one bit. Still a nasty, condescending bully refusing to even acknowledge, or give credit to, Father Brown's high success rate of solving local crimes.

Chesterton was a Jesuit.

He wanted his stories to demonstrate that sinners should be aware of 'the Hammer of God'.

R43 is Michael Coren.

R51, that is kind of the point. As I mentioned up thread, even at the point of death, he expresses his hatred of Father Brown. In spite of the humanity Jack Deam brings to him, the character is a irredeemable bully. The character makes a nice counterpoint to the art thief, Flambeau, who keeps protesting his lack of a soul, yet, by his actions, shows that his salvation is a possibility.

Mmm, John Light. What a beautiful body.

^^^The fuck is that hot shit going on there?

I like Mallory, though perhaps because to me he suits up well; the nastiness comes across as butch to me.

R56... oh God, it's a few snaps from a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." John Light played Oberon and the young actor in the pics is the character Puck.

I’m here for the cars. They’re the best part of the show.

I haven't picked up on the claimed religiosity of this program.

I wonder what's under that codpiece at R55.

[quote]The Priest cum

Pics please.

[quote]I wonder what's under that codpiece

A cod?

I consider the turquoise tea set to be a recurring character.

Thanks R58. I'm going to go masturbate now.

R60... if they made him any more secular, he'd be a Unitarian minister!

I think I tried to watch the 1970s version on Britbox or the other streaming service and like a lot of older English TV, it seemed to be theatre actors shouting and cheap shaking sets. I couldn't get through an episode.

I don't think GK Chesterton was Jesuit. I don't think he was even a priest r52. I think the tangled problems of Justice and Redemption are more what everything is about here.

It's okay.

I prefer Midsomer Murders.

r69=Cully B.

Mrs McCarthy is the realest person on the show, a type recognisable to anyone who grew up Catholic. Though that old battle axe is a million times nicer than her real life counterparts.

I watch the second episode yesterday, featuring a rather outrageous poetry reading set among Eastern, Hindu trappings. She seemed to find the whole adventure interesting, whereas an actual counterpart in the 1950s like that would have been thoroughly horrified.

I'm having trouble believing that Lady Felicia would be openly committing adultery like that in the 1950s, and that Father Brown would turn a blind eye.

Lady Felicia denied sleeping around to Father Brown on several occasions when he’d side-eye one of her beaux and she never confessed to him. As for turning a blind eye, it’s not like he was going to call the police.

R23 Alex Price plays the chauffeur.

If you follow the detective series 'Vera' he played Lance Corporal "Budgie" O'Connor in the episode ' Sand Dancers'.

I love seeing these talented British character actors pop up in other shows.

The modern Father Brown series is made for daytime viewing. It airs at 1.45 pm and is or was predominately aimed at retired people offering gentle light viewing which I think it does perfectly. I doubt the BBC expected it to be as popular as it is as its other shows made for this time slot have never had the same following. I can’t actually name any of the others except for Shakespeare and Hathaway which I really enjoy too.

Elsewhere, I've discussed characters in books with names of people I've known: Alex Price was someone I went to grade school with (ages 5 - 13).

The third episode about Nazis was just weird. The blond "priest" reminded me of Ilya Kuryakin from "Man from U. N. C. L. E."

R75, I don't know how you could enjoy Shakespeare & Hathaway... Lord it's terrible. Set in Stratford-upon-Avon, it rarely makes any good or interesting use of the Bard, his plays, the Globe Theatre, the eccentrics who must live in the area. And that morbidly obese actor who plays Hathaway? God I get queasy just looking at him.

R77, it is just incredibly silly and fun. When there is so much shite going on around me I just need to watch something needing no thought or investment.

R66 Interestingly, that's pretty much where the CoE is these days, which is why it has lost so many adherents.

[quote] I can’t actually name any of the others except for Shakespeare and Hathaway which I really enjoy too.

I love Shakespeare and Hathaway, too. There's also a new crime mystery show with Ben Miles (Death In Paradise) called Professor T (British version). It's about an eccentric university professor who is a consultant for the local police.

R80, thank you. I shall look out for it.

Midsomer Murders is the love child of Father Brown and Agatha Raisin.

R82 Your chronology is back to front

I know, but it looks better that way!

I've watched a number of British crime/police programs over the years and I just do not get the love for some of them. Midsomer Murders is dull as dishwater - has been for decades. I used to enjoy Father Brown, but the current police chief is such a buffoon and that performance throws off the program for me. Death in Paradise is consistently good, interesting characters, the revolving door of English detectives is surprisingly effective and who could NOT love Florence or the eternally adorable JP?

Midsomer is campy.

Just watched the third FB story, where Suzy joins a cult, cringe-worthy even if chauffeur guy especially dishy this time.

Shakespeare and Hathaway is fun. It doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It’s the genial comedy-drama equivalent of a day time soap. Better Shakespeare And Hathaway than any number of the mediocre ‘dark’, ‘complex’ crime miniseries Aunty produces in a year that do not live up to their potential.

I love the show and it’s characters; Lady Felicia, Flambeau, Bunty, inspector Valentine and Mrs. McCarthy. I binged all 8 seasons on Britbox during the Pandemic. Now into celebrity Gogglebox, although Tom Jones and The Spice gal Mel are the only celebrities I recognize.

Regular Gogglebox is better

R89- agree.

My mother watches this show and when I visit her I get roped into watching out of politeness.

Good: I love that Bunty is quite a BIG girl, by actress standards, but no one treats her like she’s anything less than lovely and desirable (which she is.) That’s refreshing.

Bad: Father Brown gets half the criminals to confess or turn themselves in in order to make things right with god. Yeah, that ALWAYS works. (Bitch - I shot someone! I’ll worry about my soul later!)

I just watched the first season (thank you OP for bringing this series to my attention).

One has to commend the casting team for ensuring there is at least one eye candy as guest star in almost every episode.

My library has 15 video borrowings per month via Hoopla.

"Midsomer is campy"

R86 - And EXCELLENT camp it is! The more British village nutters there are in each episode, the better the episode.

A Tale of Two Hamlets is one of my favorites. Other Than Barnaby & Troy, the entire cast of characters are pure British village nutters.

R85: I agree with you about "Death in Paradise." The characters are engaging and the storylines reliable; good, clean fun mysteries. I'm looking forward to Season 11.

[quote] good, clean fun

I hope you have avoided the horrible Sarah Phelps.

This woman is determined to turn very Agatha Christie character into disease ridden, vomiting, sex-mad, venereal, desperately-unhappy psychopaths.

[quote]The Priest cum

This needs to have a trigger warning

I don’t like Midsomer Myrders because everything and everyone is ugly.

I like Father Brown because everything is pretty.

[quote] because everything is pretty.

Are you being ironic, Prince George?

This priestly stories are morality tales designed to teach us about the Lord's Work. You are supposed to be a Defender of The Faith.

I've just seen the Radioactive Girl episode, with the especially dishy doc. Series continues to need a bit of suspension of disbelief that being RC is the local default, rather than Anglican. Otherwise, it's fairly entertaining in its own way.

Love this series. All great actors. Love Lady Felicia, but I love Sid (Alex Price). I want to screw him so badly!!!

I binged watched Season 1 & Season 2 this weekend.

^And? Did you worship Lady Felicia? Does Mrs McCarthy’s cooking make you sick? Do you want to move to the Cotswolds immediately? Who do you prefer, Sid, Inspector Sullivan or Inspector Valentine?

R103 - I love Lady Felicia especially her jewelry & clothes.. I wanna party with Sid. Would love to fuck Hercule Flambeau. Would take any of the country houses.

R103 - Inspector Valentine (Hugo Speer) is my favorite inspector of the whole series to date.

Should we tell R101 and R104 not to watch any current episodes?

Saw the appearance of Flambeau yesterday. Startling that he looked so young, as in the Kenneth More stories of decades ago the actor was much older. Like a broken record, I'll repeat that they seem to have created an alternate (parallel) universe with default RC and minority Anglican presence in 1950s England. It's almost easier to see those characters as High Church C of E, I suppose.

Since last I've posted, I've acquired an acquaintance who looks a lot like Sid, but with curly hair. The actor really rocks the hat he often wears when not in uniform. Mrs McCarthy, unfortunately, comes across as a bit of a shrew with all that Suzy and Lady Felicia bickering.

[Quote] I guess [R6] would rather see homophobic Catholic shit than anything (gasp!) politically correct

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in these days, but yes. Id rather read Chesterton's fucked up RC of the period than banal anachronistic pap.

R59 the cars are pretty awesome, but I do like the show itself as well, its entertaining even if it isnt particularly realistic. None of the primary characters are particularly hot except maybe Inspector Sullivan, and Flambeau, but some of the minor one off roles have been filled by the very cute guys

I just saw Jack Deam (Insp. Mallory) in the most recent of those fake Agatha Christie movies. He's very different when not hamming it up as Mallory.

[quote] hamming it up

You need as much ham as possible for this simple-minded comedy show designed for geriatrics dozing off after their midday meal.

[quote] Like a broken record, I'll repeat that they seem to have created an alternate (parallel) universe with default RC and minority Anglican presence in 1950s England. It's almost easier to see those characters as High Church C of E, I suppose.

It’s a daytime drama version of a cosy mystery and real estate porn. It’s very stylised. The main characters are pretty much cool with interracial relationships, sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, gay men and they read lesbian erotica - even Mrs M. Your gonna have to understand that and deal because honey, you are sounding like a broken record.

Father Brown sleeps in his glasses?

Not a fan of Sullivan, but the second Midsomer replacement for Troy was a dud as well.

[quote] It’s a daytime drama

It’s a daytime comedy.

Having now finished most of the second season, it's obvious a casting couch was involved with this parade of beautiful young actors... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Didn't take long for Sullivan to go from loathing Brown initially to treating him as a "consultant" it seems.

Yesterday I saw the episode where they broke into a bank safe. Sid looked especially dashing (and butch) with slicked hair!

R29, Yes! Love John Light (Hercule Flambeau)! "The Successful Thief" is one of my favorite archetypes.

Check his Wikipedia for more TV. I'm just now watching his "Midsomer Murders" Season 20, Episode 2: "Death of the Small Coppers."

Next up: "Vera": S3, E1: "Castles in the Air."

And his villain in "Maigret's Dead Man" is chilling.

Ben Miller, r80.

His Professor T (no period) is brilliant, but so is Koen De Bouw's portrayal. Great shows!

I prefer the Belgian version of Professor T

What's a cum detective? And for priest cum too?

R117 - John Light also guest starred in two episodes of "Lewis" (The Lions of Nemea: Part 1 & 2) and the pilot episode of "Endeavour".

In the "Endeavour" pilot, he played a sexy very good looking smart-mouthed British MI5 operative masquerading as a chef-butler of a stately home spying on politicians.

A new British (set in Kent) detective show on Acorn TV to checkout is Whitstable Pearl. I binged watch all six episodes (45 minutes each) this week. I was surprised at how good it is.

It stars Kerry Goldman and Howard Charles. Howard Charles is one sexy dude.

In case the name is not familiar, Howard Charles is the English actor who is best known for his portrayal of Porthos in the BBC's 2014 adaptation of Dumas's The Three Musketeers, entitled The Musketeers.

Yes, R64! The turquoise tea set is worth the whole damned series.

The only notable thing about the current FATHER BROWN is that the producers have assembled a strong ensemble of actors for the central roles. It's easy to like them and want to watch yet another episode to see them at work. Sorcha Cusack nails every moment they write for her.

It's all just silliness. And at less than 45 minutes per episode, uninterrupted by commercials, the damned thing flies by.

I binged watch Season 9 of Father Brown this weekend on BritBox. It was all pretty good. There are six episodes released to date. Episode 5 is a Hercule Flambeau episode and it was good but I love John Knight so I may not be the best judge. Cid's back. Bunty is off traveling somewhere. Lady Felicia is in episode 5. Episode 6 has a gay story line.

Sister Boniface Mysteries is a British detective period television series, created by Jude Tindall, and is produced by BBC Studios and BritBox. It is a spinoff with a character introduced in an episode of Father Brown (Series 1, “The Bride of Christ”). A 10-episode first series premiered on 8 February 2022, on the BritBox streaming service, and will be released in the UK on the UKTV Drama channel later in 2022.

Has anyone else seen this show on BritBox? I watched the first two episode on Saturday. It was night bad. The real estate porn was great as the second episode was filmed at Stanway House.

They started airing the episodes on VisionTV here in Canada R125. It's not great but it's not terrible either.

R126 - I think Sister Boniface Mysteries will get better as it goes along as the production team will work out all the "kinks". Not as good as Father Brown but, as I stated above, I thoroughly enjoyed the real estate porn.

R125 - Typo correction: "It was night bad" should have been 'it was not bad".

Sid is ugly hot, and you just know he has a big uncut sausage, and probably throws a good hard fuck. Ugly ones always have big dicks.

Could someone please start a "More British TV Discussion - Part II" as I do not want to hijack this thread and get stoned to death.

[quote]Could someone please start a "More British TV Discussion - Part II" as I do not want to hijack this thread and get stoned to death.

If you can post a reply, you can start a thread. Don't be shy.

Jack Deam was on the UK version of Shameless.

He was very good in it and had some of the most heartbreaking storylines.

There was no equivalent character in the U.S. version.

It gets everything wrong about Catholicism in England at that indeterminate period (is it 1950s). Too many Catholics, outside of immigrants Catholicism was and is a minority religion in England. No Catholic village church could be that old, they were all taken in the Reformation. Vestments wrong. Services should be in Latin etc. They are not even making an effort. It is an alternative universe in which there was no Protestant Reformation in England and Vatican II was held around 1948.

The acting is bad too. Alex Price is weirdly sexy however in some everyday English/Irish bloke way.

I like detective series and watch it very occasionally.

^ Aspie alert!

Anyway, I love Father Brown and Flambeau and Sid are hot.