Cream of cosy crime Father Brown returns to BBC One
Amateur sleuth Father Brown is back on the case in season 12 of BBC One’s gentle afternoon crime drama.
Based on the GK Chesterton stories, the series launched12 years ago and has been a constant companion for those of us who like afternoon television.
It tends to be more cosy, cheerful and comfortable and less gory, grumpy and graphic than the post-watershed offerings of the likes of Silent Witness and Dead and Buried.
People fall in love without falling into bed with each other and there is not a blasphemous phrase or four-letter expletive to be heard.
For the latest episodes, all of the central cast from Father Brown season 11 return, including Mark Williams as the eponymous sleuth, John Burton, Sergeant Daniel Goodfellow, Ruby-May Martinwood, Brenda Palmer and, of course, Tom Chambers and Claudie Blakley, after their characters Inspector Sullivan and Mrs Devine got engaged in the season 11 finale.
The guest stars are of the usual calibre: Denis Lawson, Angela Rippon, Anita Dobson, Martin Jarvis and his wife Rosalind Ayres.
Clare Higgins, Hugo Spear, James Laurenson, Penny Downie and Robert Daws have all appeared in the show.
It’s a bit like the crime series answer to Casualty – name an actor or actress and they have probably been in it.
The core cast has changed over the series – but Mark Williams as the Catholic priest Father Brown has remained its anchor.
His quiet, still and thoughtful performance is one of the show’s highlights and keeps the oft-time writers’ flights of fancy grounded.
Little of the plots of Chesterton’s original stories remain – the TV series is based in the fictitious Cotswold village of Kembleston, GK’s creation lived in the small parish of Cobhole in Essex.
He also travelled the world – in the TV version, he rarely crosses his parish boundary.
What it loses in authenticity, the series makes up in being true to the ‘holy’ spirit of Chesterton’s tales.
Williams embodies Chesterton’s sleuth to the letter – he has an uncanny insight into human behaviour. His unremarkable, seemingly naïve appearance hides an unexpectedly sharp intelligence and keen powers of observation.
Brown uses his unimposing demeanour to his advantage when studying criminals, to whom he seems to pose no danger.
He is always on the side of the innocent but not blind to extenuating circumstances.
At the core of most of the episodes, as there is in the books, is a moral/religious conundrum – not always solvable.
Monsieur Hercule Flambeau, rake and thief, Brown’s nemesis, also translates from page to small screen. He is played by John Light.
The era of the books has also been altered – catapulted forward from the 1910s to 1930s – to the 1950s.
It is still, though, a time before DNA and digital brilliance were used in crime solving – a time when not everyone had a telephone, you could hear every word of a song and Dixon of Dock Green vied for top of the TV schedules with the Adventures of Robin Hood.
The setting, a pretty Cotswold village complete with fetes on the green, a historic church and thatched cottages, is also part of the programme’s appeal.
There is more than a touch of Midsomer Murders about Father Brown – the setting and sometimes lurid means of murder.
Father Brown also has more than a little of Miss Marple about him – Chesterton’s character came first and was conceived as an antidote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s sharp and logical Sherlock Holmes.
Over the 12 series, Brown has tackled jewellery thieves, murderers, blackmailers and cult leaders.
He has brought to justice – at a time when the death penalty was the ultimate punishment – to poisoners and serial killers.
In the latest series, fans can look forward to murder during an historical re-enactment and a death during an amateur dramatic society’s production of a whodunnit.
The BBC’s The Archers and Strictly Come Dancing have inspired a couple of the plots – with The Invisible Friends being a particular delight.
Father Brown can be seen on BBC One on Fridays at 2pm. All episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.