Thursday 17 January 2013

Bless My Soul!

Father-Brown

I am really enjoying new the “Father Brown” series with Mark Williams, which started on BBC1 this week. However I am utterly baffled as to the timing – 2pm in the afternoon? Surely this sort of detective murder mystery stuff should be at 8pm in the evening?

I watched the first episode whilst sitting sewing curtains at Steph’s place on Monday, but since then have been catching up with recorded episodes. I think the relocation to a Cotswold village with some clever twists to G K Chesterton’s original stories works well. I like Mark W’s gentle, priestly manner, and the way it has been set in the 1950s does not feel too contrived [the original 51 stories were written between 1914 and 1935]

GKC wrote 51 stories about the Catholic priest, but the Beeb have thus far only filmed 10. Maybe if there is enough positive feedback they will do some more. I’d rather see MW playing this detective than being Arthur Weasley! Back in 2008 I blogged about all those detective priests [here] and here is another good one to add to the list.

GKC came to Leicestershire at least once. We know this because he sent his wife a telegram

"Am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?"

she allegedly replied "Home."

6 comments:

  1. I have an evening to fill with entertainment, this sounds perfect to accompany my knitting :)
    I will let you know how I get on,
    x x x

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  2. Thanks for the heads up! I've read and loved a lot of the stories so this should be great.

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  3. Stuart & I are enjoying Father Brown, we watch it as we have our evening meal, both trying to guess who the murderer is!

    Lesley H in Livingston.

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  4. Thanks for posting about this; we just watched episode one and now hubby is going to work, I have to resist watching the next three until tomorrow!

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  5. I watched Father Brown for the 2nd time this afternoon. It seems to be set in a pretty Gloucestershire village in the 1950s,rather reminiscent of the Joan Hixson Agatha Christie series. Not having read the books I couldn't help wondering why there were so many RCs in that part of the country. Wouldn't they have been mainly in the cities or rural Lancashire ? Then when one of Father Brown's parishioners started quoting Leviticus, I couldn’t help feeling that was a much more characteristic of an old style non-conformist. Apart from that it’s pleasant light entertainment which, as you say, would be much better shown in the evening.

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  6. It IS unlikely, I agree, that you'd find an English village where the majority of churchgoers were RC - but I suppose it is the only way they can keep the cast of 'regular' characters manageable. But yes, I agree, it is very like the original Miss Marple series with Joan H

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