This is the first episode I have seen of the BBC's new version of the Chesterton classic. Having seen the Kenneth More version while a child, and being conversant with the Alec Guinness film of 1954 (where the actor turns the character into an apparently distrait, yet intellectually penetrating person), I was interested to see how Mark Williams (late of THE FAST SHOW) essayed the role.
In this episode he was laid up with a leg injury, and could only observe the proceedings in his chocolate-box English village with the aid of the telescope. He appeared rather helpless - almost entirely reliant on the help of Mrs. McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack) for his material needs. Yet beneath that surface there lurked a clever, calculating mind: no one could underestimate his powers of deduction. This Father Brown was obviously a pillar of the community, yet someone who could solve a crime through sheer mental effort. Violence was not part of his armory; he relied purely on intellectual prowess.
Within a 45-minute episode director Matt Carter manages to cram two murders, a debate about love versus the Catholic church, and a tea- party as well. Sometimes the action seems a little contrived, especially at the end, when Father Brown almost accidentally solves the crime, yet manages to escape unscathed from a particularly ticklish situation. Yet some of the supporting performances are well drawn: Father Roland Eager (James Rastall) came across as an intense person, whose behavioral motives were quite different from what we might first have assumed.
The setting - a village in the mid-Fifties - is perhaps a little too twee, with its half-timbered houses, endless sunshine, and colorful occasions (in this case a fête) with dainty food. It smacks too much of other detective thrillers of the past, such as the St. Mary Mead of the Joan Hickson Miss Marples of the 1980s. On the other hand, there is a fine sense of comic repartee between Mrs. McCarthy and the upper class country Lady Felicia (Nancy Carroll), whose accent you could cut with a knife.
Undemanding entertainment, perhaps, but the production still commands our attention.
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