Father Brown Again

[poliphilo]

Over halfway through the season I've accepted I'm not going to get much Chesterton for my buck and I'm enjoying the show for its own sake. As I said before, Father Brown has been Marpleized, but what's wrong with three-quarters of an hours worth of gentrified, countrified murder mystery on a weekday afternoon? The scenery is attractive, the performances endearing and the 50s setting is being used imaginatively. This afternoon, for instance, we had a story (spoiler coming) that dealt- among other things- with a case of supposed radiation sickness that turns out to be undiagnosed asbestosis. Nothing of Chesterton in it of course (he died halfway through the 1930s) but a neat little story in its own right.  Besides, as Ailz points out- they've gone to the trouble of getting the undergarments right. One thing they don't always get right is the ecclesiastical detail- though the episode set in the convent seems to have been written by someone who knows their hassocks from their Hail Marys. The biggest niggle for me is having Fr Brown operate out of a large, medieval parish church in the Cotswolds when- for historical reasons familiar to any moderately well-educated schoolchild- the Catholics don't possess any of those.

Comments

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Indeed - well, they didn't then - they do now! I know two Catholic parishes that have bought Anglican churches -

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Are either of these churches medieval?

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I wasn't neing completely serious - but one is the Slipper Chapel at Walsingham - and I've now remembered it was bequeathed by the formerly Anglican owner to the Catholic diocese, not bought from her. (She bought it when she was still Anglican, from the farmer who was using it as outbuildings.)
The other has medieval foundations - I'm trying to find out how much of the building is original -

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the Slipper Chapel.

The Catholics also own the medieval pilgrimage complex at Holywell in North Wales. I guess there's a chapel there but it's not a parish church.

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

I'm very envious -- I'd love to see the new "Father Brown" series... It sounds entertaining, if not perfect...

Loved reading -- hope you don't mind!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Very pleased to meet you. :)

I imagine Father Brown will be sold abroad...