I was doing some channel surfing Sunday night, nothing better to do, and happened across Father Brown on the local PBS station.
For those who don't know, Father Brown was the subject of a series of short stories written by British author G. K. Chesterton many years ago, and has been adapted into movies and television series prior to BBC One bringing the crime solving priest back in a new series in 2013. I have to believe that the Chesterton books were part of the inspiration behind the development of an American series some years back, The Father Dowling Mysteries, with Tom Bosley, Tracy Nelson, & Mary Wickes.
PBS and its member stations have mined the BBC for quite a few series over the years, most notably, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Doctor Who, and a good number of entries for Masterpiece Theatre (since shortened to Masterpiece), with Father Brown among the latest imports. Brown has slipped through the cracks, while the critics fawn over Downton Abbey, currently running on Masterpiece. It doesn't help that locally, the program airs at 6 pm (ET) at the moment on Sundays.
The first season is available on DVD, at least in England, and so this DVD trailer will have to suffice.
Good stuff. Good show.
Rating: A.
There also has been a modern day radio series produced of Father Brown Mysteries as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Colonial Radio Theater On The Air, a group based out of Boston a few years ago began producing a Father Brown Mysteries series; I first became aware of this series when I had a subscription to XM Satellite Radio as their Sonic Theater channel(which aired all sorts of modern radio/audio dramas and productions as well as audio books) aired the series.
The channel also aired many different Jim French Productions series and under the umbrella title Imagination Theater, the Father Brown Mysteries have aired during June/July/August usually during the first weekend of each month on the various radio stations that carry said show.
I've brought up(I think) Imagination Theater and Jim French Productions on posts here before; they're based out of Seattle(my neck of the woods) and have been producing Imagination Theater since 1996 for syndication and locally since 1990 and prior to that from 1972-1978(the shows ended because the station Jim French worked for at the time, KVI AM, changed format).
If you've never heard Jim French's shows, I would check them out on any of the radio stations that stream the show online or the Jim French Productions website as they are all very well done(they include a detective series called the Adventures of Harry Nile, a new series of Sherlock Holmes mysteries and many standalone shows, like Escape, Suspense or any of the older radio shows of the 40s and 50s).
Incidentally the Father Brown Mysteries produced by Colonial Radio Theater are OK, but I like the Jim French productions better as i've been listening to them since maybe 2000 or so and with every new production they produce, the quality never seems to go down.
You've referenced Jim French over at the Archives. With football season now over, I'll be watching Father Brown on Sundays until baseball season begins. And I will be hunting for DVD's....
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