Father Brown

I'm 28 and Canadian and i adore this show. How they manage to make a show about death, crime and mystery so charming, heartwarming and enjoyable is really remarkable. Most crime shows are so dark, bloody and upsetting. This show leaves you feeling happy, light hearted and a great feeling about humanity. Father brown is kind, smart and a really good person. Mrs M is my favorite, she's simply hilarious,strong willed and awesome. Although characters change or come and go, some good some bad, the final product is a great show. I've compared it to Murdoch but honestly i like this show better. Interesting, fun, suspenseful, and very enjoyable! Most people seem to need blood and violence and female nudity to make a good crime/mystery show but to me it's very refreshing to see innocence and integrity in a modern show. This show is great for kids or elderly. I'm up to season 8 and it's as good as ever! Can't wait for more.

... up to to a point and that point is season 9. Season 10 is where it all rapidly goes down hill. Father Brown himself stays the same, along with Goodfellow, but the replacements characters that were needed to fil the gaps left by Sorcha Cusack, Nancy Carroll and Emer Kenny are just dreadful. The only shining moment in this season was John Light as Flambeau, who put in a sterling performance as usual. How he never got his own series I will never know. My honest suggestion is, that if you haven't already watched it, then please do as it's very enjoyable, just stop at the end of season 9, you'll be doing yourself a favour.

It is wonderful to see Father Brown move into its seventh series, the show is quite wonderful, it's such easy viewing, it's funny, of course it's intriguing, it's just a great family show. Of course I love the heavy and complex mystery dramas on virtually every week, but there are times when you just want to sit back and watch a cosy, safe murder mystery. Forty five minutes of engaging, entertaining mystery, a genre which had seemed almost dead. Mark Williams has managed to inject something into the character of Father Brown, his performances are superb, he's a joy to watch, as are all of the cast. There have been a few duff episodes, but for every bad one there's a quality one, the likes of The Owl of Minerva and The Bride of Christ, they are great viewing. It comes as no surprise to me that the show is a big international success, I love it.

I saw Alec Guinness play Father Brown in the film version some years ago and an enjoyable film it was as well. It was a shame he did not make more Father Brown films.

This television adaptation by the BBC, shown in the afternoons might not be for the purists who have read the books and appalled at the changes made.

The TV adaptation because of budgetary reasons require a fixed location (such as the village setting) fixed sets and a small regular cast of characters as the core actors have to be retained for the duration of the shoot.

The period setting has moved forward to the 1950s, a time of post war change and Father Brown might be deemed to be a little too modern with some liberal sensibilities. Then again he is a man who has himself experienced the horrors of war and we believe has travelled widely and open to new experiences even though he is a Catholic priest.

The murder mysteries are enjoyable, easy viewing for the whole family. Some of the stories in the TV series are new and others are based on the books by Chesterton.

In the books, Father Brown might be deemed to a be a peripheral character, somewhat on the edge. In one of the stories I did read and which the series did adapt (The Blue Cross,) it was noticeable how pacey and thrilling the adaptation was in contrast with the book.

This is, as another reviewer quite rightly said: "utter tosh". Well of course it is. It is delightful, fluffy, nonsensical utter tosh and I say Thankyou for that. TV is missing more of this sort of silliness. It is so very easy to watch. If you blink you miss nothing but if you watch it without blinking, it is easy on the eyes/heart/soul. Sunday afternoon by the fire with a hot chocolate cupped in hand...THAT is what this programme is and I for one think they should be applauded for providing this 'niche service' for those of us who like a small slice of comfy 'utter tosh' in our otherwise frantic chaotic troublesome lives.