As someone who regularly watch Tom Bosley on Father Dowling in the late 80s, Father Brown, a BBC show currently airing on PBS, is a true delight!  A show that reminds me so much of my old favorite that I was unsurprised to find there was indeed a connection between the source material, though not the connection I anticipated.

This is a show about a British Parish Priest who, much like Father Dowling, just seems to happen upon situations which couldn’t be hurt by the application of his sleuthing mind.  (Well, unless you ask the local inspector.)

While I quickly realized that Father Dowling had been a contemporary piece, and Father Brown is most decidedly a period piece, set several decades ago.  That said, I was still intrigued to discover that Father Brown was written 80 or more years ago.  (Another way to view this relationship of characters, is to note that Ralph McINerny, author of Father Dowling, was 6 years old, when GK Chesterton, author of Father Brown, died.)

When author Ralph McInerny died in 2010, the Telegraph said:

McInerny fashioned Dowling as a spiritual heir to GK Chesterton’s Father Brown, compassionate but not entirely worldly. “His secular interest in crime,” noted one critic, “is merely a mask for his deeper concern for the spiritual welfare of the victims and criminals involved.”

I can not think of a better way to describe both Father Brown and Father Dowling.  Having watched countless shows about detectives who are determined to throw someone in jail, and lawyers who care more about wining than the truth or justice, it is refreshing to spend most of an hour with a character whose central focus is the heart and soul of the characters, the people, around him. Father Brown wishes to solve the mystery, there is no denying that.  Unanswered questions nag at him, and he seeks to resolve the case and figure out the who-done-it.

But his goal is not to throw them in a cell and throw away the key, and given these stories are set in a time when people still hang, perhaps the fact the consequences are presented as being quite extreme helps to further emphasize why the local parish priests intent is to make sure everyone, victims and perpetrators alike, end the episode in the best emotional, and moral situation possible.

Father Brown is currently airing on local PBS stations, more information about the series can be found on IMDB and the BBCs website

The characters are based on the stories of GK Chesterton (1874-1936), many of his works appear to have fallen out of copyright and can now be found on project gutenberg, including some of the Father Brown stories, which I am looking forward to reading.

(If you only have time to try two episodes, I would recommend The Blue Cross, and The Mysteries of the Rosary with the character Flambeau.)