MovieChat Forums > Father Brown (2013) Discussion > Why do they bother...

Why do they bother...

posted 12 years ago by SPfromOZ
11 replies | jump to latest

to set this show in the 1950's and still have a contemporary modern outlook on things? I believe the original books are set even earlier, I haven't read them. I've only just watched the 1st episode (in Australia). It's just too incredible that a Catholic Priest would have such a modern outlook on homosexuality and be so understanding! I won't even go into what they thought about it back then, not to mention that it was ILLEGAL! Even today, most Catholics still believe it to be a sin. And as we saw, the Reverend (who I assume is C of E) was repulsed by it.
British shows seem to go this way, I saw the same thing on 'Downton Abbey' recently.

Any thoughts.

[–] Jamal-Nazreddin 11 years ago

^ Yes I agree.

This show seems to try too hard for laughs as well as drama. The Irish housekeeper seems a ridiculous caricature.

The theme tune is a straight repeat of the 'Midsomer Murders' tune.

[–] SPfromOZ 11 years ago

I just watched the 3rd episode, again Fr Brown doesn't bat an eyelid when he goes to the poet's household and finds that he lives with both his wife AND his mistress!?!
He's a very liberal, forward thinking and certainly unconventional Catholic Priest, even by today's standards!
As a murder mystery, I find this show to be very disappointing.

[–] carlpeteryeh 11 years ago

So far I have watched 6 episodes in the last six days. Without any knowledge of the books or former films and tv-series. I must say: FB entertains me. FB moves me. And Mark Williams makes me smile. And all this in less than 50 minutes. And yes, he's unconventional in his acts. But if he was not, he would be a boring sod. One can only wish he was there in the fifties when (so much of) all the topics touched really really mattered. A Father Brown a day keeps the chagrin away. And Mark Williams rules. (Like before him Jeremy Brett, David Suchet, Tony Shalhoub and yes, now, Benedict Cumberbatch).

[–] bill_the_galactic_hero 11 years ago

I thought the theme was uncomfortably close to that of Agatha Christie's Poirot.

[–] ojay2 11 years ago

Agree it is much closer in rhythm and tone to the Poirot theme than it is to Midsomer's. However, as to plots/characters, they seem to be trying to cram in as much bizarreness/eccentricity/murders into a one hour format as MM takes in two. The character, i.e. Mark Williams, manages keep everything afloat. BTW, anyone noticed that the theramin musical instrument seems to be absent on the latest MM/ Neil Dudgeon eps?

[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

Of course he has a 21st century outlook, its something the adapters looked into to make it digestible for the audience.

Just imagine if an Australian detective from the 1930s was adapted for tv now. he would go around with his 1930s attitudes to race, religion, women, Aborigines. I can see the international sales going well!

Its that man again!!

[–] SPfromOZ 11 years ago

Yes, but if it's set in that time period then they should act accordingly. Otherwise it loses some credibility. I'm assuming you're Australian, have you watched the Underbelly series'? They're able to show how it was then, for the most part that is. For example, in the past it's no secret that in most cases, Police brutality and corruption was the norm. It wouldn't hold up if they tried to gloss over that as if it didn't exist.

[–] et_tu_Brute 11 years ago

He was probably referring to the Australian "Bony" series made in the early 90's in Australia. "Bony" was written by Arthur Upfield in the 1920s. Ironically it was better received in Germany than it was in Australia (possibly because it was co-produced by German companies). Casting a white Australian actor (Cameron Daddo) as an Aboriginal policemnan was stretching credibility too far for both black and white Audiences audiences alike and consequently the series only has a short run. Like "Father Brown" the original books were far superior to the TV series anyway.

There was an earlier "Boney" (different spelling) series made in the 70s in black and white, but it too far ago to remember how it measured up. Same characters and storylines as thee Arthur Upfield novels.

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

[–] SPfromOZ 11 years ago

I remember that old (70's) 'Boney', I'm pretty sure it was in colour. I think it did marginally better that the one with Cameron Daddo, it did have 2 seasons. I really can't remember if any of the episodes touched on any controversial subjects such as homosexuality. I doubt it though, It was considered very racy when 'Number 96' showed it! Wasn't the acting and storylines in that old chestnut just hilarious? And yet I watched every night, wouldn't miss an episode. LOL
I don't think that they shied away from showing a bit of racism though! They usually had him applying some aboriginal techniques in his detecting, and surprising charcters that didn't take him seriously because he was an Aborigine.

[–] mechafi 10 years ago

Hmm, I haven't read Father Brown books but I have read political and philosophical stuff written by G. K. Chesterton and his mate, Hilaire Belloc. While they were 20th-century "Oxford catholics" like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien and therefore politically "conservative", they certainly weren't close-minded killjoys. Chesterton especially opposed Puritanism and Protestantism and he advocated "Merry England", which he thought England had been before the Civil War.

I believe Father Brown books were written to celebrate traces of "Merry England" and Catholicism and oppose cold rationalism of Protestant Capitalism, embodied by Sherlock Holmes and his deductive, scientific methods.

So while Chesterton, as a Catholic, didn't accept homosexuality, adultery or such things, he wouldn't be the one casting the first stone and wouldn't in general be so "by-the-book", as that would be Protestant and Puritan way of thinking.

[–] louiseculmer 10 years ago

i think it is pretty pointless to call a series 'father Brown' and then leave us with practically nothing of the original character and stories. homosexuality does not feature in the original Father Brown stories, nor does Mark Williams resemble the original Father Brown in the slightest. It is a complelely pointless series.