G. K. Chesterton's famous priest-detective Father Brown (his first name is a mystery; it may be Paul, or it may start with the letter "J") first appeared in 1910; the first collections of stories, The Innocence of Father Brown, appeared the following year and included "The Eye of Apollo" (from The Saturday Evening Post, February 25, 1911). In it, Brown encounters a cult, The Church of Apollo, run by the charismatic Kalon. When Kaon's wife dies suddenly, it's up the clever little priest to untangle the mystery.
Chesterton's character has been featured a number of times on film and on television and has been the subject of four radio series. The first, in 1945, featured Karl Swenson as the title character in Mutual Radio's The Adventures of Father Brown. Leslie French played Brown on BBC Radio in 1974 in a brief series that celebrated Chesterton's centennial. Then, in 1984, Andrew Sachs took over the role in Father Brown Mysteries for a BBC Radio 4 series -- it is from this series that the episode linked below came from. Finally, JT Turner became the priest in a series of 16 stories adapted for Boston's Colonial Radio Theater in 2013.
Andrew Sachs, the star of this particular episode, may best known for portraying Manuel, the hapless Spanish employee of Fawlty Towers.
Enjoy this outing, scripted by John Scotney.
I have often wondered if the TV series is any good.
ReplyDeletePatti, the TV series is not great but is it very watchable, with occasional flashes of "that don't suck." I much prefer the spin-off, SISTER BONIFACE MAYSTERIES in spite of its irritating dream sequences.
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