Father Brown on TV

I’ve been reading about the forthcoming Father Brown adaptation. See:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a389038/harry-potter-mark-williams-cast-in-bbc-drama-father-brown.html and other news sites.

I’m delighted that Father Brown is finally getting a bit of attention. I’ve loved the Chesterton stories since I bought the Wordsworth (are they still going?) edition when I was a student.

But so far, I’m disappointed.

First of all, Mark Williams. He was great in The Fast Show, but surely he is absolutely nothing like short, dumpy Father Brown? (If asked to select a Fast Show actor to play Brown, I’d have gone with Charlie Higson.)

(And by the way it comes to something when the main buzz around a Chesterton adaptation is that the actor played a minor character in Harry Potter…)

Also, who are all these other people? ‘Father Brown will be assisted in each episode by Parish Secretary Mrs McCarthy, the extravagant Lady Felicia… reformed criminal Sid Carter and the priest’s housekeeper Susie Jasinski’. There’s only one ‘regular’ in the books, Flambeau the French master criminal.

And the setting: ‘Kembleford in the Cotswolds.’ Part of the mystery of Father Brown is that he crops up in the unlikely places. The stories are notable for their geographic scope – London, Paris, Scotland, America…

I’m no purist, but the BBC seem to producing some kind of middle-of-the-road Pie in the Sky/Lovejoy/Midsummer thing.

Anyway, I’m now steeled to dislike the show.