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Father Brown Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
10 Episodes 2013 - 2013
Episode 1
The Hammer of God
Mon, Jan 14, 201349 mins
The brother of the vicar of the village where Father Brown has his parish church is a cad and a wastrel. When he's found near the church tower with his head smashed by a very small hammer, the local blacksmith is the first suspect, but it's his wife who confesses the murder!
Episode 2
The Flying Stars
48 mins
After Colonel Reginald Adams and his actress wife Anne-Marie have forbidden their young daughter Ruby to marry her tutor, the American communist John Van Ert, Anne-Marie is found drowned. Inspector Valentine believed she fell in the lake whilst drunk but Father Brown proves it was murder. Learning that the couple argued, Valentine arrests Reginald just as Anne-Marie's long-lost brother James Trewlove arrives from Nairobi. Anne-Marie's will leaves James nothing, with the chief beneficiary being the church whilst Ruby is bequeathed the Flying Stars,a valuable necklace. During a performance of a play at the Adams' house the necklace is stolen. Father Brown manages to unmask both thief and Anne-Marie's killer.
Episode 3
The Wrong Shape
46 mins
Poet Leonard Quinton invites Father Brown to the house where he lives with his long suffering wife Martha and young mistress Violet as his spiritual adviser Umesh has told him he will soon die and he wants the priest to look after Martha. Shortly after Violet has threatened him for not leaving Martha for her Leonard is found hanged and Umesh, as his sole heir, Is arrested. Martha tells Father Brown that she and Leonard had once had a baby, born disfigured, who died and whom they buried in the garden, the event which she believes drove them apart. Martha's admirer Harris then admits to killing Leonard Quinton - though Father Brown knows better.
Episode 4
The Man in the Tree
45 mins
Father Brown welcomes visiting German priest Father Frank but returning from the station they encounter an injured man, stripped to his underwear who has been thrown from a train. Suspicion falls on prostitute Annie Mace, who was travelling on the train though she is given an alibi by scrap dealer Christie Nolan. Then Lady Felicia's chauffeur Sid comes into the frame when it turns out that he stole the victim's wallet. In solving the crime and determining who is telling the truth the father also has to combat anti-German prejudice among his flock.
Episode 5
The Eye of Apollo
48 mins
The Church of Apollo comes to the village, led by Kalon, who claims that the path of happiness lies in the power of the sun. Polish domestic Susie is impressed when he says he can commune with her dead parents and wants to join his cult but Father Brown sees him as a charlatan. On the day the priest goes to dissuade Susie from leaving with the sect Kalon's wife Dominique is killed and cynical young group member Adam Watkins is arrested. Father Brown believes Kalon killed Dominique as he is really a lecherous philanderer who wanted to supplant her with Susie. However, as Kalon was with him when Dominique was killed, he has his work cut out for him in trying to prove Kalon's guilt.
Episode 6
The Bride of Christ
47 mins
Father Brown is visiting St Agnes convent where he is chaplain when novice Sister Mary Magdalene is poisoned, leading to the father speaking to the convent's vintner Sister Boniface, a fan of detective stories who is keen to help him solve the murder. Then newly-arrived Sister Paul, an austere, dominating nun, is also poisoned and it would seem that she was a secret drinker who ate pear drops to mask the smell of alcohol and was killed by poisoned wine. She had also been the strict warden at a home for unmarried mothers some years earlier. Father Brown and Sister Boniface independently find a link between one of the mothers and a current inhabitant of the convent, but is this the killer? And do the convent's philandering young gardener and his cowed wife know more than they claim?
Episode 7
The Devil's Dust
47 mins
Fourteen year old Ruth Bennett is alleged to have contracted radiation sickness after visiting the atomic power station where her father Geoffrey works and the villagers call a meeting,demanding she leave the area before she contaminates them. Next day she has vanished. Father Brown discovers a love letter from Ruth to Michael Evans,the family doctor,who has just resigned from treating her and a diary in Ruth's bedroom suggests an affair between them,which Michael denies. Valentine suspects he killed her to prevent her disclosing the relationship. Father Brown believes the doctor and reckons that Douglas,a friend of the family,knows more than he is admitting and that he can locate Ruth alive - and well.
Episode 8
The Face of Death
46 mins
When Clarence Clifton is murdered at a charity treasure hunt, its organizer Professor Galloway believes he was the intended victim as they wore identical fancy dress. Daniel Walsh, whose father had recently been killed by Lady Margaret's car (the professor's wife), is the chief suspect and disappears. Then Lady Margaret is killed after sacking servant Thomas Dilcott, secret lover of her daughter Lucia. The villagers suspect Daniel but Father Brown looks closer to home for the solution.
Episode 9
The Mayor and the Magician
45 mins
At a fête to raise funds for a Polish school unpleasant mayor William Knight is electrocuted by a microphone. Valentine arrests his long suffering wife Eleanor after a screwdriver is found in her handbag but there are plenty of other suspects, including his young daughter and the secretary he sacked after their affair was discovered, whilst he was also accused of bribery and corruption. As Father Brown solves the mystery a magician at the fête turns out to be the husband,presumed dead, of his housekeeper Mrs McCarthy, who walked out on her decades earlier. Now dying he wants to return to her but she refuses him.
Episode 10
The Blue Cross
45 mins
When the notorious thief Flambeau declares his intention to steal a valuable blue cross from the church, Father Brown, against the advice of Valentine, decides to take it to safety to Newbury abbey by train. He meets a trio of fellow passengers, one of which he is sure is the thief but his efforts to flush him out lead to the theft of the cross. Facing dismissal for his rash action the Father agrees to meet with Flambeau and do a deal to return the artefact.
