Colonial Radio Theatre relaunched its Father Brown line earlier this year. Previous releases of Father Brown had stories taken throughout the Father Brown canon. A release might include a story from the Innocence of Father Brown, one from the Wisdom of Father Brown, and another two from the Scandal of Father Brown.

With the relaunch, Colonial Radio Theater is grouping stories from the same book together. The first two volumes of the Innocence of Father Brown include only stories that were released previously. However, Volume 3 contains two newly adapted stories, both of which have pitfalls for would be-adaptors. Each story features JT Turner as Father Brown and is adapted by MJ Elliott from stories by GK Chesterton.

“The Eye of Apollo” is a classic story which pits Father Brown against the founder of a sun-worshiping cult who has convinced a strong-headed wealthy woman to follow his way. When she dies, it appears to have been accident with the cult leader having a perfect alibi. The actual solution has a great ironic twist that’s pure Chesterton. Colonial does a spot on job creating all the characters exactly as Chesterton wrote them.

“The Honour of Israel Gow ” is difficult to adapt because the solution borders on the absurd. Father Brown, Flambeau, and a Police Inspector go the estate of a late Scottish lord and find inexplicable occurrences including candles, snuff, unset precious stones, springs and cogs, and an odd bamboo stick out loose.

This is an interesting story as Father Brown is wrong several times. The first few time are intentional. The story has fantastic scene where Flambeau and the Inspector insist that there’s no way to explain all this and Father Brown comes up with one mind-blowing explanation after another just to prove that you could think of a solution. However, Father Brown’s tone changes considerably when he finds Catholic texts have been defaced leading him to jump to a conclusion far more sinister than what really happened. Overall, the three actors really carry the story and the result is fun without being ludicrous.

“Sign of the Broken Sword” is one of Chesterton’s most influential stories in terms of impacts  other mystery writers. It’s also a very hard story to dramatize because it consists of Father Brown and Flambeau discussing a mysterious historical event that occurred half way around the world in Brazil. I was curious how Colonial would adapt the story and they didn’t depart from the original concept. As I think about it, I believe they made the right call.

It’s easy to imagine doing an adaptation with flashbacks to Brazil or with a greatly expanded investigation by Father Brown. However, I think that would make the story weaker as the sagacity and wisdom of Father Brown is what takes center stage. The adaptation works because of a strong performance by JT Turner as Father in carrying the play and his strong chemistry with James Turner as Flambeau. It’s fascinating as Father Brown reveals takes the accepted facts of a story in which a very wise general behaved foolishly and very merciful general behaved cruelly and peels away the layers of deceit and mystery to discover a diabolical secret. Because the story doesn’t have much action, it’s not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

“The Three Tools of Death” is one best Father Brown mysteries.  I actually based much of my Father Brown chapter in my book, All I Needed to Know I Learned from Columbo on this story. However, it’s not always gotten the respect it deserved. In the 1970s, ITV ruined the story when they adapted Father Brown for television because the original story was too politically incorrect.

Colonial, on the other hand, didn’t try to airbrush the story. Instead, they let it speak for itself and produced a faithful and well-done adaptation of this mystery that centers around Britain’s leading optimist and teetotaler being found murdered. At first, there are no weapons found, and then all the sudden, there are too many. Father Brown says something’s wrong with the crime scene, that all these weapons are “not economical.”  This is a very faithful adaptation. They even preserved the post-solution ending. Father Brown, after having unraveled one of the greatest mysteries in the history of detective fiction, goes on about his rounds as a Priest. That  tells you all you need to know about Father Brown.

The one thing that may throw some listeners is that the first and last stories have a different theme and score than the middle stories since they were first released earlier.

Overall, this collection contains four solidly produced and faithful adaptations of the Father Brown mysteries. Colonial gets high marks for being willing to take on some of the tougher to adapt early Father Brown stories and doing them justice. The result is a very entertaining two hours of classic audio mysteries.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0

Note: I received a digital copy of this production in exchange for an honest review. 

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