Father Brown Season 5

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

This set includes the first “Father Brown” Christmas special. It aired in December 2016, and Season 5 began in January 2017. It has a lot of humor and a lot of good cheer. As does the whole series. “Father Brown” has nicely plotted mysteries, but it is light-hearted and definitely not police procedural, with Inspector Mallory often acting incompetently. A couple plots are improbable, but in goofy way. It takes place in 1953, so there’s no internet or cell phones.

Oh, no. In the first episode of the season, we lose a Father Brown regular character. Come to think of it, the inimitable Sid Carter is missing from the first 10 episodes of Season 5, and it’s not explained until “The Sins of Others”. To make up the shortfall, the young Lady Penelope “Bunty” joins as a regular, when she arrives to live with Lady Felicia. She is rather directionless, except that she craves excitement and has an eye for the bad boy. But there are brains behind that pretty face.

This Season 5 collection, including the Christmas Special, gives you a lovely 675 minutes of mysteries. Each of the 15 episodes is about 45 minutes long. It is nice to have a series where a season has more than 4 mysteries, isn’t it?

If you buy the series on BluRay or DVD, English SDH subtitles are available and the show is presented in 16:9 aspect ratio. There are no BluRay/DVD bonus featues.

…Special…”The Star” Bishop Reynard has sent Canon Fox to Kembleford. He is to oversea Father Brown’s Christmas Day Mass, which “has a reputation for being somewhat eclectic…. This year, the Duke of Frome (pronounced froom) is spending Christmas at Montague and, we’re informed, will be attending Christmas Mass at St. Mary’s.” So nothing better be out of line. How about a kidnapped child – is that out of line?
“The thing about miracles is that they do happen.”
…episode 1… “The Labyrinth of the Minotaur” Lady Davina reigns at Malmort, a big decaying house in desperate need of marriage to money. Malmort’s claim to fame is a suberranean maze created by the “architect of the Villa Pisani Labbyrinth in Stra. Reputed to be the most difficult maze in the world.” (and one of the most beautiful, with a white tower to climb in the middle).” Which means if you wander in, you won’t wander out again, right?
…episode 2… “The Eve of St. John” Father Brown attends a District Council meeting where the fire-breathing Reverend Allsworthy announces, “Following the repeal of England’s 1736 Witchcraft Act, pagans are literally ‘coming out of the woods”.” A moral threat which might have become a mortal threat when a body is found in a coven’s woods.
…episode 3… “The Chedworth Cyclone” Jeb Cornish is the star of the Chedworth Boxing Club, winning his last three bouts with K.O.s. But his story includes a gangster, a woman, jealousy and death.
…episode 4… “The Hand of Lucia” Remember “Lulu & Lucia”, the book which scandalized Mr.s. McCarthy? It’s back, because its author, Lucia Morell, has moved into the area. Is it the past or is it the future that’s going to get someone killed?
…episode 5… “The Eagle and the Dawn” Katherine Corven is going to be executed for the murder of her husband, and she specifically asks that Father Brown visit her for confession. To Father Brown’s astonishment, Corven doesn’t want to confess to her husband’s murder. Instead, she slyly tells him, “I wanted to get something off my chest. You see, I’ve just arranged for the death of my lover.” What’s the Father to do – the seal of the confessional cannot be broken.
…episode 6… “The Smallest of Things” Agnes Lesser is getting a police commendation for building dolls’ houses. They’re all of real murder scenes, used “as a teaching tool in the art of crime detection.” She’s invited Father Brown to help her solve a cold case.
…episode 7… “The Crimson Feather” Backstage at The Crimson Feather Club Verity and Janek are planning something, “And may God forgive us both.”
…episode 8…”The Lepidopterist’s Companion” Father Brown, a.k.a. “The Great Kembleford Book Thief.” He is always forgetting to return books borrowed from the bookmobile. Today, he has remembered and is taking a pile of books back when there’s a cry from the bookmobile. And a dead librarian.
…episode 9… “The Alchemist’s Secret” Professor Hilary Ambrose has been hearing mysterious sounds and worried by being followed ever since he acquired a 3,000 year-old diary. It has a secret and people die for it.
…episode 10.. “The Sins of Others” Sid Carter, Lady Felicia’s chauffeur, and Father Brown’s cohort, has just been released after a year in prison. Sid has always been a bit of a lad, but it’s hard to believe he’d end up in jail. Unless he was framed.
…episode 11.. “The Theatre of the Invisible” The hit radio show “Up to You” is going on the road, and one stop is Kembleford. It’s a comedy show with a well-known cast. It rather ruins the fun when someone dies.
…episode 12.. “The Tanganyika Green” Aldous Kemp, widower, and his daughter, Grace, have come to the U.K. in the hope that Grace will get into medical school. Kemp plans on selling a valuable antique at the Antiques Fair to finance her school, but everything goes wrong when there’s a death.
…episode 13.. “The Fire in the Sky” Mrs. McCarthy is worried about a parishioner, William. He’s acting odd and, I don’t know, there may be aliens involved.
Meanwhile, Bunty gifts Father Brown with a moped: “You said your knees were hurting you. I thought you should trade your rusty old bicycle in.”
Father Brown: “Bucephalus is NOT rusty.”
Trivia: The original Bucephalus was Alexander the Great’s favorite war horse.
…episode 14.. “The Penitent Man” Can you believe it? Mr. Hercule Flambeau, celebrity thief has been denied bail, so he’s sitting in jail awaiting trial. But the charge isn’t theft, it’s murder. Father Brown knows that murder is not Flambeau’s style. So what is he up to?

Favorite quote:
Mrs. McCarthy: “I’ve always thought I had the temperament to make a rather good librarian.”
Father Brown: “It’s true. She’s often telling me to be quiet.”

An enjoyable series, as long as you don’t expect seriousness.

-Happy Reader

I was delighted to find there were so many episodes in one purchase. (I have Seasons 1 and 2) I have only watched the first disk of Series 5 so far. I miss Sid and Lady Felicia, but have no problem with Bunty (she is pretty much Lady Felicia with 20 years shaved off). The new Police Inspector plays his part like broad farce. He needs to tone it WAY down.

The Christmas Special was good, but the next episodes took a much darker turn. The set-up for the crimes in past seasons were a bit more “out there” than your usual ‘cozy mystery,’ but with this season the show seems to be deliberately sacrificing the charm of previous seasons, to go for the grotesque and for shock value: witchcraft with obligatory religious insanity, the boxing theme with (I felt) gratuitous ulra-slo-mo of violent and bloody punches, and to cap it off… sado-masochistic lesbians, no less! Just the thing for settling down on a cold winter’s night for some entertaining viewing! (sarcasm) I still like the main characters and the idea, but not sure why the writers and producers think people who like cozy mysteries and the mental exercise of solving complex crimes, would be interested in the perverse and increasingly dark storylines.

-Old KY homebody

The Father Brown series has come alive starting with this 5th series. The addition of Emer Kenny as Bunty is a great move. The pace is perfect and the stories are inventive and interesting. I have seen negative comments on this series concerning the Bunty and Inspector characters and I chalk those comments up to fans reacting to the absence of characters they had come to love. I admit the inspector was coming on a little strong at first, but the character quickly develops into a positive addition to the cast. After all he was new to Kembleford and didn’t know what a gem Father Brown is. Bunty is a wonderful and fun character and is up to any challenge whether it be handling snakes, finding evidence up a chimney or on a rooftop, or kicking open locked doors. It is fun and entertaining watching the cast get to know each other and develop their relationships with one another. Pay attention the body language and facial expressions of the characters, especially the main three; Father Brown, Mrs. McCarthy and Bunty. They really bring life to their respective characters. Thoroughly enjoyable entertainment.

– c.c. mckraken

DVD Wholesale Main Features :   

Actors: Various
Directors: Various
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
Language: English
Dubbed: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 3
Rated: NR-Not Rated
Studio: BBC
DVD Release Date: December 12, 2017
Run Time: 750 minutes
ASIN: B071W9GVQX