described as short and stumpy and with a face of a Norfolk dumpling, (ie round faced) is this really mark williams, who is 6ft 1.
I think not, but I haven't watched any episodes yet, so I will reserve judgement. Kenneth More was really very good, so I shall be comparing...
Williams is round faced as he has put weight on in recent years. Which is more than Alec Guinness.
As for his height, its not an issue for me. I did not know mark Williams was over 6ft and no idea about More's height.
Its that man again!!
William's quite awful in the part!
Kenneth More was the Best Father Brown to date!
here here!
shareNever saw More as Father Brown and ITV has never shown the series in decades. I understand he was good but my young children think Williams is very good and so do I although I liked Guinness in the role as well.
Its that man again!!
it is available on dvd and worth it.
Guinness was only in the blue cross, or the detective as was filmed and was very good too
[deleted]
I really enjoy this series - it is so bad, as to be brilliant. Mark Williams mumbles and mugs his way through. His performance is always appalling. The final appearance of Hugo Speer - the goatee(?) beard? oh dear, oh dear. Not really in keeping with the 1950's in general or 1950's Police in particular.
shareI agree. Mark Williams is a good actor, but he just does not match the picture of Father Brown that I had in my head. His entire demeanour is different from Chesterton's character.
There are also far too many changes to the original texts, as you have pointed out in other threads here. Where is Flambeau!? He is one of the lynchpins in the original stories. One of the things I was most looking forward to was the impromptu commedia dell'arte / panto scene from The Flying Stars. It is most amusing in the book, but it was completely altered for this adaptation. Instead, a murder was added to the story, and the crazed panto was replaced with a rehearsed play. The sense of pure spontaneity vanished in the process.
Gustav Leonhardt, the great keyboard player, said that musicians should "perform, not interpret". I quite agree, and the same principle applies here. I see no reason for a few Holby City scriptwriters to arrogate unto themselves the right to "improve" the excellent stories written by Chesterton (particuarly when at least one of them [Tahsin Guner] admits to having "never read a single word of GK Chesterton"!). It is not the same as adapting long narratives to the screen, where abridgements and modifications are understandable and often necessary. The source material for every one of these stories could easily be faithfully adapted to the screen without introducing banal homosexual sub-plots and gratuitous murders, and without betraying the moral content of the originals.
I have not seen the version with Kenneth More, but I shall look forward to seeking it out soon.
absolutely, couldn't have said it better.
shareIt's the same with Poirot and Marple. Why all the re-writing of perfectly good stories? If the BBC must cost cut and put on budget drama then they could start by saving money on these dreadful writers.
shareBen Elton said it best when adapting his OWN novel 'Stark' for the screen.
TV and books are a different medium, what works on the page does not for the screen. I had to completely forget about the book and start again when adapting Stark.
One of the criticisms of the early Harry Potter films were that they were too faithful to the books.
I think this is a nice little series and you are doing a great dis-serice to the writers by calling them dreadful.
Its that man again!!
I haven't read the books, but going on the series itself, I can't get on with it. Mark Williams doesn't seem charismatic enough. The problem with unoffical detectives is that they really have no business asking questions of local folk, their whereabouts, so to get past that the character have to have a certain charm or charisma, or guileless quality that Williams doesn't have. He seems like a busybody, you'd be in your rights to tell him to get lost. He seems like the sort of pompous character that Midsomer's Barnaby encounters. Whereas ideally the 'detective' should be so conversational, if you didn't cooperate it would look very suspect.
The two bits I've seen, he gets to the truth by having it handed to him on a plate by the normally unsympathetic police inspector ('I'm going for a coffee, do have a look at the file on this fellow') or by just interrogating locals who could easily tell him to get on his bike.
dreadful, dreamful, dreadful
the writers need to go back to holby city, casualty and Eastenders and write in a genre they are better suited, crime fiction is not their forté
Prism that is absolute rubbish. Brideshead Revisited (the Granada version) was practically a page by page transfer to the screen. Granted they had the luxury of viewing hours but the point is that even with time constraints I can't see the justification of altering a storyline in a way seems purely gratuatous. The Joan Hickson Miss Marple programmes were far truer to the books than the 'New' Marple programmes. And they are much better off for it. If they write another lesbian Nun into the next series I will scream!
shareI am of two minds about the new Father Brown.
Obviously, the stories have been changed beyond recognition. And this fact cannot be excused with saying that adaptations do not have to slavishly follow the books they are based on. Of course a very long book would have to be abridged to fit the format of a film.
But what is really important is that the essence and the character of the original source are respected and not abused just because the screen writers would like to prove a point. Nowadays this point is in general political correctness. And this show being produced by the BBC it is quite obvious where the screen writers are coming from. Let's be honest, does anybody really believe that most of Father Brown's opinions about his faith could be uttered in a 21st century BBC programme? I can just see the "outraged" tweets and emails...
I love historical fiction and films, and for me it is in general very important that the works stay true to the times they portray. The attitudes of the times, the dress, the vocabulary/language, even the speech patterns and the body language should feel right. Most often they don't.
Changing a book completely and turning it into something new can work if it is done right. Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple has absolutely nothing to do with either the plots of the book or Miss Marple's character, but they are a lot of fun in their own right. Another example of how it can work is Sherlock.
Or it can be a downright catastrophe like the absolutely abysmal new Miss Marples. The Joan Hickson adaptations were spot on, everything felt right; both Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie are terrible.
After having said all this, I have to say now, quite illogically, I somehow like the new Father Brown. It is very nice light entertainment. In the reviews section someone called the programme marvelous nonsense and I think I agree with it. It is fluffy afternoon entertainment. And as such I enjoy it.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
just caught up with is on BBC2
well it sort of works but it shouldn't really! I have ended up watching them all and actually enjoying them for what they are. I'm almost ashamed to say I am really enjoying them!
Of course is completely preposterous the Village setting and the Catholic Church all out of kilter. Most of the characters seem to be the stock standards you would find in any Agatha Christie (or insert your favourite mystery novel writer here)
But somehow it just seems to work, I think in large part this is down to Mark Williams. I think as you say has a completely original and slightly amusing take on the part. And it ends up being very watch-able.
Still not entirely sure about the 1950s would have thought 1930s would suit just as well and certainly make some of the more "trenchant views" grate a little less noticeably.
I certainly wouldn't agree about Geraldine McEwan - although I didn't like her at first, I think this is basically down to the fact that they mucked around with a lot of good stories e.g. murder the vicarage.
But I thought the conflation episode "By the Pricking of my thumbs" and The Moving Finger were brilliant.
however Julia McKenzie must be my least favourite Miss Marple ever !
On the hand the BBC Film version of Brideshead Revisited released in 2008 was very condensed and the script approved by the estate of Waugh.
I have now read a few of the short Father Brown stories, it seems the BBC adaptation was a much better improvement, Father Brown actually played a minor role in the Blue Cross by just appearing near the end.
Oh by the way here is the link to the quote from Ben Elton when adapting his own novel:
http://www.1-love-quotes.com/quote/856668
Its that man again!!
I think the show is great and I enjoy Mark Williams' performance. After reading this thread (and some of the others) I have ordered the complete works from Amazon and I am sure I will enjoy them too; but I would like to make the comparison.
I think Williams portrays a modern day Pontif; he's almost an atheist (and that's probably why I find it appealing)
Schrode