A different kind of confession: TV’s crime-fighting priest.

The actor who plays crime-solving priest Father Brown puts his faith in the power of storytelling. Melenie Parkes reports.

Mark Williams, better known to TV viewers as Father Brown, is supposed to be filming a new season of the series about the priest with a passion for solving crimes. But like so many TV productions, the global pandemic has halted proceedings.

“We were about to start filming the ninth series, which would include the 100th episode so it was quite a landmark for us,” he says. “We’re hoping to be able to continue later in the summer.”

But for an avid reader like Williams, it has given him the opportunity to catch up on the stack of books by his bed which he says is, “Now equivalent to a coffee table”.

Whether he is acting or reading, a strong narrative matters to Williams.

It’s what underpins Father Brown, based on the stories of G.K. Chesterton, and Williams believes it’s “storytelling” that is at the heart of the series’ enduring popularity.

“People often say to me that it’s gentle and I don’t think

Mark Williams as Father Brown they mean that, because people get murdered,” he laughs. “What’s gentle is the way that the story is told. It’s not an aggressive way of telling a television story by using lots of different effects and explosions and camera techniques and aggressive acting. It’s much more storytelling. And there’s no zombies, no dragons.” After eight years as the crime-solving priest, slipping back into the role is easy. But is slipping back into the cassock a bit like visiting an old friend? “A few years ago I would have hesitated in agreeing with you but no, it is. Obviously, I have to work hard at not making him a cliche. And it’s important to me that he’s surprised by what happens around him.

“And that’s the key thing really – that everything is new to him because he’s such an inquisitive sort of man, I don’t want him to become blase.”

With his gentle, open-minded manner, Father Brown seems a modern priest for the times, but Williams says his liberal nature wouldn’t have been out of place for the period.

“The Catholic Church has always had mavericks and people who have different attitudes and they’re not necessarily always strict.

“What’s always been a key to their ministries is understanding, I think, especially in the lower end of the ministry which is where he firmly sits. Perhaps in wearing a cassock he’s quite old-fashioned for the 50s. But we are stuck with Chesterton’s picture of the priest.”

Keeping faithful to the character and the time period is critical.

Williams, who starred as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise and was a regular on the BBC’s The Fast Show, is keenly aware that to stray from history is to invite criticism.

“We take that sort of thing very seriously really because it can often be the difference between people enjoying the series and not enjoying it,” he says.

From the costumes to the cars and Father Brown’s priestly protocol, a team of people help ensure authenticity. Even that cassock is the real deal, although the budget doesn’t stretch to the silk variety that Italian priests would wear.

“It buttons all the way up and down and the costume designer said, ‘Do you want us to put Velcro on it?’ And I said no.

“So every time I do a take and finish the take I have to unbutton the whole cassock and button it back up.

“Recently I was talking to another priest about that – the Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, I told him that story and he said, ‘Ah yes but if you use Velcro the cassock never hangs properly’ and he’s right.”

Although the series is popular around the world, Williams says he has yet to hear from any priests inspired to follow in the footsteps of the clergyman who puts the PI in piety. But he has received a priestly seal of approval.

“I did meet a cardinal once. And I asked him what he thought of the series and he said, with the true diplomatic mastery of a man used to working in Rome, ‘There is nothing I would disagree with’. So we have the imprimatur of the Catholic Church on the series so I was very pleased with that.”

Father Brown is filmed in and around Coventry, in the English Midlands, where Williams says they have access to a wealth of period vehicles.

“Coventry was the centre of the British car industry. And so a lot of amazing vehicles are still there, and still maintained and lovingly restored by some of the men who built them originally, although they’re ageing now but their sons have taken over.”

“People often say to me that it’s gentle and I don’t think they mean that, because people get murdered.”

– Mark Williams