GOD’S GIFT TO WOMEN!

As his clerical sleuth Father Brown returns for an eighth series, Mark Williams reveals he’s become a very unlikely sex symbol

With his heavy gabardine cassock and black soup bowl hat, Father Brown makes for an unlikely pin-up. But a pin-up he certainly is. When one fan asked Mark Williams, who plays the loveable clerical sleuth, if she could have a photo taken with him she cheekily pinched his bottom, while an American lady bowled over to him during filming and said, ‘Father Brown, I feel like I know you.’

So does Mark feel like a sex symbol? ‘No, I don’t. I’ve never been employed for my attractiveness,’ he laughs. So how does he explain the bottom-pinching incident? ‘Yes, she grabbed my bottom. I don’t know about Father Brown, but a friend of mine said that when she was a child in Ireland there was always a bit of a “What’s under the cassock?” romance about the young seminarians. But I think I’m a bit too old for that, in fact a lot too old for that.’

The adulation is hardly surprising since the universal appeal of the acclaimed series has made it one of the most successful daytime shows ever. Based on the short stories by GK Chesterton about a crime-solving Catholic priest in the fictional Cotswolds village of Kembleford in the 1950s, it pulls in 2.5 million viewers in the UK, has been sold to 160 countries and is returning this week for its eighth series. There’s already a ninth planned for 2021.

That’s a lot of cassock-wearing. ‘It always seems to be hot when we’re filming and the most uncomfortable thing is the cassock,’ says Mark, 60. ‘Mine is Teflon-coated so it’s slightly waterproof, and then there’s the heavy trousers. In Italy they wear silk cassocks, but there’s not much chance that’s going to happen here.’

Set in the stunning Cotswolds countryside, Father Brown offers gloriously nostalgic episodes full of drama, warmth and humour. But the real pull of the stories is their moral compass. Chesterton created the character more than 100 years ago as an antidote to Sherlock Holmes – while Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective relies on scientific reasoning untouched by emotion, Father Brown solves crimes with his charisma and a deep understanding of human failings. ‘The reaction to the series has been extraordinary,’ says Mark, who was previously best known as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films. ‘I think its success is about storytelling. You’re being told a story every episode – and that’s what people love. There isn’t a lot of urban anger, or zombies or dragons. It’s an antidote to what most box sets are about nowadays. It’s always 1953, when instead of mobile phones people just used gossip, letters and newspapers.’

In the new series, Father Brown finds himself investigating the murder of an eccentric beekeeper and stepping in when Irish parish secretary Mrs Mccarthy’s family reunion is threatened by a fortune-teller’s predictions. ‘We have some great episodes in store,’ says Mark. ‘We have an artist who has an obsession with his model, a big fashion episode that gives a chance for Claire Collins, our brilliant costume designer, to show off what 1950s couture was like and we’ve got a convention of jesters in the village and things get very dark.’

Father Brown also finds himself racing against time to save his sidekick Penelope ‘Bunty’ Windermere from the gallows when she’s tried for murder. Viewers love the dynamic between Father Brown and larger-than-life Bunty (Emer

Father Brown with Mrs Mccarthy and his sidekick Bunty (also below) Kenny), the niece of socialite Lady Felicia Montague (Nancy Carroll). ‘Father Brown is forgiving of Bunty,’ says Mark. ‘She’s come on as a detective, but there’s an episode in this series where he gets tetchy with her because she’s short-sighted about something.’

For Emer Kenny, it’s a dream role. ‘I love Bunty. She’s outspoken, brave and bold,’ she says. ‘She can be selfish and she’ll often do the wrong thing, but mostly for the right reasons. In this series she goes to a Gatsby-themed party hosted by a playboy millionaire, who unfortunately gets murdered, and Bunty ends up going on trial. It’s a brilliant episode as there’s something very real at stake for Father Brown; his friend is in the dock and in the 1950s you could still be hanged for murder.’

Although Father Brown has high principles, Mark admits the character has his faults. ‘He’s got lots of faults, truly. He can be didactic. He’s faith-led, which has its own errors. He’s greedy. He was always stealing cake in the beginning; maybe we should bring that back...’ he laughs.

Mark’s first film was a student production at Oxford in 1982, alongside contemporaries Hugh Grant and Imogen Stubbs. But unlike Hugh’s, his career was slow to take off, even if it’s been consistent since. He’s described himself as having a face ‘like the corner of a crocodile handbag’ and thinks if he’d been ‘gorgeous’ his rise might have been more assured.

He was an integral part of comedy series The Fast Show, but it was Harry Potter that realcatapulted ly him to stardom. Now Father Brown has been another turning point, does he feel it’s the role that will come to define him? ‘Oh, I keep being discovered,’ he chuckles. ‘I was discovered to play Father Brown and I just keep going.’ Lisa Sewards Father Brown returns on Monday at 2.15pm on BBC1.

‘Every episode tells a great story’