PICK OF TODAY’S TV

FATHER BROWN, 1.45PM, BBC1

AN ESPECIALLY buoyant episode today as the charming adaptation of the G.K. Chesterton stories continues, one made to accommodate its flamboyant guest star, Elaine Paige (pictured). With a twinkle in her eye, the West End legend plays celebrity florist Octavia Eden, a force of nature and a mainstay of the London social scene, who grew up in Kembleford and, after announcing an illness, returns to the sleepy Cotswold village to spend her final months. Once installed in her grand country pile, she busies herself with securing her legacy, even going so far as planning her own wake. But it’s not Octavia who is soon pushing up daisies — grumpy Mr Mulch comes a cropper at Ms Eden’s garden party, and prickly Chief Inspector Sullivan (Tom Chambers) immediately clutches at the wrong straw and focuses on Mrs Mulch. Our good Father (Mark Williams), of course, doesn’t see things so simply, and notices every petal that’s out of place. Eden, for her part, sees only opportunity in the unfortunate incident and proposes a wreathmaking competition. After all, as she tells her daughter (Jasmine Hyde), ‘There are two types of florist in ths world: ruthless, money-grabbing mercenaries, and unsuccessful ones . . .’