The Father Brown Mysteries - "The Actor & The Alibi" (11-02-86)

The Actor & The Alibi (Aired November 2, 1986)

 When we consider the question of clerics and mysteries, the first figure most of us think of is G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown. The first Father Brown story was published in 1910 in the Saturday Evening Post, years before Chesterton had even converted to Roman Catholicism. Forty-eight Father Brown stories were published before Chesterton’s death, and for many, the unassuming Catholic priest, who solved mysteries through close observation and intuition, remains the model clerical detective, unmatched by any subsequent efforts by other authors. Not that these authors haven’t tried. Their success depends on the same factors by which we judge any piece of fiction in general and mystery fiction in particular. Father Brown was a natural for radio and he has appeared in several series on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably The Father Brown Stories which were originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1984 and 1987.