The Company Of Men – As this episode of Father Brown begins, Brenda Palmer (Ruby-May Martinwood) knocks on the door to get Father Brown’s attention. She tells Father Brown (Mark Williams) that she needs his help because she didn’t do it. Brown brings her inside to learn more about her story. Brenda explains she left the borstal a few weeks back when they lined up a job for her at the Granford Club in Burrywick. The boss accused her of nicking a fiver from the till. She ran because she was scared they’d send her to a real prison this time. Father Brown insists that won’t happen once he finds the real culprit.

Isobel Devine (Claudie Blakley) asks Father Brown if he can believe her. Brenda barges in to defend herself and to say she is telling the truth. Lady Felicia (Nancy Carroll) comes in and is promptly introduced to Isobel and Brenda. Father Brown excuses himself and Brenda because they have a pressing engagement in Burrywick. Once everyone arrives, Lady Felicia and Isobel remember that the place used to be a jazz club. Although women aren’t allowed, Felicia decides to barge in any way. Mr. Jasper Granford (Roger Barclay) confronts them to remind them the club is only for gentlemen.

Father Brown says they’re there to vouch for Brenda who is anxious to clear the air after yesterday’s misunderstanding. After Brenda denies stealing the money, Jasper asks Charlotte to call the police. Father Brown says they’ll stay until the police arrive. Brenda points out John who is the manager and the son named Bertie. She mentions that Bertie just got kicked out of Oxford and his dad won’t give him money. Brenda confirms he was in and out of the bar yesterday. He went upstairs around four. Then, he came back down with a face like thunder and continued drinking. She believes he was upstairs for about twenty minutes.

Brown borrows the Colonel’s newspaper and tells Jasper that the favorite Durley Dean lost spectacularly yesterday at 4:15. He says he bets on horses occasionally and he thinks Bertie does too since he has seen him at the racecourse. Brown suggests the five-pound note taken from the till was used to place a bet. Jasper checks his son’s pockets for a betting slip and finds one. John is told to call the police to tell them there has been a false alarm. Brenda is given her job back. Jasper asks Felicia and Isobel to leave. Brenda thanks Father Brown before they say goodbye to one another.

Back at home, Felicia complains about Devine and the housekeeping. Father Brown says he is more than capable of looking after himself. John tells Brenda that she can now lock up after the gents have gone and Moira is done with the cleaning. She is given the only spare set of keys. While talking to another worker, Bertie breaks a glass behind Brenda. He orders Brenda to clean it up. Moira tells Brenda to cheer up and watch this. She begins showing Brenda how to juggle until Jasper interrupts to say he hopes hiring her back wasn’t a mistake. The next day, Felicia returns to the club and handcuffs her to the bar.

Charlotte enters to ask Jasper why he doesn’t allow ladies in there, but he won’t discuss it in front of everyone. Everyone hears Jasper slap his wife in the distance. When Felicia refuses to leave, Charlotte says she’ll have to call the police. John tells Felicia to look around if she just thinks it is women who are banned from this place. Felicia remembers that he used to own the jazz club called The Twister. Chief Inspector Sullivan (Tom Chambers) arrives a short time later. He cuts the chains to get rid of Felicia. When Brenda takes Jasper his lunch, she finds him dead. They find that he has a single stab wound to the heart.

Father Brown believes he was taken by surprise since there is no sign of a struggle. The safe was open and the contents removed. Felicia believes Jasper was last seen about two hours ago. Father Brown finds something that has been discarded in haste. It is Colonel Partridge’s jacket. He has left the building so they begin looking for him. Brenda doesn’t think it was the Colonel who can’t even get out of his chair without help. They theorize whether the Colonel killed Jasper or he just discovered the body. Brown asks about another exit. As they walk down the stairs, he finds a bloody handprint on the rail.

Sullivan reveals they found the keys to the office and the combination to the safe in the Colonel’s jacket. He speaks to some of the staff as well as Bertie and Charlotte since Jasper must’ve given the combination to someone. Everyone denies having the combination. Father Brown mentions that he overheard Jasper saying he was preparing Bertie to take over the business. Once Bertie denies it again, Father Brown asks for a writing specimen since the combination was written by hand. Bertie confesses that it was the Colonel’s idea and he was going to empty the safe tonight after his father has gone to bed.

Bertie admits he hated his father sometimes, but he didn’t want this. He just wanted the money in the safe. John suggests closing the club temporarily, but Charlotte wants the doors to open as usual. Moira agrees to help out since some of the staff have quit. Bertie asks Father Brown for help since he seems to see things that others don’t. Brown asks why he is so desperate for money. Bertie says there was a girl in Oxford and she worked in a pub. Bertie got her into trouble by behaving despicably. Her father made sure Bertie got sent down. The money was for the baby. He argues someone killed his father and wants him to take the blame.

The next day, Inspector Sullivan tells Father Brown that the colonel seems to have vanished into thin air. He tells Charlotte that he had to charge Bertie. Moira admits to Brown that she doesn’t like Bertie. She has only been working there for a few weeks so she can’t say whether he is guilty. However, she knows a nasty piece of work when she sees one. Father Brown asks Brenda if the timing of Moira’s employment could be significant. She says Moira was a cleaner and only worked at night. Brown isn’t convinced Bertie did it. He says the colonel was embroiled in events, but a bloody jacket isn’t significant evidence. He explains that the killer had to be face-to-face with Jasper.

That suggests it was personal. They discuss John and Charlotte before Brown questions who Jasper Granford was. Father Brown asks Charlotte if she had a hand in her husband’s death. She argues she wouldn’t have let her son take the blame if she had. Charlotte says Bertie isn’t bad to the core like Jasper. When asked about Jasper’s fortune, Charlotte reveals it wasn’t inherited. He was very secretive about his family and everything else. She knows he had other places other than the club, but he never spoke to her about them. Charlotte says John got into debt and that is how Jasper ended up owning the club. He kept on all the staff. She doesn’t know how she would’ve managed without them.

Moira learns about Brenda’s time in borstal. She tells her about her ten-year-old son named Max who is also in a care home because her husband drank. Moira had to support all of them and was sometimes out nights. A neighbor reported her as being unfit as a result. After someone took pity on her, she learned her son was down the road in Glendale so she gets to visit him. Father Brown interrupts Felicia and Isobel as they argue about Isobel’s responsibilities. He tells them that Jasper kept a lot from his wife, but he got a list of his other businesses. Once Devine learns he owned The Purple Cravat, she says she’ll do some sleuthing.

John tells Moira that they’d like her to stay on as a permanent waitress. She is given permission to take the flowers since they need to be thrown out. She explains to Brenda that Max used to ask her to name all the different flowers in the garden so she wants to give them to him. Mrs. Devine learns that Jasper bought The Purple Cravat from the previous owners who’d suddenly gone bankrupt after a lavish renovation they couldn’t afford. She called the other businesses and found out there were sudden bankruptcies before Jasper’s other acquisitions too. Father Brown wants to find out if Jasper forced the business to fail so he could buy them cheaply.

John tells him more about the Twister and how it needed renovations. He applied for several bank loans only to be turned down. Jasper offers to pay for them in exchange for a small stake in the club. When the work was done, he denies promising the money so John had to declare bankruptcy. Jasper bought the club. Brown suggests that amount of resentment can boil over. John didn’t kill him, but he isn’t sorry he is dead. He argues it was only a matter of time before someone made him pay. Later, Devine points out the faint odor Brown detected on the colonel’s jacket. He confirms it had a hint of turpentine as well.

Devine says it could be grease paint which is often used for stage makeup. She wonders if the colonel could be a younger man dressed up to look old and someone not present on the day of the murder. Father Brown thinks Moira and the colonel are the same and it is the perfect disguise because he was invisible to everyone around him. She used a false tracheostomy to hide the female voice. She had a background in entertainment since she taught Brenda how to juggle. Brenda rushes back to confront Moira who says she didn’t kill Jasper. When pressed on it, Moira admits she didn’t know Brenda would find the body.

She says he deserved it because he took everything from her. When the police arrive, Brenda agrees to let Moira says goodbye to Max so he won’t think she has abandoned him again. Once they come inside, Brenda tells Father Brown that Moira needed to say goodbye. They go to Glendale although the Inspector has no one has ever heard of a children’s home there. Brenda tells Brown what Moira said about the flowers. He goes to the cemetery since he thinks she will be there. She tells them that Granford took their theater. Moira says she had to put it right. Father Brown says this was calculated and cold. He wonders if she stayed around to enjoy her handiwork.

Moira made sure her face was the last thing he saw. She says Max would’ve been everything Bertie isn’t if he had lived. She also believes Bertie would’ve ruined Brenda’s life. Father Brown tells her that Bertie wanted to use the money he stole from his father to take care of a child. Once she locked up, Moira tells Brown that she found where Max was buried and knew it was close to where Jasper had moved. She knew God wanted her to do it although Brown says vengeance is the Lord’s alone. He believes repentance and penance are the way to peace. He gives her a gift from Brenda before leaving.

The note let her know that Brenda will visit him for her. Later, Brenda comes over to say she got fired for the stunt with the keys. Then, Inspector Sullivan comes to arrest her for being an accessory after the fact. Felicia and Isobel refuse to let him take her. Father Brown decides to make her his housekeeper since she needs a place to stay. Felicia gets a letter telling her The Twister jazz club is reopening.

 

Father Brown Review

Father Brown has attempted to recreate itself in its tenth season with some aspects being more successful than others. The back-and-forth between Mrs. Devine and Lady Felicia is mostly fun although it can become overwhelming at points while Mark Williams maintains his footing as the always reliable Father Brown.

Avid fans of the series will undoubtedly love the show since the old charm is still present. Sadly, this episode wasn’t as good as some of the others from years past and could potentially be one of the least memorable. While there were some twists, the biggest was the most predictable right from the moment the colonel spoke.

The story didn’t bring much new to the picture since these topics have been rehashed so many times. The episode wasn’t terrible overall, but it isn’t going to have a lasting impact in the least. With luck, the season will improve to the point that it can justify another series for Father Brown. The episode scores a 5 out of 10.

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