I like the Father Brown Mysteries TV series because I'm fond of the characters and the theme music and score are terrific and the cinematography is excellent, and it's a lot of fun. The plots, on the other hand, often leave a lot to be desired.
I'm working on Season 5 and I've just seen Episode #5, "The Hand of Lucia." And I have to say, if you are also a fan of the series, you really need to seek this one out. It is deliriously, awfully wonderful, more over-the-top than anything I've ever seen in a Father Brown episode, maybe even more crazy wacko wonderful than any TV mystery episode I've ever seen bar none, Hercule Poirot included. I laughed a lot.
In the series this year, Lady Felicia has departed to join her husband in Rhodesia, and Sid the chauffeur has basically gone AWOL. (I understand he's playing Lucius Malfoy in the West End Harry Potter play and he may even reappear with Father Brown briefly this season; I have my hopes up.) Meanwhile those two characters have been replaced by an attractive young woman, Lady Felicia's scandalous niece from London, and she's a perfectly fine addition to the cast. But she's no Lady Felicia. No Sid either, for that matter.
Season 5 is going along just fine; I'm enjoying it. But this episode I just watched -- The Hand of Lucia -- is, I think, an aberration, an episode so horribly, awfully funny it stands alone. It is like a parody of weekly British detective shows, Poirot/Morse/Lewis/Foyle lifted to a previously unexplored level of absurd TV mystery entertainment. It's a work of genius. You gotta see this one. It's so bad; it's so good.