User Reviews

Jeff Rawle of Drop the Dead Donkey fame guest stars in this episode as a professor who wants to support his daughter's family, but resorts to trickery and the sort to do so. Well, you know the deal, the professor is found dead and it wasn't because of an allergic reaction to a bad curry from the local Kembleford takeaway.

I like Father Brown but it's amazing he has the resilience to shield any PTSD from uncovering so many dead bodies over the years. In Kembleford no less.

This episode, The Whistle in the Dark is like a bottle episode. I sometimes wonder about the fate of the guest stars who are on the second or third tier of acting. Are they jobbing actors? Anyway, they are quite talented and hopefully they were able to feed off the catering during filming breaks.

The seventh season of "Father Brown" has been pretty fun so far. "The Great Train Robbery" was very enjoyable and "The Passing Bell" decent enough. "The Whistle in the Dark" is easily the best of the three. It's not a perfect episode, but a really good one indeed.

Let's start with the good aspects first.

. The production values of the episode are great as usual. It's well-directed, the music's marvellous and the acting's strong throughout. Mark Williams is terrific as Father Brown. Jeff Rawle's good and easy to warm to. Jemima Rooper shows herself to be a very good actress once again and Maggie Steed is wonderful as usual.

. The murder mystery is very compelling with red herrings, twists and turns. The creepy atmosphere's well set- up too.

But..

. The biggest issue for me was the ending. Even though it was quite predictable (Rooper plays yet another killer), the plot got too over the top for me with the body count.

Overall, a very good episode.

8/10 HK