This recurring character is the true hero of ‘Father Brown’

Father Brown has enjoyed a 12-season run for a reason. The show is undeniably popular, featuring a loveable cast of characters, gorgeous Cotswold countryside cottages, and intriguingly easy-to-follow criminal investigations. It’s the perfect daytime British crime drama.

At the center of it all is Mark Williams’ kind yet sneaky Father Brown, a man who loves God and his flock as much as he loves solving thefts and murders. Most of the time, it’s easy for him to reconcile his amateur detective work with his position as Kembleford’s leading religious voice, but every once in a while, one character pops up that challenges not only his faith but his loyalty and duty as well. That character is master art thief Hercule Flambeau (John Light), and he is, in my humble opinion, the best part of the show.

Flambeau turns up once a season, either because he’s in Kembleford to steal a priceless religious artifact or because Father Brown needs help solving a case. I look forward to these episodes every time. Father Brown is not necessarily a character-driven drama. Hercule Flambeau’s appearances turn it into one, though, however briefly, as Father Brown and Flambeau learn to understand one another more and more each time they meet.

Father Brown sees himself as Hercule Flambeau’s spiritual advisor. Though Flambeau tries to shake off his advice every time they see each other, he does acknowledge, however reluctantly, that Father Brown is his friend. They couldn’t be more different, but Father Brown, despite his religious beliefs, despite his loyalty to his friends and even the local constabulary—though Chief Inspector Sullivan would rather die than admit that Father Brown knows what he’s doing—has given Flambeau the space to grow as a man, even if he keeps going back to his criminal ways.

The Flambeau episode in Father Brown season 11, “The Father, The Son,” was a particularly illuminating piece of television. In the episode, we meet Flambeau’s father, with whom he had a rocky relationship. Of course, Father Brown can’t help himself from wanting to help his frenemy and his frenemy’s father reconcile, and the truth of their relationship is soon revealed. Flambeau’s dad was a master thief himself, one with a troubled past—during World War I, he fell in love with one of his fellow soldiers, and after he watched him die, he was forced to go on the run to avoid being arrested. It’s a genuinely moving episode, made even more so when Flambeau’s father dies at the end after finally trying to do the right thing.

The show never forgets what happened between Father Brown and Flambeau in previous seasons. In season 12, it’s no different. I won’t spoil too much here, as the episode, “The Cup of Calabria,” has yet to land on BritBox, but it’s very clear that Flambeau hasn’t finished grieving his father. He’s drunk when he arrives, and has a near panic attack when Father Brown recites the last rites, flashing back to the moment of his father’s death. There’s a level of depth in Father Brown and Flambeau’s relationship that the rest of the show is often missing, no matter how delightful it can be.

In my eyes, Flambeau is the true hero of Father Brown, not because he’s a hero in the normal sense of the word—though there is a moment in his season 12 episode in which he is extraordinarily heroic—but because he makes the show (even) better. More fun, more emotional, more everything. I can’t wait to see what he gets up to in Father Brown season 13.

Father Brown season 12 is now streaming on BritBox in the U.S. and BBC iPlayer in the U.K.