The Penitent Man -
father brown

Flambeau (John Light) is incarcerated under suspicion of murder. When Father Brown (Mark Williams) visits him he denies killing his cohort Flynn (Callum Dixon) and asks the priest to hear his confession if he's convicted. Flynn's wife Peggy (Emma Pallant) later tells Father Brown that she witnessed Flambeau dragging Flynn's body to the river and throwing it in. At the presbytery, Mrs McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack) thinks that Flynn is still alive and has framed Flambeau. Father Brown leaves the surveillance to her and Bunty (Emer Kenny) while he attends Flambeau's pre-trial hearing. He's shocked to hear Flambeau plead guilty then be sentenced to death by hanging. Meanwhile, Bunty and Mrs McCarthy spy Flynn through the window at Peggy's house and manage to escape after they're seen. However Father Brown has realised that Flambeau isn't the victim in all of this, he's the architect. But what if his plan backfires?

Duration: 44 minutes and 44 seconds

Episode Number: 160

About Father Brown:

Based on the short stories by G K Chesterton, Father Brown follows the kindly cleric as he solves crimes in his community.

It is a quintessentially English world: drawing rooms in large country houses, miles of countryside, village halls and secret gardens, as well as country fairs, railway stations and rural parish churches.

Each episode sees the enigmatic priest investigate a crime in his own particular way, using intuition and psychology.

Father Brown discovers the truth of a crime by looking into the truth of the soul - the passions, dark secrets, hidden desires.

Many years spent hearing his parishioners' confessions have given him an uncanny insight into the origins of evil and the workings of the criminal mind.

But the stories are not concerned with judgement - Father Brown is more interested in saving souls than in bringing the guilty to justice.

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