Father Brown Chesterton Distorted

Many summers ago I read the entire collection of Father Brown mysteries: delightful excitement, every one!

One of the characteristic features of the plays which impressed me most was that, even with their unimaginable variety and labyrinth of intriguing details and infinite unforeseen possibilities, there was a complete absence of any reference to sex. Never did anything remotely having to do with any erotic purpose even enter any of the richly tapestried dramas. I remember thinking, at the time, of the tremendous contrast between G.K. Chesterton's refreshing genius in this, soaring far above the cheap banal eroticism found in much of the fiction of modernity.

The most recently aired episodes of the PBS "Father Brown" television series are both a betrayal of Mr. Chesterton and an indictment of the lack of imagination of the authors who should perhaps be sued for claiming to base those shamefully dark and repeatedly dirty shows on the chaste work of Chesterton. They are often downright pornographic, though, we are spared any nudity. Surely the authors must know that there is a large clerical following among the international viewers. So they are purposefully trying to titillate the clergy unawares. Shall we call it, well, "clergy abuse," to re-define a term. They are using the cassock and the saturno to abuse and corrupt the good Catholic clergy and laity.

The BBC needs to be told to clean up its act. We see what they are up to. Let's not be hoodwinked.