At High Table with Father Brown
A story from the set of “Surprised by Oxford.”
A few days before his first day on set, Mark Williams sent word that he had been invited to high table at Brasenose College and could bring a guest along (Mark is a Brasenose grad).
High table refers to the table in an Oxford dining hall reserved for fellows of the college and their guests. In my research for the film, I had been to a dinner at one of the colleges, but high table was another thing entirely. It was an honor to be invited, so of course I accepted the invitation gladly. I had just enough to time to buy a suit and tie and some nice shoes.
October 12, 2021 was Mark’s first day on set and the dinner was scheduled for that evening. After a successful shoot on the beautiful campus of Exeter College, I rushed back to my rental house in Jericho, changed, and made my way back across town to meet Mark at the Mercure hotel where he was staying. As we walked together down High Street, he shared an anecdotal story about Hugh Laurie from when they were shooting the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie. We crossed into Radcliffe Square and made our way to Brasenose, checking in at the porter’s lodge before waiting for the Dean to come escort us back to his lodgings. While we waited, we talked about Father Brown, the character Mark is now most commonly associated with, having played him for a decade on the popular BBC series based loosely on Chesterton’s short stories. At this point he had made something like 80 episodes. When I asked if there were plans for another season, he replied, “At this point it’s just a test of endurance.”
The Dean met us and we followed him back around the quad, through a series of labyrinthine passageways and up a flight of steps to his lodgings — a comfortable, furnished space where several other guests were waiting. It was an eclectic group: some older, wealthier friends of the Dean, as well as a couple students, and one woman who was in Oxford on a grant to study artificial intelligence. There were perhaps 10–15 of us. We had refreshments and made some small talk before following the Dean downstairs, where we processed into the dining hall, the eyes of all the students watching us — a surreal experience for me, having written a similar scene in the film.
The dinner turned out to be far more relaxed than I anticipated. I was seated with Mark to my right and Miss Artificial Intelligence on my left and if I remember correctly, we had fish of some kind. Naturally, the conversation at the table turned to the film. When someone asked about the story, Mark replied that it was about a girl who comes to Oxford with some preconceived notions of reality, begins asking some big metaphysical questions, falls in love, etc. “It’s quite a grown-up script,” he said, which I thought was a nice thing to say.
After the meal, we followed the dean out of the hall and into a smaller, dimly lit room with a long table set with after-dinner refreshments, port, dessert wine, etc. The only rule was, you had to sit next to someone you hadn’t spoken to at dinner. I recall that I was seated near a couple who was visiting Oxford for some reason, but I don’t remember the details (I blame the port). After some time, one of the fellows officially concluded the evening with some final words, before extinguishing the candles on the table. We rose from our seats, said our goodbyes, and soon Mark and I were once again standing in a desolate Radcliffe Square, a full moon in the sky above. That square is a beautiful place to be at night, hemmed in by ancient stone walls, the dome of the Radcliffe Camera and the tower of St Mary’s limned with pale blue light.
As we wound our way back to High Street and down to the Mercure, Mark mentioned that he planned to spend the next day (a day off for him) re-reading Milton’s Paradise Lost in preparation for his scenes in the film. I would expect nothing less from an Oxford grad and an utter professional like Mark. I thanked him for a wonderful evening and as I began my fifteen minute walk back to Jericho, it occurred to me that this was a night I would never forget. The next day, as I was shooting on location at Magdalen College, the same sensation washed over me. To be here, making a film in a place as beautiful as Oxford, was an honor even greater than high table.
