British Network Television

Revisiting: “The Hammer of God”

Every story, including BBC One’s “Father Brown”, begins with an opening chapter

Screen Capture: Hugo Speer and Mark Williams as Inspector Walter Valentine and Father Brown, respectively, in “Father Brown”

The brother of an Anglican vicar is killed with a blacksmith’s hammer. When the blacksmith’s wife confesses to the murder, Father Brown is convinced she is lying. With little time to save her, the priest must work hard to deduce who among the victim’s enemies was truly responsible for the crime.

You knew, when these ‘Revisiting’ articles started cropping up, we’d get to this episode sooner or later. Ian Barber’s ‘The Hammer of God’ is a particular favourite for Father Brown fans, not just because it is the very first episode, it’s because the episode is one of a handful of instalments based on short stories written by G. K. Chesterton.

Chesterton’s ‘The Hammer of God’, the source material for series co-creator Tahsin Guner’s teleplay, was part of the 1911 published short story collection The Innocence of Father Brown. Guner, with the 2013 televised adaptation, was not the first person to bring to television screens Chesterton’s ‘The Hammer of God’.

The original 1974 ITV series, with a series premiere episode directed by Robert Tronson from a teleplay written by Hugh Leonard, opened with the same Chesterton titled…