Further Father

G K Chesterbone, author, bon viveur and inventor of the "Chesterbone wave". The DBC television series takes little note of Chesterbone's original stories - a decision described by many critics as both "wise" and "merciful".

The Dorset Broadcasting Corporation [aka Downright Biased Corporation] has announced that filming has commenced on Series 94 of its ever popular daytime “detective” drama Father Brian. The series is loosely based on the character created in the 1920s and 1930s by local author GK Chesterbone and features the eponymous Roman Catholic priest cum investigator in a series of sleuthing escapades.

Described by Gilson Yesbek, Chief Daytime Drama Critic of the Sydling St Nicholas Sun as largely inconsequential, broadly implausible but nevertheless “charming” the series regularly attracts more than 250 chair-bound daytime viewers and is largely set and filmed near Dorset.* [*which is to say Gloucestershire [Ed]]

Actor Mark Boniams is the eponymous star of the DBC's long-running Father Brian series.

Filming had been interrupted for more than a year as cast and crew were first socially distanced, later self-isolated, still later quarantined and eventually placed under house arrest “for their own safety” as the drama-starved, housebound, importunate, unemployed bemused and otherwise social-services-supported population of several Dorset towns rose in increasingly animated protest urging the series' return to the screen. One dedicated viewer who had not left his sitting room since March 2016 was moved to crawl upstairs to place a banner in his front bedroom window bearing the somewhat enigmatic slogan “Bnrig Bak Farthr Biran”. He was later arrested by the RDC charged with “inciting violence at a time of medical emergency” but later released bending psychiatric, educational and social reports.

TOP: On set with the cast. BOTTOM A visit from Ms Sizemore is always an encouragement. Here she stands outside the fictional Church of St Olivier deBonas

Several viewers when told that filming had now recommenced refused to believe it, preferring to mourn the demise of Father Brian as yet another permanent casualty of the CONTRIK-69 pandemic rather than daring to hope for its return. An interpreter for one - a Ms Knotkwyte Althère of The Secure Hospital, Tarrant Rawston - went so far as to say that, since she had transferred her emotional dependency to rival drama Hollyhocks [“A Tale of Everyday Florestry”] on the understanding that it was about to add a new character, she wasn’t sure if she could even dare to hope that her would ever return. “It’s an emotional rollercoaster” she admitted, though not in so many words. Her verbaliser added on her behalf that Ms Althère did not always get the balance of her medication [or by the looks of it her TV viweing [Ed]] right and that she was, in fact, often subject to sudden changes of channel.

That production of Father Brian has recommenced cannot, however, be denied as several of the series’ main characters were spotted filming in an unidentified village in the Cotswolds. Even so, cast and crew remained uncharacteristically tight-lipped as all journalistic inquiries were firmly [and somewhat impolitely] rebuffed. Two mask-wearing extras masquerading as 1950s “bobbies on the beat” even refused to say what drama was being filmed though the presence of biretta-clad veteran actor Mark Boniams in conversation with two nuns was, says investigative reporter Eyatt Keywhole, “a bit of a giveaway”. Series 94 is expected to air in 2026 [further predictable winter lockdowns permitting].