The Bride of Christ (2013) User Reviews (6)

A death close to home.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 14 November 2015]

Father Brown investigates a truly harrowing case for him, the tragic death of Sister Mary Magdalen during a service. The Police surgeon later discovers she died of Cyanide poisoning. Father Brown is on hand to chaperon Inspector Valentine as he begins his investigations. Sister Paul has returned from India to be at the convent, she is annoyed at being subordinate to the kindhearted Sister Gregory, the pair clash. Potassium Cyanide is kept under the watchful eye of Sister Boniface, but not under lock and key. Sister Paul is the next victim to fall, the exact same grizzly way.

Very good episode, the tranquillity of the opening is shattered by the shocking death of the nun. I love the Agatha Christie reference to Sparkling Cyanide, there are a few similarities with the format, but that's certainly no bad thing.

There is some impressive acting talent on display in this episode, what a wonderful trio of nuns. Roberta Taylor is awesome and wonderfully cast as the tough and unforgiving Sister Paul, Selina Cadell is brilliant as the soft and scatty Sister Gregory, and the ever lovely Penny Downie gives a great performance as Mother Augustine. Funny woman Lorna Watson is great too, she bounces of Mark Williams beautifully, fellow masters of comic timing! Hats off to the casting director for this one, it was a job very well done.

I would happily rate this episode as being excellent, one of the best so far. 8/10

The Bride of Christ

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 13 January 2021]

The episode starts off with a young nun about to receive her final vows. She collapses and dies.

Later the strict and intimidating Sister Paul (Roberta Taylor) is found dead. Both nuns died of cyanide poisoning.

Tom the brusque gardener who has little time for the church is viewed with suspicion for the deaths. However it is a question of motive.

Father Brown gets an assistant for this one. Sister Boniface (Lorna Watson) knows her poisons and is a fan of Agatha Christie's mysteries.

There are plenty of red herrings and blind allies in this story with several suspects that leap to mind. It also has a dark underlying theme of babies of unwed mothers being forcibly taken away.

Father Brown's sweet tooth aids him to crack the case. Sister Boniface gets a nasty crack on the head.

The Bride of Christ

[MrFilmAndTelevisionShow · 8/10 · 28 August 2021]

This is another interesting episode, I only feel now that Father Brown should be concerned that every time he goes anywhere someone (or in this case sometwo) people drop dead. The episode had an interesting point about mother's be seperated from their children against their will which I wonder did that kind of thing really happen back in the day? Most probably. Is it, I wonder still happening now in one way or another? I hope not, but I bet that it is somewhere in the world.

Sister Boniface

[safenoe · 8/10 · 24 February 2023]

This features Lorna Watson as Sister Boniface, who seven years later would star in her own spin-off series, Sister Boniface Mysteries, which has had more success than Joanie Loves Chachi, the spin-off (derided by some, but I liked it) from Happy Days.

Anyway, here there are a couple of murders that Father Brown has to solve, and it involves candy and poison and so on. This is one of the early episodes of Father Brown, and you see more of Sorcha Cusack, who is the aunty of Max Irons. Maybe one day Max Irons can make a guest appearance on Father Brown, or his father Jeremy Irons could pop by for a cameo.

Scary and confusing

[ctyankee1 · 27 June 2015]

A lady dies who is ready to become a nun.

The nun is poisoned before taking her vows.

A visiting nun is very mean to the nuns in the parish. They find out she used to be in a place where unwed mother went for help. She also ends up dead.

This story really makes Catholic look evil and bad. It shows of nuns condemning women that had out of wedlock births, nuns being mean to unwed mothers, nuns being mean to other nuns and making them hypocrites. I do think it is biased against Catholics/Christians that are supposed to help people in need.

Many Catholic institutions help young girls and women that have had babies and were not married. They made the one in this episode almost like stealing the child from the mother who wants to keep the child instead of helping her to keep her child or put it up for adoption.

The story at the end is very confusing as to who killed the nuns. They give you a reason why the nuns were killed but it still confusing who did it. The accents of the characters and explanations are sometimes hard to understand accept Father Brown's.

I wish the story was written more plainly. They tried to make is full of suspense and I think a person would have to watch it 2 or three times to know what characters did what and why.

Very strange episode

[yohiyoc · 3/10 · 20 August 2023]

After this episode I just couldn't stop thinking why father Brown is so out of character. I almost had to quit the whole series because he was so out of character based on what was established on earlier episodes. This could have been a good place for character growth for Brown, but unfortunately writers just handwaved all the painful questions.

The victim of the week was excellent, as everyone had a reason to hate them, and so a reason to kill them. Unfortunately the opportunity was wasted and the killer came kind of out of the blue, and so feels superimposed and artificial.

As whole, the episode is somewhat disjointed. Titular character is very much out of character especially at the end. Sometimes that can show viewers new sides of characters, but in this case it makes the Brown just look like weather vane, whose moral compass points to easiest solution. Also Sullivan's last comment about the murderer is stupid. And it seems like a cop-out from writers, who are too afraid to say the murderer will face the gallows.

Unfortunately this is one of the weakest episodes. Mostly because of poor writing, which tries to criticize the historical wrong doings of catholic church, but does it half-assed, and also mistreats the main character.

I want to like this episode, but I cannot, because of poor writing.