By Joseph McAleer | Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — There’s a new sleuth on the case, and following her lively adventures is positively habit-forming (pun intended). “The Sister Boniface Mysteries,” a 10-episode series, streams on BritBox beginning Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Lorna Watson reprises her role as the bespectacled crime-solving Catholic nun who first appeared in “Father Brown,” the BBC series based on the short stories of G.K. Chesterton. This spinoff with a similar premise is not, however, a Chestertonian creation but rather the brainchild of “Father Brown” head writer Jude Tindall.
The setting is 1960s England, where times are a-changing in the quaint village of Great Slaughter. There the Sisters of St. Vincent’s Convent, clad in traditional habit, engage the locals (and support their mission) by selling homemade wine.
“We took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They never said anything about sobriety,” quips Sister Reginald (Virginia Fiol).
When Sister Boniface is not putting her doctorate in chemistry to good use as head vintner, she’s zipping around town on her motorbike, called into service as the official “Police Scientific Advisor” (she has an IQ of 156 and wartime intelligence experience, we’re told).
She has kept busy as the village lives up to its gruesome name, with dead bodies popping up all over the place, from private homes to the annual fair. The young member of a Beatles-like band dies backstage, while a beauty pageant contestant perishes at the bottom of a swimming pool.
Amid the excitement, Sister Boniface always takes a moment to pray over the deceased. Then she joins police inspector Sam Gillespie (Max Brown) on the search for clues to locate the killer.
Throughout Sister Boniface maintains a cheerful disposition in the face of some dodgy characters. “I’m predisposed to forgive,” she explains.
The duo becomes a trio when a visiting detective from Bermuda, Felix Livingstone (Jerry Iwu), is thrown into the mix. An administrative error by Scotland Yard strands him in Great Slaughter, where he is both bemused and bewildered by Sister Boniface’s unorthodox crime-solving methods. In one case she finds the answer in a volume of essays by Plutarch.
Overall, “The Sister Boniface Mysteries” is jolly-good entertainment. There’s mild innuendo of an “Austin Powers” wink-wink nature, and fleeting views of corpses, but little to offend. The overall depiction of the religious life is positive, if superficial. In her take-charge manner, Sister Boniface is an inspiring figure, even striking a blow for the emerging feminist movement.
Don’t underestimate her powers of persuasion, Gillespie advises. “No one can resist a wimple.”
Joseph McAleer is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.