I'm currently watching the new Series 7 which was shown on the BBC in the afternoons over the last couple of weeks.
It is becoming more humorous with the addition of a couple of new characters. Firstly Emer Kenny plays a typical jolly hockey sticks public school girl who gets into all sorts of scrapes.
Jack Deam plays Inspector Mallory who refers to Father Brown as Padre and has obviously based his character on James Finlayson, the famous squinting man with the moustache in the Laurel and Hardy films. He always thinks he knows better than Father Brown.
Then of course there is Mark Williams who plays Father Brown himself. He has a long tradition of comic acting.
A sort of Midsummer Murders in the 1950s.