Sunday, June 11, 2023

Series recommendation: Sister Boniface Mysteries

Yet another slightly cheesy and twee series set in the not-so-distant past of Great Britain, and an off-shoot from the Father Brown series, this is a feel-good cosy crime series that picks up on a different part of life in a small village and/or the 60s: prize vegetable shows, a children's TV show in the vein of the real, long-running Blue Peter series, pirate radio stations, chess championships, thin supermodels, and a band reminiscent of the Beatles. Basically, there's a bit of everything in this crime series. Two series have been made so far.

The heroine of the series is a sister, a nun, who lives in a convent. As she is a Cambridge science graduate and by far the cleverest person in the entire area, she assists the local police whenever crimes (usually murders) occur. The ensemble cast members are all very pleasant: there are two young good-looking male police officers, their boss (who is not a complete buffoon), a young woman police officer, and the landlady of the two young male police officers. After Sister Boniface, the landlady is my favourite character: she has the perfect face for her role. As do Sister Boniface's two fellow nun helpers.

It seems to me to be rather strange that so many UK crime series are set in the post-war era, but if you follow the news that comes out of the country, maybe it is no wonder that so many people hanker after the past. The world today is scarier than it's ever been - and than includes the decades when people lived 'under the shadow of the bomb' during the so-called Cold War.

If you like Father Brown and/or Grantchester, then you should like this series. What I like best about this series is that there are no 'tortured' or constantly unhappy main characters. They may not be always full of the joys of spring, but they're not raging alcoholics, unhappily married or wrestling with their past. Each episode is a little snapshot of that time with a neat puzzle to solve and everyone goes home happy. Pure escapism.





I do love her round face and twinkly eyes:




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