Father Brown
BBC1

How many people read G.K. Chesterton’s “Father Brown” stories nowadays? Not a fraction of the number who watch the Father Brown BBC series, I’ll bet. Now into its seventh season, with an average of 2.13 million viewers, Father Brown, on air almost daily, has been the most popular daytime drama since it started in 2013.

And that’s just in Britain – in Norway and Sweden it is the most popular BBC programme full stop. One can only marvel at the continuing potency of Britain’s most enduring export: a vision of itself and its past, bunting forever swinging across a village green.