Sister Boniface Mysteries

[John Luxton]

Just watched the first episode of the Father Brown spin off The Sister Boniface Mysteries.

Its a BBC drama but rather than being shown on BBC it appears to be making its first appearance on UKTV Play and also BritBox. Not being Britbox subscriber I watched it on UKTV Player.

As with Father Brown Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway features.

Father Brown was set circa 1952 and Sister Boniface is circa 1962.

However, towards the end of the first episode one of the detectives ends up accidentally sharing a Mark I first compartment with the suspect.

There is a PA announcement as to the stations the train will call at.

Now as far as I am aware from my own extensive travels on BR Mark I stock in the 60s onwards did not have PA facilities though I understand the North Wales Radio Land Cruise trains did have this facility.

Did any other Mark 1s have this or is this just an anachronism?

John

 

[32475]

I watched this also and very quickly realised it’s one of those dramas which you have to take with several large pinches of salt.
To answer your question that stock certainly wouldn’t have had PA announcements and neither would it have had moquette upholstery from around twenty years later. I also noticed a Trimphone which the GPO didn’t introduce until the late ‘60s.
To sum it up, the production people must have used the big dressing up box and props from Father Brown and Call the Midwife then just picked out any old items at random.

 

[John Luxton]

I watched this also and very quickly realised it’s one of those dramas which you have to take with several large pinches of salt.
To answer your question that stock certainly wouldn’t have had PA announcements and neither would it have had moquette upholstery from around twenty years later. I also noticed a Trimphone which the GPO didn’t introduce until the late ‘60s.
To sum it up, the production people must have used the big dressing up box and props from Father Brown and Call the Midwife then just picked out any old items at random.

Yes I also noted the trim phone - it was quite the thing late 60s - asked my parents to get one - but they wouldn't as it cost more!

Just checking reviews on IMDB and opinions are very mixed. - I actually found the the Inspectors dress to be more 1940s than 1960s. Perhaps they should have taken advice from those who made Heartbeat who managed to do qite well with the 60s theme.

It also appears to be trying to be rather too inclusive diversity wise for what would be probably typical of the Cotswolds area in the early 1960s.