Father Brown 86-11-02 (12) The Actor and the Alibi

Father Brown 86-11-02 (12) The Actor and the Alibi

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
We present The Actor and the Alibi, adapted by John
Scottney with Andrew Sachs's father Brown.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Excuse me, sorry, sir, the box office is shut at
the moment.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh no, no, I'm sorry. I don't want to see
the play.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
No, not many do.

Speaker 5 (00:24):
I'm afraid.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, what can we do for you? I had a
message from your mister Jarvis.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I'm afraid he's rehearsing on stage at the moment.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, he said, and mister Manderville needed my help.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Of course, father, it went out of my head, it did.

Speaker 6 (00:39):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
But with all the brother of the first night, mister
Manderville is at the back of the house through here.

Speaker 7 (00:45):
Cure me as quiet as you can. They're in the
middle of rehearsing.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes, of course, it's father Brown for you, mister Manderville.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
Oh hello, Father Brown, Thank you for coming so quick. Well,
if you'll excuse.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Me, Janice, how do you do?

Speaker 8 (01:02):
Mister Mandeville, amandon man will father so licensing and proprietor
of the hippoleonthis well, really the name was Potter, only
you've got to call yourself something posh in this business, am.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I suppose so? And mister Jarvis said you needed my help,
mister Mandeville.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
That I do, Father, about that I do.

Speaker 8 (01:20):
It's miss Maroni, a very beautiful, very talented little lady.
But well, you know Italian background and the old Latin temperament,
they're all mad.

Speaker 9 (01:29):
I reckon, dearest, be a little pieter. We are, and
it doesn't make a concentration.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
So sorry, dear heart. Only it's Father Brown, the priest.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
He's arrived. Yes, my love, this way, if you would. Father.

Speaker 8 (01:57):
Oh, I meant to ask, how come that you and Ashton?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Ashton? Oh, mister Jarvis, well he's a Catholic. He comes
to mass sometimes. Now, oh, father please come up steps. Yes,
thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
It's careful.

Speaker 10 (02:18):
I really don't know why my husband troubled your father Brown,
but thank you for coming.

Speaker 7 (02:24):
Oh you've met mister Johnson.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes, morning, you got my telephone.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
Miss Indeed. I do hope you can help Father Brown.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
I really do, I tell you, yes, what so do
I But I do need to know what exactly your
problem is with missus Maroney.

Speaker 7 (02:38):
She's being in a most peculiar mood.

Speaker 8 (02:41):
Started she kind of may highly recommended, I assure you,
my dear, very highly recommended.

Speaker 7 (02:47):
Yeah, she is a very pretty girl, very.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Advantage, and she does this to me, and it does
what good looks to him, not mister John.

Speaker 7 (02:56):
She has locked herself in her dressing room.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Father refuses to.

Speaker 11 (03:00):
Come out and has spent the last three hours alternately
sobbing and shouting through the keyhole in Italian. Well none
of us speaks Italian, you do, and she refuses to
speak English.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
Now I understand.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
I suppose there's some reason for her flying off the
handle like this, and does anyone know what it is?

Speaker 11 (03:21):
Dissatisfied with her part, I believe.

Speaker 10 (03:23):
I can only say, father Brown, that she has been
quite impossible all week, and I gave her what ought
to be the best part.

Speaker 7 (03:31):
It's supposed to be.

Speaker 10 (03:32):
What stage struck young women want, isn't it to act
the be beautiful young heroin and marry that beautiful young
hero in a shower of bouquets and cheers from the gallery.

Speaker 7 (03:42):
But she is far from grateful.

Speaker 10 (03:45):
Women of my age natural they have to fall back
on playing matrons.

Speaker 7 (03:51):
And I was careful to confide myself to that.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
My dear, you're most unfair of yourself.

Speaker 8 (03:57):
You really areouldn't mind, Father Brown, We ought to go
and see if you can get through to miss Smaroni
this way if you.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Just come this way, aren't you need it? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (04:07):
No, it's all above my head, this stuff, the classics.
I'll leave it to the wife. She's the clever one
now through here.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Watch this, Oh, good difference. It's clever, isn't it. Dee
mccking used to pop out through there. Come on, we'll
let them get on with it.

Speaker 8 (04:27):
The demon king, you said, Yeah, I missed all that.
You know, I've had this the other twenty years old
since ninety two. Cool, eighteen ninety two, I was what
twenty eight then? Yeah, I used to love the pantos.

(04:49):
We did them all, had the stage rigged out with
trapped doors, every trick in the book, and a few
that weren't in the book. I still keep all the
old sets down here under the stage. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (05:00):
Look at this, Oh what it looks like like like
Bluebeard's castle?

Speaker 5 (05:08):
So it is. Yeah, of course the mice have got
a bit now. But look at that lovely bit of work.

Speaker 8 (05:17):
Oh the laughter at your father Brown, the laughter of
the kiddies, nothing like you. Oh yes, oh we had all, yeah,
we did in the old days, little titch. Yes, mister
Ralph always had to be called Georgie Vester Tilley.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
We even had poor old Dan Ledo himself. What did
you really did?

Speaker 8 (05:38):
Indeed, it was in a panthere when I first met
Missus Manteinbill eight years ago.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
I brought her in this principal boy.

Speaker 8 (05:45):
Of course, we don't do that sort of thing. Now
the wife has raised the tone of bit.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yes, you're putting on school for scandal.

Speaker 5 (05:51):
Yes, yes, well, well the wife likes.

Speaker 8 (05:52):
These what she calls classical comedies. Just between you and me,
I written there are a site more classic than comic. Still,
not that we didn't have the classics here before, you know,
we had Henry Irving one time, Sir Henry Irving and
the bells. It was yes, yes, yes, right here we are.
This is my little den. If you listen, you're gonna

(06:15):
have all acting away on the stage of Bobbers.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
That was singing.

Speaker 7 (06:20):
Yes, ah, that's it, yes.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Now miss yes.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Now.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
Her dressing room was bang opposite down that little college. See.

Speaker 12 (06:38):
Oh yes, yes, who's the woman outside? Oh there's missus
sand that's my wife's dresser. A bit of an old tartar,
but loyal as you like, and the gentleman he's our
leading man, Norman Knight. Bit of a star?

Speaker 5 (06:53):
Isn't that what they call them nowadays?

Speaker 7 (06:56):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (06:56):
Any seen up missus Sands?

Speaker 7 (06:58):
I beg your pardon, sir, And he shound from the
Prima Donna and heard anything?

Speaker 8 (07:04):
Not for some time, sir, and you Norman, Oh, by
the way, did you start the Brown?

Speaker 5 (07:08):
I'm sure you recognized Norman Knight? Anyway? You heard anything
from lamar one earlier on?

Speaker 13 (07:16):
There are a few of what sounded like curses, but
then the rest, shall we say it was silence?

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Do you think she could have done herself in father Brown?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, if she'd been a German gone away to think
quietly about metaphysics and velch maatz I should have been yes,
welch maratz I should have been all for breaking the
door down with These Italians don't really die so easily
and are not liable to kill themselves in a rage
somebody else? Perhaps, Yes, possibly it might be as well
to take ordinary precautions if she comes out with a leap.

Speaker 5 (07:48):
Oh, bloomey, that's just what we need.

Speaker 14 (07:53):
It's me.

Speaker 7 (07:53):
There's someone here wants to see you.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Well, try of mind busy with you? Hello, Milliam? How
kind of you to call allow me, lady Mediam.

Speaker 7 (08:04):
Torm fine costume.

Speaker 14 (08:06):
Don't tell me you're playing Canon chasy Wall or is
that some other player?

Speaker 7 (08:10):
Monday? Oh, poor dear Oscar. My mother knew him, you know,
when he was all the rage before father.

Speaker 14 (08:16):
Boun It's wait a minute, don't tell me it's Norman, right,
isn't it Norman?

Speaker 7 (08:23):
Right? Night, Lady William Knight?

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Not right?

Speaker 7 (08:27):
What's not right?

Speaker 5 (08:28):
No he's not. He's a night, my lady.

Speaker 14 (08:33):
Oh what a gaff a night. I'm so sorry, Sir Norman.
Now you do forgive me, don't you are, Sir Norman.

Speaker 7 (08:41):
Monday. I can't come to night and I don't want to.
I like writers, and I especially like actors. It's a Norman,
but I don't like plays for a ball. As I say,
I can't come to night and I don't want to.
But I've never seen a rehearsal in.

Speaker 14 (08:57):
Ordinary clothes might give it fun you know, you simply
must let me see a rehearsal that would be different,
like all those funny people have the wrong clothes somehow.
Nowadays a Norman one can never find a thing one's
never seen.

Speaker 8 (09:13):
I'm sorry, sorry, gents, if you'd excuse me just a
minute or two. Of course, Lady Milliam, I can give
you a box for the rehearsal if you.

Speaker 7 (09:19):
Wish it topping Mandy.

Speaker 8 (09:21):
Thanks all, it's perhaps your ladyship would come this way.

Speaker 13 (09:27):
I wonder whether a mandaval can be so much of
a care he actually prefers that sort of woman prefers
her to Yes, perhaps we better relieve missus Sands.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Mister Knight, Yes, it's all right, Missus Sands.

Speaker 7 (09:40):
You can have a rest now. Oh, very generous of you.

Speaker 15 (09:43):
I'm sure pity now, I'm full of lady you're earlier
and I might a got a bark to eat.

Speaker 7 (09:50):
Goodbye, then, gentleman.

Speaker 13 (09:53):
Ow Missus Sands is rather a rough diamond.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Has she been with missus Mandervill long?

Speaker 13 (09:57):
Oh, yeah, she was with her touring the classics before.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
She he met Mandeville.

Speaker 13 (10:01):
I think Missus Sands thinks this place is rather a
calm down for her mistress, as between ourselves it is.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
I certainly wouldn't dream.

Speaker 13 (10:09):
Of playing here if it wasn't for the opportunity of
acting with someone of missus Mandeville's talent.

Speaker 7 (10:14):
And I may say, character what she's doing marriage to
the sort of man who brings into.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Italian Yes, yes, speaking of little Italians, I feel I
really ought to perhaps try to make some sort of
contact with miss Maroney.

Speaker 7 (10:26):
Yes, yes, go ahead, Yes, Scoozie Senora.

Speaker 16 (10:35):
Scoozy, Senora Maroney, solo n amico di Senora Mandeville.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yes, I think that's rather not translated. But at least
we know she's alive.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
And kicking. It seems kicking.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
She seems to be making glass with her feet, a
looking glass perhaps.

Speaker 8 (11:03):
Oh, dear ah, mister Mandeville, her father Brown, Sorry about that?
What news she'll be in there?

Speaker 13 (11:09):
Well, Estabis, she's still alive, she hasn't committed suicide.

Speaker 8 (11:13):
Oh well, that's your relief, as old Baden Powell said,
or mafficking night. I well, do you think I should
get Sam on the stage carpenter to get the door
off its hinges?

Speaker 3 (11:23):
No, not if you wanted to act in the play.
If you force the door, she'll raise the roof and
refuse to stay in the place. If, however, you leave
her alone, she'll probably come out from mere curiosity.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
You're a clever male, father Brown.

Speaker 17 (11:37):
Of course, dearest, come along, Javid, Dear father Brown, I'm sorry,
We had to abandon you, mister Jarvis, and I had
to finish that scene.

Speaker 7 (11:48):
We couldn't go any farther without Mariah.

Speaker 10 (11:49):
Of course, have you had any success with our little
Italian Darmagon?

Speaker 7 (11:54):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (11:54):
Father, did you manage to.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Communicate with her? Yes, mister Jarvis, we did mix che
change a few words.

Speaker 8 (12:01):
Father Brown thinks we should leave her alone for a
bit more, you know, let us do a bit.

Speaker 10 (12:04):
In that case, I'll get missus Sands to keep watch
again and we'll get on with rehearsing the scenes in
which she doesn't appear.

Speaker 7 (12:12):
It was a pleasure to meet you, father Brown.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 8 (12:15):
Well, i'll get back to the office then. Thanks for
the trouble, Father Brown. I'm sorry we'll drag you out here.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
I must insist that at least you let us give
you lunch.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
It's most kinds a capital chop house right next door.
They know me. They are you telling to charge it
to me?

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (12:29):
No, it's the least we could do, Father Brown. Oh,
mister Jervis, we'll be rehearsing the four fact. I'll get
someone to read in for you. Would you take father
Brown lunch as our guests is would.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
Be a pleasure, missus man, that's settled. Then, now everybody
the four fact. Not a dress rehearsal, lady, not a
dress rehearsal. Good.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
I could wish the costumes of this infernal.

Speaker 7 (12:55):
Period worth quite so elaborate. See you later then, Father
Brown's enjoy your meal. I'll must get paperwork, shoo.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yes, anything else, so, gentlemen, who we've a very tasty
stet No, no, thank you, I couldn't eat anything else.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yes, mister Mandeville was right. This is an excellent place,
and really it is most generous of him to pay
for the meal. He's a strange one.

Speaker 11 (13:23):
Mandeville used to be as jovial as philanderer as ever
sauntered down Piccadilly.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
But now there's some sort of shadow.

Speaker 11 (13:32):
In his life, maybe something on his conscience, and I
doubt whether it has anything to do with his fashionable flirtations.
Well look at the way he treats his poor neglected wife.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Neglected. Oh yes, it's pathetic, the.

Speaker 11 (13:47):
Way she sometimes admits she wished she had a more
intellectual life. Yet she always does her duty. But I'm
afraid I must be getting back a waiter. Yes, this
is to go on, mister Manderville's bille.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yes, waiter, you know mister Mandeville.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well, oh, yes, though he doesn't come in as often
as he used to before he was married. But then
we don't go to the theater nowadays, not since he's
stopped doing pantos. Wonderful they were in pantos, they had
Dan Leno is the dame once?

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Father? Oh, yes, yes, my wife was in that.

Speaker 11 (14:24):
She was the princess was she's yeah right, I can't
recall her.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
We only had eyes for the old Dame.

Speaker 6 (14:32):
Marvelous she was, he was, of.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Course, that's it. That's what's the matter with our Italian friend.
Is miss Marony a good actress, mister Jervis, Yes, i'd
say she is. Rather, she has quite a reputation. In fact, yes,
we must get back. Did I have my umbrella?

Speaker 11 (14:49):
Wait?

Speaker 7 (14:50):
Just get it?

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Thank you so much. You know, there is generally a
perfectly good reason for mad Italian rages. The Latins are
far more logical than we are.

Speaker 12 (14:58):
Is an excellent Well, I think this gentleman wishes to see.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
You, Inspector Bagshaw. What are you doing here?

Speaker 18 (15:06):
I consider some of you, Father Brown, You seem to
get everywhere that we do consider ourselves the Catholic Church Inspector.
I'm sorry, I don't I'll tell you what I'm here
that the yea you are at this morning has been
a murder. Not miss Maroney, No, not miss Maroney. Mister,
I don't believe I've had the pleasure.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
This is mister Jervis is one of my parishioners. He's
also an actor.

Speaker 6 (15:29):
Mister Jarvis, the actor. Well, mister Jarvis, can I ask you.

Speaker 18 (15:34):
There were you between the hours of twelve thirty and
one thirty today?

Speaker 3 (15:37):
I was having lunch with me there.

Speaker 18 (15:41):
Well, I would have cross all the list of suspects
and no offense meant mister Jarvis, But he were my
last home.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Can tell you it's not miss Maroney who's dead? Oh?
She has all missing?

Speaker 18 (15:53):
What when mister Knight found the body they decided to
break her door down? Well it's understandable anyway, they've smash
the window and climbed out.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Good lord, Then who is dead, Inspector.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
It's mister Mandeville. Also, mister Handsville stabbed in his office when.

Speaker 19 (16:10):
The door was locked, and everyone apart from you, Sir,
was on stage, has witnessed. Per Lady Miriam Tolbert who
was watching them never come across anything like it. And
that old cow in the corridors, Oh, yes, that's right,
that one, she swears blind.

Speaker 18 (16:26):
No one went near his office anyway. I'd be glad
if you, gentlemen, to come back to the theater with me. Yes,
I'd rather take your statements there. I left a young
constable in charge, and you can't trust him.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
But I've already told you all this before, Inspector.

Speaker 18 (16:45):
If we could just go through it again, mister Knight,
in case we missed anything very well.

Speaker 13 (16:52):
As I said, we were all on the stage when
this dreadful thing happened beneath our feet. As it were,
we just finished rehearsing Act four with poor missus man.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
When all of us except mister Jarvis.

Speaker 6 (17:06):
Yes, I'm striking him, please continue.

Speaker 13 (17:08):
To We couldn't do much more without miss Morony's so
Missus Mandeville knocked on her husband's door to ask him.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
To do something.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
And what happened?

Speaker 18 (17:16):
Then, Missus Mandeville, I looked several times, Inspector, but could
get no reply.

Speaker 7 (17:24):
I was naturally concerned that my husband might.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
Have been there.

Speaker 10 (17:27):
Mister Knight gallantly volunteered to break the door.

Speaker 18 (17:30):
Down, which you then did and found the corpse and
I quote, lying forward on his desk, stabbed.

Speaker 6 (17:38):
In the neck with an old property dagger.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
I have a care for the ladies feelings.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
I'm very sorry, missus Manderville. I'm very sorry to distress
you further. But is there any other entrance to mister
Manderville's office?

Speaker 7 (17:54):
Do you mean, father Brian, What.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Is there, for instance, another door?

Speaker 10 (17:58):
No, it was just a sort of wooden box built
under the stage when we.

Speaker 20 (18:02):
Stopped doing those awful I'm afraid this is will be
rather a stock but you excuse.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
Me, thank you.

Speaker 7 (18:20):
I'm afraid I came over a little faint tonight. Perhaps
you would be kind enough to.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
But of course, dear lady, if this inspector.

Speaker 5 (18:29):
Will allow me to leave, Yes, now.

Speaker 14 (18:38):
That is very strange, inspector.

Speaker 18 (18:42):
Lady Mariam said, what's strange?

Speaker 10 (18:45):
I'm sure Mandy told me his name was right, not tonight.

Speaker 7 (18:49):
I say, do you think that's significant?

Speaker 3 (18:52):
I doubt it, Lady Mariam. Hell, exactly did you leave
your box? Lady Miriam?

Speaker 7 (19:00):
In a moment they finished that thing they were doing.

Speaker 14 (19:02):
I mean, it was all jolly interesting, but I was
getting a teeny bit bored, so I popped down to
say thank you and bye bye.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
If I were you, Lady mill, I go and have
a rest. It's all be in a nasty shock. If
Inspector Bagshaw has finished, you go and have a life.

Speaker 7 (19:24):
Than poor old Mandy.

Speaker 11 (19:29):
Poor?

Speaker 7 (19:31):
What about me?

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Can I go to?

Speaker 19 (19:34):
Ah?

Speaker 6 (19:35):
Dear missus SAIDs just one thing?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
What?

Speaker 19 (19:40):
You are quite sure that no one went into mister Mandibu's.

Speaker 15 (19:43):
Office, Like I said, I was outside all the time,
nobody came. I didn't fall asleep, and before you asked
me again, that Italian thing didn't come out neither, and
I didn't hear no.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Scream from him.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
Satisfied, thank you?

Speaker 7 (19:59):
No?

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Can I go? Don't leave the building?

Speaker 11 (20:03):
Ah?

Speaker 7 (20:03):
Very much? I must say.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
My opinion is that Missus Sands is a grumpy, gloomy
sort of card.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
You think she's lying?

Speaker 5 (20:16):
Is that what you read?

Speaker 3 (20:16):
No? No, I think I meant it more or less
as a detached study of character.

Speaker 19 (20:23):
Well, if it's not, it's gotta be the Maroney woman, though,
what a conundru.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Dear, I've just realized I'd rather fear I myself was
a witness to miss Maroney not being the murderer. Yes,
it's very foolish of me, or I should have realized.
You see, an hour or so before the murder, I
heard her smashing something. I stupidly thought she was breaking
a mirror. But I'm sure an actress would be much
too superstitious to smash a mirror. Of course, she must

(20:51):
have been making her escape by breaking the window well
before the murder, so.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
It has to be Missus Sands. Then good, what is
she doing?

Speaker 3 (21:00):
I'm sure God would know if she had done it.
But Father Brown, you said she was an unpleasant character.
Who I certainly said that Missus Sand's sulky look was
a study in character, but not in the character of
Missus Sands herself. If you want to know what a
lady is like, don't look at her, for she may
be too clever for you. Don't look at the men

(21:22):
around her, for they may be too silly about her.
But look at some other woman who is always near her,
and especially one who is under her. You will see
in that mirror her real face, and the face mirrored
in Missus Sands was very ugly. The true face of
her mistress was mirrored there.

Speaker 6 (21:43):
Surely you don't Missus mandiful.

Speaker 11 (21:46):
Everybody regards her as a person of the most exalted ideals,
almost moving on a higher plane than the rest of us.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
I suspect that, like her servant, she is, perhaps, as
the inspector would say, is something of a a cow.

Speaker 11 (22:01):
No, come on, I'm sure Missus Mandeville's behavior towards the Italian.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Girl was beautiful. On the contrary, it struck me from
the very first that she was being unfair to that
poor Italian And it was brought home to me in
the chop house. Do you remember the waiter had forgotten
your wife as the beautiful princess, but only remember dan
Lena as the old dame.

Speaker 18 (22:20):
Wait wait, wait, wait a minute, wait, wait, which dan Lino.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Got to do it?

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, dan Lino had the star party. Isn't that the word?
The matronly dame, and besides him, the beautiful princess was
comparatively unimportant. Now in the school for scandal, the star
part is also the matron lady teasel, the part Missus
Mandeville so so charitably gave herself, while the part of
the beautiful young heroine, as she called it, must be Mariah,

(22:46):
which is hardly a part at all. Yes, that's true. Yes,
if the Italian was, as you say, a first rate
actress who had been promised a star part. She really
had some excuse for her Italian rage.

Speaker 11 (22:56):
Father Brown, I can't accept your view of Missus.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
In all the time I've worked with her, she never complained.
Oh what you mean is missus Mandeville told you she
never complained. As she told Norman Knight, she never complained,
and probably every other man in the company that in
private her Yes, she complained. And yet really what did
she have to complain about. Nobody pretended that her husband

(23:22):
drank or beat her or left her without money. And
though he may have been something of a philander before
he met her, I suspect he was so much in
awe of her as to have been completely faithful as
a husband. Here's when one looks at the facts. Apart
from the atmospheric impression of martyrdom she contrived to spread,
the facts were really quite the other way. Mandeville left

(23:45):
off making money on pantomimes to please her, he started
losing money on classical drama to please her. She wanted
to play Lady Teazel in the School for Scandal, and
she got to do so, and no doubt she arranged
the scenery and first as she wants. Yes, yea, but
what's that got to do all?

Speaker 6 (24:03):
You've lost me again?

Speaker 5 (24:05):
Well?

Speaker 18 (24:06):
Are you getting it?

Speaker 5 (24:07):
Father Brown?

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Can we can we go down to mister Manderville's office, Inspector, Well, if.

Speaker 19 (24:13):
You want to, you want to view the corpse?

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Let know, I want to view the ceiling. Ah, yes,
look up there, I thought, So you see mister Jarvis. Yes, yes,
I do see. Good heavens, I don't. This used to
be a pantomime theater, Inspector. This office is built under
the stage. It's full of all sorts of tricks and devices.

(24:39):
Immediately above us is one of the trap doors. That
was how the murderer got in down from the stage, but.

Speaker 6 (24:46):
Everyone was on stage.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
Is he someone popped down in full view of everyone else?

Speaker 3 (24:51):
No? No, the plan could only work in the fourth
act of School for Scandal.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
Of course, of course, the famous fourth act.

Speaker 6 (25:00):
I only went to a board school. Will somebody please explain?

Speaker 11 (25:03):
In the fourth act of the play, Lady Diesel spends
a very long time hidden behind a screen. When her
husband arrives at an embarrassing moment, she's technically on stage made.

Speaker 6 (25:13):
And he sees, men, do you it fixed? For the screen?
To be around is traptor she could knit down, catch
your old man on the words, pretend she had some
to say to him.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
And yes, and that was Missus Manderville's alibi.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
I think I'd better go and have a word with missus.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
Men and you.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
What about motive?

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Father?

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Oh, I suspect we need look no further than mister Knight.
You think she's in love with him? I do hope so.
Really it would be the most human excuse, But I
have my doubts. She wanted to get rid of her husband,
an old fashioned, vulgar suburban hack, not even making much money. Yes,
she wanted a career as a brilliant classical actress married

(26:00):
to a rapidly rising actor. She was always dogging her
husband in private, hoping to use one of his former
liaisons as an excuse for the divorce. He died because
he wished to remain faithful to her, and she could
not bring herself simply to run away with her lover.
Her lady like values demanded respectability, and she was prepared

(26:22):
to kill for it.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
In The Actor and the Alibi by G. K. Chesterton,
the part of Father Brown was played by Andrew Sachs.
Mandon Mandeville by Peter Jeffrey, Missus Mandeville by Sheila Grant,
Inspector Bagshaw by Bill Wallace, Ashton Jarvis by David Brierley,
Norman Knight by Charles Bailey, Lady Miriam Talbert by Flir Chandler,

(26:51):
The House Manager and the Waiter by Jonathan Scott, Missus
Sands by Pauline Lets, and Miss Maroney by Karen n.
The actor in the alibi was adapted by John Scottney
and the director from Bristol was alec Reed