Father Brown's Mark Williams would love to see the daytime crime drama explore his lead character's backstory and unearth his whereabouts in the 1930s.

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Based loosely on the short stories by GK Chesterton, the beloved BBC One series follows Williams as a Roman Catholic priest with a penchant for solving crimes in a quaint village in the Cotswolds – which is lucky, as the local police includes an inept Inspector Mallory (Jack Deam) and the more astute yet largely ignored Sergeant Goodfellow (John Burton).

"I'll tell you what we haven't done, we haven't done anything about where he was in the '30s, which would be quite interesting," Williams told RadioTimes.com. "In a city probably. Probably in Birmingham."

He continued: "I've got a backstory for him, what he was as a young man in the trenches. We haven't seen any murky past. When we started, he was a bit more of a betting man and a bit more sneaky about that kind of thing - he liked going to the pub with Sid (Alex Price) which we don't do anymore.

"I think he was troubled in the trenches - that's exactly what the logic is of our timescale, is that he had an ecstatic revelation as a young man, as a teenager, and that reinforced or created his faith and then he trained to be a priest and he's back in Gloucestershire."

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Currently in its ninth season, the drama airs its 100th episode, titled The Red Death, today (Friday 14th January) featuring an extravagant New Year's Eve ball being thrown by Lady Felicia (Nancy Carroll) and her enigmatic husband Monty (Alexander Hanson).

In typical Father Brown fashion, the event will of course be derailed when a grisly murder takes place, with the Minister for Defence being offed by a mystery masked figure.

The one-off special will feature the entire ensemble cast, including the welcome return of Emer Kenny as Bunty and Alex Price as Sid, with Sorcha Cusack back as Mrs McCarthy, Deam as Inspector Mallory, Burton as Sergeant Goodfellow, Nancy Carroll as Lady Felicia, and John Light as Hercule Flambeau.

Guest stars include Richard Dillane, Gemma Page, Caleb Frederick, Nicholas Audsley and Cam Spence.

Read more: Father Brown stars reflect on show’s endurance ahead of 100th episode

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Father Brown's 100th episode airs on Friday January 14th on BBC One. Check out the rest of our Drama coverage, or take a look at our TV Guide to find out what else is on.

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