The Flying Stars is the second episode of the first season of Father Brown.
When an alcoholic woman is found drowned near her home, Father Brown suspects murder, although the police think it's an accident.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: Flambeau is Adapted Out and the story is much Darker and Edgier.
- The Alcoholic: Lady Adams. When she's found drowned in the lake, it's initially assumed that she accidentally fell in while drunk.
- All Part of the Show: A cops and robbers comedy play takes place near the end of the episode. Naturally, this means that Lady Felicia frantically running on stage and calling for the police is treated as part of the play's proceedings, as is the murderer coming after her and threatening her at gunpoint to keep her quiet.
- All for Nothing: Had the murderer not died at the end, he would have found out that his entire murderous plot would have amounted to absolutely nothing in the end — as the diamonds he killed to obtain are nothing more than pretty fakes, the real deal having been pawned off years ago.
- Dad the Veteran: Colonel Adams.
- Divorce Requires Death: Discussed when Lady Adams insists that she'll die before allowing her husband to divorce her simply because he doesn't want to watch her drink herself to death, mere minutes before she's killed in a scuffle with another person.Mrs. Adams: The only way I leave this marriage is in a coffin.
- Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: Father Brown finds a lira coin on the ground on the way to the Adamses. He assumes it is one of the foreign coins Mrs. MacCarthy is bringing to world-traveler Mr. Adams to see if he will exchange them. Later, MacCarthy clarifies she is keeping the Italian coins for herself and didn't bring any, meaning the coin was actually the perpetrator's and proves he wasn't in Nigeria, but Italy.
- The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Inverted. Suzie finds an old pair of James Trewlove's shoes in the Adams' attic, but they don't fit Van Ert... thus he is not James Trewlove.
- Impoverished Patrician: The Adams family are revealed to be in such dire financial straits that they'd pawned the titular Stars off years ago to make ends meet.
- The Ketchup Test: Father Brown does this to some red substance found on the stage floor after after Van Ert grabs Lady Felicia, fires the gun, and then runs off the stage. Zigzagged as they were using ketchup for the scene in the stage play, but Van Ert had swapped the prop gun for a real gun. It turns out Lady Felicia is fine and it was in fact the stage ketchup.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Colonel Adams fits this to a tee, even though he's completely broke.
- Parental Marriage Veto: The Adams' are very against their daughter Ruby marrying her penniless, Communist lover. Colonel Adams later reveals that he was against the match because he was counting on Ruby marrying into money to secure her future, as the family had long lost all the wealth they did have.
- Politically Correct History: When Father Brown catches James, Mrs. Adams' brother, trying to flee the scene in drag, the only thing he comments on is how his brogues would give him away quite easily ("And if you wanted to pass incognito, you should really have changed your shoes.").
- Railroad Tracks of Doom: James tries to escape Father Brown, only to wind up squashed under a train.
