There’s good news and mixed news regarding British TV mysteries. Both feature detectives who combine powerful intelligence with appealing humility.

First, there were reports that the BBC had greenlighted a new Jonathan Creek movie to be aired this Christmas. The mystery-comedy series produced by David Renwick and starring Alan Davies was both popular and critically acclaimed during its three-series run in 1997-2004 and two subsequent TV movies. Jonathan Creek also made many fans in the United States when broadcast on PBS and then on BBC America.

The initial report was that a new Jonathan Creek movie was in progress and a script had been written. The latter is plausible, as producer-writer Renwick has long stated he enjoys creating Creek stories but finds them exceedingly difficult to do well. (Longtime viewers agree, noting that although some of the episodes are brilliant, others are rather weak. Just so: the 2009 movie The Grinning Man was superb, whereas the 2010 follow-up was merely OK.)

The report stated that shooting was scheduled to begin in September, but costar Sheridan Smith had yet to sign on. The latter fact set off alarm bells when I read it, and those concerns were affirmed a few days later by Creek star Davies, who tweeted that there will be no new Creek movie for Christmas and shooting would not start in September:

There won’t be a new Jonathan Creek for Cristmas [sic] and we are not filming in September. If we do start making a new one I will let you know.

The good news here is that Davies simply states that the timing stated in the reports is incorrect. Presumably, there will be a new Creek sometime early in 2013. Easter would seem to be a likely target date.

The unalloyed good news is that the BBC is definitely filming a new series of mysteries featuring Father Brown, from the classic short stories by G. K. Chesterton. The series will star Mark Williams, best known for playing Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films.

Filming has already begun, in the picturesque Cotswolds region of south central England.

Chesterton’s stories are widely admired both for their typically strong detective puzzles and their thoughtful and sometimes startling insights into religious and philosophical topics.

An earlier TV series based on Chesterton’s stories, also called Father Brown, was shown in the United States on the PBS series Mystery, and starred Kenneth More, who gave an excellent portrayal of the character. The narratives hewed close to the original story lines and characterizations, making Father Brown a classic TV mystery series.

It will be interesting to see how respectful the new series is toward its source. Chesterton wrote 52 stories about Father Brown (not all of them of equal quality), so there are plenty from which to choose.