Sorcha Cusack is set to make a special return as Mrs McCarthy in the first episode of the upcoming season of the BBC's long-running crime drama Father Brown.
The Irish stage and television actress was one of several key cast members who exited the series ahead of season 10, along with Emer Kenny and Jack Deam. At the time, the BBC announced that the characters had "moved on to pastures new".
Cusack, who played Bridgette McCarthy - the devoted parish secretary to Father Brown (portrayed by Mark Williams) at St. Mary’s Church - will reappear in the new season’s opening episode, joined by a number of guest stars.
Filming has wrapped on the upcoming 13th series of the BBC drama, which follows a Roman Catholic priest as he fights crime in the fictional village of Kembleford, located in Gloucestershire.
Among the other guest stars of the new series are Absolutely Fabulous's Julia Sawalha, Quadrophenia actor Phil Daniels and soap star Debra Stephenson and Coronation Street star Maureen Lipman.
Photos from the set show Lipman, 79, with coiffed hair wearing a patterned dress and red cardigan standing alongside Williams and Sawalha, who wears a French maid’s costume, as well as The Inbetweeners star Alex Macqueen – who is in a tailcoat and bow tie.
Williams, 65, said: "My Dad was a surveyor and taught me how to look at buildings, not just their architecture but how they were used, and why they were where they are. So one of the constant pleasures of filming Father Brown for me is the places we film in, and I always have the relevant Pevsner’s Buildings Of England book to hand.
"This year, our 13th, has been a great year for interesting locations.
"We have filmed in The Chateau Impney – a French fantasy in Droitwich, the little theatre in Chipping Norton (an ex-Salvation Army citadel), the wonderful 18th century octagonal Crown Courts in Warwick and an atmospheric ex-nunnery in Great Malvern with a glorious chapel by Ninian Comper.
"Also, The Fleece Inn in Bretforton which is a English pub time capsule, the spectacular Baroque church at Great Witley, and to top it off a selection of lovely stone Cotswold houses and churches. What a fabulous itinerary. And we filmed an episode at the seaside. Lucky lad, as my Dad would have said."
The next series will see the return of cast members including Tom Chambers as Inspector Sullivan, Claudie Blakley as the new Mrs Isabel Sullivan, Ruby-May Martinwood as Brenda and John Burton as Sergeant Goodfellow.
Series 13 will see the new Mr and Mrs Sullivan settle into married life after the wedding celebrations at the end of series 12.
Elsewhere, Father Brown is tasked by Flambeau to visit excommunicated priest Father Lazarus in prison and Canon Fox plans to enact revenge upon Father Brown.
Based on the short stories by English author GK Chesterton, the crime series is set in a quiet village in the Cotswolds and first aired on BBC daytime in 2013.
Father Brown series 13 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer early next year.
Source: Press Association
