Baldi is a murder mystery series first broadcast on the UK radio station

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. The central character is Paolo Baldi (played by David Threlfall), a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

priest on

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work; "an extended period of time intentionally spent on something that’s not your routine job." The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Bi ...

, lecturing on

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

at a university in contemporary

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. After helping the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

as a translator for an Italian witness, he turns sleuth. Created by

Barry Devlin Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946) is an Irish musician, screenwriter and director. Early life Devlin is from Moortown in Ardboe, County Tyrone. He initially began to train as a Columban priest, but left to study English at University Co ...

, it was produced by

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland is one of the four BB ...

. Series 1 began broadcasting in 2000, while series 5 concluded at the end of 2010.

Summary

Father Paolo Baldi ( David Threlfall) is a priest torn between his interest in investigation and detective work, and the secluded life of a priest. On sabbatical from the

Franciscan Order The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

, he takes up amateur sleuthing and befriends DI Tina Mahon ( Tina Kellegher for the first four series, then Tara Flynn), a member of the Gardaí. Both her superior, DS Rynne ( Owen Roe), and Baldi's

spiritual director Spiritual direction is the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divinity, divine, or to learn and grow in their personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of their encounters ...

, Father Troy ( T. P. McKenna), would prefer that he end his sabbatical and return to the Order. Father Baldi has an unfortunate knack of becoming involved in murder enquiries, usually by his friendship with one of those involved. His gentle, reassuring behaviour and the Seal of the Confessional encourages participants to open up to him.

Broadcasting

Five series have been broadcast, totalling twenty-eight episodes. These have all been first aired in the 45 minute Afternoon Play slot, with frequent repeats of the series on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes, and is the sister station of Radio 4. It is the pri ...

. The regular cast included David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher, Owen Roe and T. P. McKenna. Guest appearances have included some of Ireland's and the UK's leading actors, including Gerard McSorley,

Martin Clunes Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series '' Doc Martin'', Gary Strang in the BBC sitcom ''Men Behavin ...

Stephen Mangan Stephen James Mangan (born 16 May 1968) is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in '' Green Wing'', Dan Moody in '' I'm Alan Partridge'', Seán Lincoln in ''Episodes'', Bigwig in ''Watership Down'', Postma ...

, Margaret D'Arcy,

Niall Buggy Niall Buggy (born 3 October 1948) is an Irish actor. Buggy played Brian in ''Dead Funny'' for which he won an Olivier Award. Biography Early life Buggy was born on 3 October 1948 in Dublin. His parents attended the Theatre Royal, Dublin, Theatre R ...

, Adrian Dunbar, Michael Maloney,

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Known for his work in numerous stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and ...

Sorcha Cusack Sorcha Cusack (; born 9 April 1949) is an Irish television and stage actress. Her numerous television credits include playing the title role in ''Jane Eyre'' (1973), '' Casualty'' (1994–1997), ''Coronation Street'' (2008) and '' Father Brown' ...

, Geraldine James, Niall Toibin, Barry McGovern, Nick Dunning, David Kelly, Stephen Moore, Pauline McLynn, Sara Kestelman,

Robert Bathurst Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is a British actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast (British colony), The Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959, his family moved to Ball ...

, John Kavanagh, Mark Lambert and Victoria Smurfit. The theme tune is by Sting, and is titled "Saint Agnes and the Burning Train".BBC Baldi Forum – BBC Host Response to User Question
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Episodes

Technical crew

*Executive Producer – Sarah Lawson *Producer/Director – Lawrence Jackson, also Mark Lambert for some episodes *Writers have included: **

Simon Brett Simon Anthony Lee Brett Order of the British Empire, OBE Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (born 28 October 1945 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England) is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for ...

**Bill Murphy **Andrew Martin **Martin Meenan **John Murphy **Francis Turnly

External links

BBC.co.uk programme page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldi (Radio) British radio dramas BBC Radio 4 programmes BBC Radio dramas Detective radio shows