Father Brophy

Father Brophy is a non-canonical character created for the 2013 ITV adaptation of Greenshaw's Folly. He is a Roman Catholic priest and the manager of St Faith's Orphanage during the time of the events in the plot. Father Brophy is portrayed by Robert Glenister.

Father Brophy plays several significant roles in the plot of the adaptation. St Faith's Orphanage is short of money and Brophy himself is a heavy drinker who has pile up debts. He is dependent on donations and asks Katherine Greenshaw for one. She refuses because she thinks he would only use the money for his drinking and debts. This led to Father Brophy stealing two silver candlesticks from the house. Alfred Pollock found these with the Father and returned them but is caught in the act of replacing the candlesticks on the mantelpiece. He is then accused of stealing them.

In addition, Miss Marple saw Father Brophy outside Greenshaw's Folly just after the time of Miss Greenshaw's murder. Because Miss Greenshaw had promised to provide for the orphanage upon her death, this provided a plausible motive for Father Brophy and made him a suspect in her murder. He later explained that he had come to the house to apologise for the theft but in the end did not go in because he lost his nerve.

Father Brophy also told police that he had seen Alfred Pollock somewhere else at the time of the murder, thus providing Alfred with an alibi. However he later admitted that he had lied, because he wanted to return Alfred a favour for no denouncing him for the theft and taking the blame for him. Father Brophy is close to Alfred (there is a scene of them drinking together). In this adaptation, Alfred is an ex-student of the orphanage.

In another subplot, Miss Marple is researching the link between Greenshaw's Folly and the orphanage in the distant past. Father Brophy gives Miss Marple access to the orphanage records and Miss Marple discovers a puzzling gap where records from 1900 to 1910 are totally missing. This proved to be an important step in piecing together what happened during the time of Decimus Greenshaw, the father of Katherine Greenshaw.

Lastly, towards the end of the episode, Father Brophy tells Miss Marple that Walter Cracken has not touched alcohol for over ten years since the death of his wife. It was something the Father had learnt as a priest (perhaps during confession). This proved to be another crucial step in determining how and why Cracken was killed.