In 1998, Chris Kelly and Russell Lewis (already having joined forces to work on the highly-acclaimed Kavanagh QC) discussed the possibility of a television adaptation of The Power And Glory. However, the rights were owned by a rival media group, and Lewis provided Kelly with the idea of casting John Thaw as a priest in a World War II drama production. When the initial draft was created, it was presented to ITV executives who took two weeks to take an option on the series (four ninety-minute films to be broadcast as a lead-up to the final Inspector Morse mystery). Set in the French provincial village of St Josse Des Bois, the series heralded the return of Augustin Renard (John Thaw), a hero from the First World War who had abandoned the village in favour of pursuing a career in the church. Appointed as parish priest to the village, he returns to find smoking car wreckages and smouldering bomb sites en route to the village. There has been a mass exodus as German forces steadily occupy surrounding villages, and when Renard returns to his birthplace he finds it is now controlled by the Germans.

The four episodes focused on Renard's personal and professional dilemmas, and his continued efforts to rouse and sustain the French resistance against the occupying forces. Drawing his strength from his faith and patriotism, he covertly directed the villagers through rousing sermons against the Germans. Russell Lewis described the programme as "gritty accounts of moral choices, tales of human interest which deal with universal themes - good and evil, triumph and tragedy at the extreme of human experience; how, when faced with the worst, human resilience will shine through the darkness". This is entirely true, as Renard is forced to choose between the fundamentals of his faith and the violent necessities of life against the occupying forces.

Parrallels were undoubtedly drawn between this series and Secret Army, and in many respects the two compliment one another. However, whereas the BBC's drama production was more introspective in terms of its character focus, and featured a broader canvas upon which to portray its stories, Monsignor Renard was bound by its own claustrophobic premise and, as such, viewers either sympathized with the villagers' plight and willed Renard on, or found the entire production lacking any substance. The British press certainly found points of criticism in the lack of accents used by actors throughout the series, and in the lack of substantive funds to ensure the special effects and war-time set-pieces were visually spectacular.

Ultimately, the programme (despite rumours to the contrary) was never recommissioned, and in a year where the eagerly-anticipated final Inspector Morse episode was to surely follow, the programme was never highly regarded. Even the usual ITV gravitas of John Thaw in the leading role failed to improve average ratings figures (approximately twelve million per episode), and whilst the series did eventually receive a commercial VHS release, it has never been regarded as a classic Thaw production. The production team succeeded in making a series which was pleasant to watch, with beautiful scenery and cinematography, but a programme which ultimately lacked substance, focus and audience appeal - a testament to ITV's enduring habit of annually casting Thaw in anything going (as The Glass later underlined).

Text © Matthew Lee, 2004