LIKE Miss Marple before him, Father Baldi is one of those characters in fiction blessed with the knack for always being on the spot when an everyday setting becomes a crime scene.

Needless to say, while the police are still drawing chalk marks around the corpse the diffident Franciscan manages not only to sift through the clues but identify the murderer.

David Threlfall’s endearing performances light up these two short plays in which Baldi investigates mysterious deaths at an old people’s home and a Dublin hotel.

TP McKenna adds mellow gravitas as Baldi’s mentor, Father Troy, while the scripts twinkle with wry humour.