Guilt, Redemption and the Kitchen Sink

What is religion? What is faith? Is there redemption?

Wrestling with those weighty questions is “Signs & Wonders,” a two-part “Masterpiece Theatre” beginning Sunday. Overwrought and cliched, this ambitious piece of ‘90s soul-searching--continuing the series’ recent trend away from period pieces--stars James Earl Jones and a veteran British cast.

Despite its lack of subtlety, the thriller, written by Michael Eaton and directed by Maurice Phillips, does entertain for a while--until the kitchen-sink excesses of Part 2.

*

A British vicar’s daughter, Claire (Jodhi May), selling roses on Hollywood Boulevard, is an indoctrinated member of the L.A. branch of the Mercy cult, headed by a self-proclaimed Messiah called Father. Her desperate mother, Elizabeth (Prunella Scales, a long way from her shrewish “Fawlty Towers” role), secretly travels to L.A. to hook up with a man (Jones) who works as an “exit counselor for victims of mind control.”

Their rescue mission plays against crises of faith experienced back in England by the emotionally frigid vicar (David Warner) and his mentally tormented son (Michael Maloney).

Throw in the FBI, the British secret service, a car chase, the South American drug trade, menacing cult figures, World War II fascism, the vicar’s stroke, a mining disaster, flashbacks and hallucinations and you’ve got quite a busy vehicle for such a lofty-minded exploration of the complexities of faith, guilt and redemption.

* “Signs & Wonders” airs on “Masterpiece Theatre” at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday on KCET-TV Channel 28. Part 1 also airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on KOCE-TV Channel 50.