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Why I Love...Midsomer Murders

John Nettles as DCI Barnaby and Jason Hughes as Sergeant Jones
  • Posted at 1:04pm
  • 26 February 2007
  • by DavidBrown-RT
  • 19 comments

Murder is the cosiest commodity on the box and a visit to the picturesque county of Midsomer on a Sunday is the televisual equivalent of sweet tea and diamond-print sweaters on a winter's evening.

Can you imagine if it was called Midsomer Muggings or Midsomer Burglaries? Hardly the same rosy glow. No, a good slaying keeps us all sated.

John Nettles stars as the stolid and dependable Inspector Tom Barnaby, a man whose mouth is set in such a grim line of rigidity that you suspect he's moonlighting as a ventriloquist when off-duty.

Mass killing never seems to surprise old Tom or his level-headed sidekick; the chief constable never thinks to assign a murder squad to help them out; and the body count rises steadily for two hours without a sniff of interest from the London press. It's Christie-land in a contemporary setting, complete with elderly thespians who'd otherwise be acting in repertory productions of Dame Agatha's plays.

All of which makes for wonderfully comforting viewing. In Caroline Graham's original Midsomer novels, Barnaby is portrayed as moody and someone of whom others are fearful, while sidekick Sergeant Troy is little more than a thug in a trenchcoat. Smoothing away these rough edges is the transfer from book to screen, a process that has several precedents: Inspector Morse is seedier in Colin Dexter's books, while RD Wingfield's Jack Frost is more lascivious and coarse than David Jason's avuncular portrayal.

But there is a sinister underside to all the pictorial policing and for me, it comes in the form of Barnaby's wife Joyce - either she's the unluckiest person on earth or a closet mass murderer. Every social event she attends results in slaughter: she joins a choral society and someone keels over in the pews, a gathering of amateur artists ends with a painter slumped over his easel. The woman could be the grim reaper with a fringe and sensible shoes.

Luckily daughter Cully is usually on hand to help with any investigation in her flowing floral dresses. Why her parents didn't just call her Laura Ashley Barnaby and have done with, I don't know.

The multi-talented Cully can be relied upon to change occupations to suit any plot contrivance - need a suspect's mysterious holiday plans checking? Well, Cully's just got herself a job in the local travel agents. Suspect there's something deadly going on at the am-dram theatre company? Guess who's got herself a small but vital role among the players?I'm telling you, if it wasn't for Barnaby's willowy offspring, he'd still be issuing parking tickets in Causton town centre.

Still, despite the surreal touches and increasingly outrageous methods of carnage (crossbows, pitchforks, electrocutions), it's the reliability of Midsomer Murders that matters. All those night-time scenes of impending death, complete with thatched cottages, rustling hedgerows, owl hoots and the screams of foxes. Plus the thrilling possibility of Richard Briers, Robert Hardy or Honor Blackman turning up to do a guest turn. Quick, get me a cocoa and my slippers, immediately.

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Comments

  • Posted on 15 November 2009
  • at 1:00am
  • by Cocoa

Has anyone else noticed that nearly all, if not all,( I am currently scanning all episodes) episodes have some reference to bells. This is either in actual bells, bellringers, etc. or the name Bell, Annabelle, Annabella, Bella, Isabelle, Brian "Clapper". I have also seen Bell's whiskey, and "Belle" on a flag. Wonder what the significance of this is? Anybody have any ideas?

  • Posted on 29 September 2009
  • at 7:16am
  • by Jasper48

Could not agree more what a treat "Midsomer Murders" is great plots, superb acting,first class work from Brian True May is bringing this to our screens. Please let us have more programmes like this on our screens.

Brilliant

  • Posted on 13 July 2009
  • at 2:58pm
  • by guest101_lol

Pelham. Go away!

  • Posted on 06 July 2009
  • at 10:44am
  • by DavidBrown-RT

Hi, Barbara and mm fan,

I think you might be confusing Midsomer and Inspector Wexford, who in his series had two daughters called Sylvia and Sheila. Barnaby only has one daughter - Cully.

Best wishes,

David

  • Posted on 04 July 2009
  • at 1:01am
  • by Barbara

I remember Inspector Barnaby having two daughters, as previously posted on this site, she was having marital problems and had two children. I thought her name was Sheila. What happened to her?

  • Posted on 29 April 2009
  • at 10:12pm
  • by Craigski

I find MM thoroughly entertaining - it's feel-good TV- and one tour of the Ox/Bucks villages where the series is filmed and 5 box sets later we still love the outrageous thinly-motivated plots and the rising body counts amongst the garden fetes and village green real ale societies. good stuff!

  • Posted on 02 January 2009
  • at 11:08am
  • by mysterylover

The thing I love about MSM is the random motives the murderers have for going on a killing rampage - usually because some neighbour 60 years ago once stole their garden knome or something and now that they're all 80 it's a great time to get revenge. The best one was definitly someone killing the entire church bell-ringing group so he could ring all the bells himself!

  • Posted on 29 December 2008
  • at 2:25pm
  • by AD

Quite agree - Midsomer is a thoroughly enjoyable mix of cosiness and nastiness which has been magicked into a magnificently surreal experience by the Barnaby family, the most sinister people in England. I mean, would you want any of them turning up at your garden fete with a sudden burning interest in making prizewinning strawberry jam, or joining your dance class? Yet these harbingers of doom maintain their aura of doe-eyed innocence, every murder they 'just happen to' witness seeming for all the world like their first.

By the way, I think it was Guest100, at 4.25 pm, with a sharpened comma, in the nuthouse.

And with that, I shall watch this afternoon's episode. Oh, wait a minute… (Doorbell rings. Answers door.) Oh! It's you! (Screams. Silence.)

  • Posted on 13 December 2008
  • at 3:02pm
  • by Oldie

All rings bells. I just love MM, as well as Morse,[cried when Morse died] Poirot and Miss Marple. Totally addicted to what is pure escapism. Can watch an episode twice over! But was shocked when I read the books - Troy's married!! So sweet on TV, but really a naughty little womaniser. Grandsons [6 to 15] also love MM and can still remember their first, when a guy fell through the hayloft floor and was mangled on a plough below. We never get tired of MM. Though sometimes it is a bit blood-soaked for late night watching!

  • Posted on 27 October 2008
  • at 8:17pm
  • by Svetlana

I like Jonh Nettles very much (look Midsommer murders now on Hallmark channel) :)))

  • Posted on 29 September 2008
  • at 4:35pm
  • by Dickyboy

I wonder what some people want from M S M. It's highly entertaining, the acting is excellent, the story lines are ridiculus of course, but that's what it's all about. I don't think they are even proper whodunnits. No little grey cells needed. Just a good mix of Murder and other skullduggery. Great stuff!

  • Posted on 05 August 2008
  • at 2:16am
  • by Pelham

What on earth are the rave reviews about for this show? The main actors appear to have phoned in their performances and are only saved by the skill of the secondary actors.

  • Posted on 06 July 2008
  • at 5:46pm
  • by mm fan

did i dream it or in the earlier episodes did barnaby and joyce have 2 daughters one with marital problems and 2 children can anyone corroborate this.

  • Posted on 28 April 2008
  • at 9:38am
  • by terrysharphouse

The only mystery about Midsomer Murders is how this latest dross got on screen. Having really enjoyed the programme in the past & looked forward to the new series, last nights episode was two hours of RUBBISH! Apart from the convoluted storyline, we were expected to believe that the murderer, an aging actor, about 80 years old with a heart condition carried heavy victims onto a scaffold and cut their heads off with a very noisy guillotene unnoticed by everyone including a security man. When the story flashed back to show how he had transported the womans body to the scaffold, we witnessed him flip the body into the tumbrel as if she weighed no more than a crisp packet.

What about the writers producing a believable storyline with a realistic plot and to stop treating us the viewers as if we are halfwitted, prepared to watch anything because of previous good reviews.

  • Posted on 26 March 2007
  • at 3:26am
  • by Amy

I've never missed an episode of Midsomer Murders, it is simply one of the best things on the block. John Nettles has been my favourite TV detective since the days of Bergerac.

Midsomer Worshipper, I record DM on my DVR and MM on my VCR because I just can't miss either, lol. I am about to watch my MM recording for Thursday and Friday right now.

More MM, please.

  • Posted on 10 March 2007
  • at 1:49pm
  • by Nicholas

I find Midsomer Murders, entertaining also, and am glad, that it is being repeated, in the afternoons, along with another good programme Kavanagh QC.

M M is larger than life, and has as many murders, as Oxford did, with Inspector Morse. I do not agree that Mr Barnaby's mouth is set in a grim line. He has some humour, and an assistant, as dependable, as Lewis was. At least Mr Barnaby, and his assistant, are courteous, and do not shout or swear at people.

I would disagree with the comparisons. I do not have sweet tea, sugar spoils a good cuppa, or wear the type of sweater mentioned. I doubt if Joyce wants anyone to be murdered. As I have not read the books, or those featuring Messrs Frost and Morse either, to date, I cannot comment, on their TV Adaptations.

  • Posted on 05 March 2007
  • at 5:48pm
  • by Amy

at last, a recognition of the genius of Midsomer. Who has murdered more people then? Barnaby's missus or Jessica Fletcher of Muder she Wrote?

  • Posted on 27 February 2007
  • at 5:15pm
  • by Liam

It really is the best thing on the box…although some of the new episodes have become a bit tame if you ask me…(where are all the blood and bodies???!!!).

I just love how its often thoroughly horrible, with stories about incest, peadophilia, rape, serial killers and horrific deaths like decapitation, burning alive or being hacked to death with a hook, yet because its set in the country side, it gets labelled "twee" anyway!

Long may the death toll rise!!! and isnt it about time the criminally underrated mr nettles got some sort of award?

  • Posted on 26 February 2007
  • at 5:43pm
  • by Midsomer worshiper

I absolutely bloody love Midsomer Murders. But thanks to it being on during weekday afternoons, I don't get to enough lectures anymore. I watch a communal telly in my Halls and you'd be surprised at the amount of Barnaby devotees there are among students. It's perfect viewing, although there can be a ruck sparked by those who prefer Diagnosis Murder, which is often on at the same time.

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