- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Jane Rackham
Echoes of Theatre of Blood, the glorious 70s horror film starring Vincent Price, reverberate through this episode, which starts with the killing of a local author in Midsomer Langley. She was writing a book about sisters Stella and Diana (Sinead Cusack and Harriet Walter), British B-movie stars in the 60s. One lives in the village while the other returns on the night of the murder after 40 years in Hollywood.
The dead author has two puncture marks in her neck – like a vampire bite. Thereafter every murder is reminiscent of a horror movie plot (mummification and burial alive included) although this doesn’t help pin down a suspect.
“In the film the killer was a 300-year-old nobleman who could only drink the blood of female virgins,” offers Barnaby, a horror film buff, helpfully. Midsomer Murders never takes itself too seriously but here it’s got its tongue so far into its cheek, it hurts.
About this programme
4/6. The murder of a journalist has chilling echoes of a 1960s horror film starring Midsomer's own Stella Harris. When the actress's more famous sister Diana returns after a 40-year family rift, the body count rises, with each crime reminiscent of a movie plot - giving Barnaby and Jones what looks like a disturbing case of life imitating art. With Harriet Walter and Sinead Cusack.
Cast and crew
Cast
- DCI John Barnaby
- Neil Dudgeon
- DS Ben Jones
- Jason Hughes
- Sarah Barnaby
- Fiona Dolman
- Kate Wilding
- Tamzin Malleson
- Stella Harris
- Sinead Cusack
- Diana Davenport
- Harriet Walter
- Cy Davenport
- Henry Goodman
- Emma Harris
- Anna Wilson-Jones
- Rosie Harris
- Alice Sykes
- Scott Davenport
- Joseph Beattie
- Patrick Tilman
- David Bark-Jones
- Juliet Tilman
- Pandora Clifford
- Colin Yule
- Pearce Quigley
- Perry Stevens
- Samuel Anderson
- Eve Lomax
- Sasha Waddell
- Young Stella
- Georgina Beedle
- Young Diana
- Thomasin Rand
- Evil priestess
- Caroline Munro
- Roderick Usher
- Alexander Owen
- Nurse
- Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty
- Woman
- Laura Girling
- Older gentleman
- John Carson
Crew
- Director
- Nick Laughland
- Producer
- Jo Wright
- Writer
- Rachel Cuperman
- Writer
- Sally Griffiths
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