Midsomer Murders is back for a nineteenth season, and anybody still disappointed by last year’s killing-free opener need have no concerns this time.
‘The Village That Rose From The Dead’ has deaths galore, from the showy and gruesome (crushed by a tank) to the unexpected (local yokel Hugh Dennis boa-constricted to death). There’s even a good old-fashioned poisoning – “Cyanide” diagnoses Barnaby, sniffing the contents of a flask. (Maybe Agatha Christie did it?)
Midsomer often takes an improbable scenario and runs with it unashamedly, and this time we’re in the village of Little Auburn, taken over by the MOD during the war and subsequently abandoned. The title is at last due to be returned to the local landowner, and three schemes are vying for the development of the land. Will it remain as a ‘Living Museum’? Will it be transformed into a modern Eco-village? Or will it be demolished and have a load of tacky holiday cottages built on it?
Ultimately the motive for the series of murders isn’t rivalry among the three campaigns – and to be honest the script doesn’t try very hard to fool us into thinking it is.
Criticising Midsomer Murders feels a bit like punching a cuddly Uncle but, although it’s perhaps an odd thing to fault, the script is just a touch too subtle. Not nearly enough misdirection, too few red herrings. We never engage in any gossip or speculation that the local solicitor might be the illegitimate son of the former landowner, so when it turns out to be vitally important we have to cast our minds back over an hour to a passing reference to his mother’s affair.
Caroline Blakiston’s turn as ‘spiky old woman’ for much of the episode isn’t a great shock – but as she reveals the truth about her son’s parentage the animation and emotion on her face is quite extraordinary. Full marks to a bit of unflashy direction that for once is justified in simply pointing the camera at an actor and letting her get on with it.
As for the regulars, Nelson is gone and we’re introduced to DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix). He makes a likeable enough debut, although I’d be lying if I said there’s anything here to really single him out from the crowd of loyal sidekicks. A prior friendship with pathologist Kam (Manjinder Virk) is shoe-horned into the script, and it’s hard not to wonder if the change was simply an application of red pencil and tippex to an existing script, replacing ‘Nelson’ with ‘Winter’.
Either way, I’m sure we’ll soon warm to the new boy. A much more upsetting change of personnel is the news that Sykes is no longer with us. I’m no detective, but when victim number two leaves behind him a dog and an allergic, dog-hating daughter…
So with three murders, two cops and a dog, Midsomer Murders is back – and with a further three episodes to come it’s exactly the sort of TV to relax with over the coming weeks post-Christmas.
Aired at 8pm on Sunday 18 December 2016 on ITV.
Buy the complete Season 18 box set on Amazon here.
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