Any fans of Midsomer Murders here?
James Suzuki
New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
I am a fan of this brilliant English Countryside mystery show and I was wondering if anyone else on AJB watched it. I prefer the earlier seasons with Sergeant Troy....and John Nettles is such a great actor....any fans or watchers?
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Comments
Some great stories and some very inventive deaths, They're not
the hardest to solve. With some fantastic acting from the cast
John Nettles is an old favourite of mine, and even the new guy
is very good.
I'm a fan of Marple, Poirot etc. To me you can't beat a good Murder.
My favourite of the early episodes was probably "Death's Shadow" written by spy writer Anthony Horowitz and starring the late great Richard Briers as a murderous vicar!
So not an expert, but the series really had potential. The high death count per episode really made it unbelievable after a while, especially with all the murders happening in the one little English village. Midsomer. I assume that you can get it all on DVD nowadays.
Having said all of the above, you've kind of rekindled my interest in it all again!
See a great little interview here:
http://midsomermurders.org/deathsha6.htm
See this review of my favourite episode here:
User Reviews
"Another winner from director Jeremy Silberston and writer Anthony Horowitz - two of the series' top talents." 28 March 2006 | by jamesraeburn2003 (Poole, Dorset) – See all my reviews
Top theatre producer-director Simon Fletcher (Julian Wadham) returns to Badger's Drift after more than thirty years away, but his mind is full of disturbing childhood memories. The main reason for his visit is because he is taking a drama workshop which is being held at the Playhouse in Causton and Chief Inspector Barnaby's daughter Cully (Laura Howard) has got a place. Barnaby and his wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) are about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and have decided to retake their marriage vows to mark the occasion. Incidentally, the church they have booked is in Badger's Drift and they meet up with the vicar Reverand Stephen Wentworth (Richard Briers) to discuss the ceremony. Every thing it seems is going well for the Barnaby's.
But as always there is tension in this picturesque Midsomer village. Property developer Richard Bayly (Dominic Jephcott) is planning to redevelop Tye House as an upmarket golf club, which has upset the villagers. Not least former schoolmistress Agnes Sampson (Vivien Pickles) who was outraged when Bayly developed the village school into a block of luxury flats. In addition, Bayly's old schoolfriend Ian Eastman (Nick Dunning), the local estate agent, is unhappy because Bayly elected to give the sale of Tye House to a bigger company in Causton. Meanwhile, it is the eve of the Badger's Drift summer fête and a meeting is held at the vicarage to discuss the arrangements for the day. Here, Bayly announces that he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and will have to undergo major surgery to have it removed. After the meeting, Bayly asks to speak to the vicar alone. The following morning he is discovered brutally murdered in his home -decapitated with a sword.
Barnaby was looking forward to a peaceful ceremony retaking his marriage vows with his wife, but once again he and Sgt Troy are back in Badger's Drift on a case. As Barnaby points out, only two years previously, he and Troy had solved the brutal double murder of the blackmailing Iris Rainbird and her creepy undertaker son Dennis in the village (The Killing's At Badger's Drift 1997). But like the last time there is no shortage of suspects and nobody seems to be telling them the truth. But the question is why would somebody want to kill someone who was as good as dead anyway? To begin with, the Tye House development seems to be behind it all but after two more people are murdered in particularly grisly fashion, they find out about the apparent suicide of a young boy in the woods some thirty years ago. Could this be the key to the mystery?
DEATH'S SHADOW was the first episode in the second season of Midsomer Murders and also the first not adapted from a Caroline Graham novel. Anthony Horowitz whom had adapted Graham's THE KILLING'S AT BADGER'S DRIFT and WRITTEN IN BLOOD for the screen was commissioned to devise a new story. And with DEATH'S SHADOW, he delivered the goods. The story is tightly plotted delivering all the thrills and intrigue one expects of this series. Horowitz is without doubt the best screenwriter to have worked on Midsomer Murders as not only were his story lines well developed, but he also he devised a number of in-jokes and black comedy touches for the show. For instance, the elderly and fragile housekeeper Mrs Bundy (Marlene Sidaway) whom discovered the battered body of her former employer Gerald Hadleigh in WRITTEN IN BLOOD reprises her role here only this time she worked for Richard Bayly and discovered his beheaded corpse as well. Also reprising his role from WRITTEN IN BLOOD is the eccentric solicitor Mr Jocelyn (Timothy Bateson) who was Gerald Hadleigh's solicitor and Richard Bayly's as well. "The last time we met was when one of my former clients had the misfortune to be murdered and now Mr Bayly too" he sighs. There is also some hilarious comedy between Jane Wymark and John Nettles here. When Joyce discovers that a brutal murder has taken place in the village where they are about to retake their marriage vows, she screams "I just don't believe it..When we got married 25 years ago some old woman got poisoned and now when we are about to celebrate are anniversary, someone else gets brutally murdered."
Director Jeremy Silberston - who sadly passed away in 2006 - who helmed both THE KILLING'S AT BADGER'S DRIFT and WRITTEN IN BLOOD once again does fine work aided by a top notch supporting cast with guest star Richard Briers standing out as the vicar who has suffered long at the hands of his bored and nagging wife Angela (Judy Parfitt) who had planned for him to be an arch deacon or a bishop. But she moans at the fact that he's happy as a parish priest. As ever, John Nettles and Daniel Casey are a joy to watch as Barnaby and Troy as is the chemistry between Nettles and Wymark as husband and wife. In addition, every episode of Midsomer Murders that Horowitz wrote, Silberston directed and it is a remarkable combination of two exceptional talents working together perfectly with all the elements gelling perfectly. My opinion is that while Horowitz is the show's best screenwriter, Silberston was its best director as together they invest the proceedings with such a charm for vintage murder mysteries that one just doesn't see nowadays.
I've often thought that John Nettles would have made a good Q or M.
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-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/18/richard-briers
He was such a great actor and I loved him in The Good Life, Morse and in Death's Shadow, Midsomer Murders.
You'll be missed....
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Some tv series go a bit stale once the original format has played out. I have not seen enough of this series to judge, but the current leads of Neil Dudgeon and Jason Hughes are good actors. So of thw writing does not get tired, it could still hold its own.
Look how long Murder She Wrote went on for!
which is a kind of Midsomer Murders in the caribbean. Once
again not hard to solve but IMHO great fun.
I like Death in Paradise, but i.m.o. it's not as enjoyable as Midsomer Murders. Whenever MM is on, count me in, rerun or not.
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
It's supposed to be the UK's answer to those popular Moody
Scandinavian Crime dramas on BBC4.
So far I think it's very slow but as it's over eight episodes they'll
have to drag it out in some places.
Anyone watching ?
Nope, sorry... The last British adaption of a Scandinavian series I saw was Wallander. It felt a bit over-dramatised, yet it wasn't bad.