Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders
Genre	Crime drama, mystery fiction
Based on	Chief Inspector Barnaby by Caroline Graham
Directed by	Luke Watson Andy Hay Renny Rye Nick Laughland Simon Langton Alex Pillai Vivaan Salvi Peter Smith Sarah Hellings Jeremy Silberston Richard Holthouse
Starring	John Nettles Daniel Casey Barry Jackson Jane Wymark Laura Howard Toby Jones John Hopkins Jason Hughes Kirsty Dillon Neil Dudgeon Fiona Dolman Tamzin Malleson Gwilym Lee Manjinder Virk Nick Hendrix Annette Badland
Composer(s)	Jim Parker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	20
No. of episodes	122 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Brian True-May (1–89) Jo Wright (90–115) Jonathan Fisher (116–) Michele Buck (116–)
Producer(s)	Betty Willingale
Cinematography	Colin Munn Graham Frake
Editor(s)	Derek Bain
Running time	89–102 minutes
Production company(s)	Bentley Productions
Distributor	All3Media
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	16 mm film: 576i 4:3 (SDTV) (1997–2004) Super 16 mm film: 576i 16:9 (SDTV) (2004–09) High Definition Digital: 1080i 16:9 (HDTV) (2009–present)
Audio format	Stereo (1997–2004) Dolby Digital 5.1 (2004–present)
Original release	23 March 1997 – present
External links
Website

Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on Caroline Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby book series, as originally adapted for television by Anthony Horowitz. A major success in viewership since its first episode, the series has been marketed worldwide in more than 200 countries.

Set within small English country villages, the show has an unusual identity as a crime drama peppered with both lighthearted whimsy and dark humour. The first 13 seasons starred John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Tom Barnaby. The character's younger cousin, DCI John Barnaby (played by Neil Dudgeon), took over his position when Nettles retired from the show in 2011. Despite the change of lead character (and numerous changes among secondary players), the show has retained its popularity and as of 2018 has completed its 20th season.

Summary

Midsomer Murders is a detective drama^[1] set in modern-day England. The stories revolve around the efforts of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (and later his successor, John Barnaby) to solve numerous murders that take place in the picturesque but deadly villages of the fictional county of Midsomer. The Barnabys have worked with several different sergeants throughout the run of the show: Detective Sergeant (DS) Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), DS Dan Scott (John Hopkins), DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes), DS Charlie Nelson (Gwilym Lee) and DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix).

Production

Filming of Midsomer Murders began in Autumn 1996, with the first episode, "The Killings at Badger's Drift", broadcast in the United Kingdom on 23 March 1997. This inaugural episode was the highest-rated single drama programme of 1997, watched by 13.5 million viewers.^[2] Throughout its run, the feature-length drama has attracted many well-known accomplished actors from the stage and screen in guest-starring roles.

Anthony Horowitz and the original producers, Betty Willingale and Brian True-May, created the series. Horowitz adapted the majority of the early episodes from the original works by Caroline Graham. Current writers include Paul Logue, Chris Murray, Lisa Holdsworth, Rachel Cuperman and Sally Griffiths. Actor John Nettles retired at the end of 2010, after the 13th series of eight episodes; his last episode was "Fit for Murder". Neil Dudgeon replaced him in the 14th series, playing Tom Barnaby's cousin, DCI John Barnaby,^[3] who is first seen in the episode "The Sword of Guillaume".

It was announced on 7 April 2017 that the show will return to ITV for a 20th series, consisting of six episodes, with Annette Badland as new pathologist Dr Fleur Perkins.^[4]

Setting

Midsomer is an English fictional county. The county town is Causton, a middle-sized town where Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby lives with his wife, and where the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is located. Much of the popularity of the series arises from the incongruity of sudden violence in a picturesque and peaceful rural setting. Individual episodes focus on institutions, rituals, and customs popularly seen as characteristic of rural English counties. Various clues in several episodes hint that Midsomer might actually cover the areas of Berkshire and part of northern Hampshire.

Many of the villages and small towns of the county have the word "Midsomer" in their name; this is inspired in part by the real county of Somerset, and specifically the town of Midsomer Norton, and became a naming convention within the show. When Mrs Barnaby proposed they move out of Causton and suggested various villages, her husband countered with recollections of particularly grisly murders that occurred in each community. Likewise, in "The Fisher King" (season 7, episode 3) DS Dan Scott asked if the body count was "always this high around here, sir?"; Barnaby replied, "It has been remarked upon."

Humour is a main feature of the series. There is often dark comedy, such as a woman being murdered with a wheel of cheese,^[5] and many scenes are examples of "dramedy" (comic drama or dramatic comedy); according to RadioTimes when describing the episode Death and the Divas (series 15, episode 4): "Midsomer Murders never takes itself too seriously but here it’s got its tongue so far into its cheek, it hurts."^[6]

Nostalgia has also been a feature of the show, especially in its Nettles era. Most episodes have been set in hermetic rural villages of a kind that were already changing rapidly by the time the series began, Nettles opined in a 2003 interview.^[7] The old-fashioned settings are true to the Graham novels: "Although the books are set in the present," wrote one reviewer, Graham's country villages "seem to come from another time".^[8] "The spirit is obviously of the '50s", Nettles remarked, and the less crowded, less complicated village/world was clearly part of the books' appeal.^[8]

Characters

Episodes

The pilot episode of Midsomer Murders was shown on 23 March 1997. As of 20 May 2018, 116 episodes have been broadcast in the UK, comprising 19 series.

List of fictional villages in Midsomer

Controversy

In March 2011, the series' producer, Brian True-May, was suspended by All3Media after telling the TV listings magazine Radio Times that the programme did not have any non-white characters because the series was a "bastion of Englishness." When challenged about the term "Englishness" and whether that would exclude different ethnic minorities, True-May responded: "Well, it should do, and maybe I'm not politically correct." He later went on to say that he wanted to make a programme "that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed." True-May's comments were investigated by the production company.^[16] He was reinstated, having apologised "if his remarks gave unintended offence to any viewers," but he has since stepped down as producer.^[17][18]

The following series (series 15) saw Asian characters appear on the show in the episodes "The Dark Rider" and "Written in the Stars,"^[19] (an Asian character had previously appeared in "Orchis Fatalis"). Series 15 also introduced more black characters, although previously they had been seen in background scenes, but had not had many speaking roles except for the Crown Prosecutor in the episode "Last Year's Model" (Series 9, episode 8), who was a black woman, and in the episode "Dance With The Dead", in which two black men were among the dancers at a 1940s-themed party. In episode 3 of series 11 ("Left for Dead"), the character Charlotte/Charlie (played by Indra Ové as the adult version and Jade Gould as the younger version) appeared to be of mixed race.

Broadcast

As of 2016, Midsomer Murders has been sold to more than 200 countries around the world.^[2] In 2004, it was among the three most-sold British TV shows worldwide, whether as TV Programming or DVD.^[20]

In Australia first-run episodes and repeats are screened on national free-to-air network ABC with repeats also shown on sister station ABC2. The series was originally aired on the Nine Network. Repeat screenings are also aired on the subscription channels UKTV and 13th Street. A measure of the success of the series in Australia is that repeats of the series still rate highly and often feature in the nation's top twenty shows in national surveys.^[21][22]

In Canada the series is broadcast on TVOntario and Book Television in Ontario, and on Knowledge in British Columbia, which in 2014 was showing Series 16.

In Ireland, the series is shown by Be3.

In New Zealand the series was broadcast on TVNZ until it's been broadcast for a number of years on the free-to-air channel Prime.

In the United States, the series was first aired by A&E, which broadcast "The Killings at Badger's Drift" on 28 June 1998 and followed with the next four episodes over the 1998–99 season.^[8] The show remained on A&E for many years until it was syndicated by American Public Television for broadcast on public television stations. As of December 2017, episodes through series 19 are available for streaming through Netflix.

Soundtracks

Composed by Jim Parker, the iconic main theme is a moderate-tempo waltz, performed (primarily though not exclusively) on an unusual electronic musical instrument, the theremin, which has a sound not unlike a low whistle or a human voice. The theremin part was played by Celia Sheen (1940–2011). From the 14th series onwards the soundtrack was altered so that during the closing titles a standardised version of the theme is played on a solo violin in place of the theremin. Occasionally a version with a longer introduction opens the show, using a flute rather than a theremin as the lead instrument.

Three soundtrack CDs have been released so far, containing musical cues from various series. The first two sold out quickly and are now out of print, making them extremely hard to find. The most recent soundtrack is currently being given away to subscribers of the Midsomer Murders DVD/Magazine package in the UK and the Netherlands.

DVD releases

All 114 episodes that have aired so far have been released in the UK (Region 2) including three Christmas specials. The first 18 series and "Part 1" of series 19 of Midsomer Murders have been released in Australia^[23] and New Zealand (Region 4). Note that episodes 1 to 100 were originally released as 25 "sets", which are now discontinued, and have been rereleased as "series" 1 to 16 in redesigned packages.

In January 2006, Midsomer Murders started a DVD and Magazine Collection, available at newsagents in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK.

Acorn Media UK has released 24 DVD sets of Midsomer Murders in North America as well as several collections, which are:

• The Early Cases 10 disc collection of 18 episodes includes the pilot episode and those of series one, two, three, and four (except the last episode), as well as a bonus disc featuring a behind-the-scenes documentary.
• Acorn's "Barnaby's Casebook" 10 disc collection has 17 episodes, including the last episode of series four, followed by those of seasons five, six, and seven.
• Acorn's "Village Case Files" 8 disc collection includes the 16 episodes of seasons eight, and nine; and a 4 minute bonus clip from season one.
• Acorn's "Mayhem & Mystery" 15 disc collection includes the 17 episodes of seasons ten and eleven.
• Acorn's "Tom Barnaby's Last Cases" 15 disc collection includes the 17 episodes of seasons twelve and thirteen.

Books

• Graham, Caroline (1987). The Killings at Badger's Drift. ISBN 978-0-917561-41-2.
• Graham, Caroline (1989). Death of a Hollow Man. ISBN 978-0-7126-2911-9.
• Graham, Caroline (1993). Death in Disguise. ISBN 978-0-7472-0608-8.
• Graham, Caroline (1994). Written in Blood. ISBN 978-0-7472-4664-0.
• Graham, Caroline (1996). Faithful unto Death. ISBN 978-0-7472-1665-0.
• Graham, Caroline (1999). A Place of Safety. ISBN 978-0312244194.
• Graham, Caroline (2004). A Ghost in the Machine. ISBN 978-0755307722.
• Evans, Jeff (2003). Midsomer Murders: The Making of An English Crime Classic. Batsford. ISBN 9780713487688.

References

External links

• Midsomer Murders at itv.com
• Midsomer Murders on IMDb
• Midsomer Murders at TV.com
• "UK Publisher for Midsomer Murders DVDs". Acorn DVD.