Earlier on, we are tipped who the guilty person is. How? Well. throughout the history of MSM the Christian religion has received quite a bit of bad treatment by the writers/producers. And here, early on, shortly after the first victim is discovered, the man that is the murderer is sitting at the local pub. Where he tells those near him that they ought to go to the local church and pray for the victim's soul Their reactions to this tells it all. Had I been more alert I would have known that he was the murderer, it is all so obvious. The treatment that this Barnaby gives Jones is bad. At one point he refers to Jones as a donkey. And this Barnaby loves to laud his degree in psychology over Jones. Boorish at the least. His (Barnaby's) air of superiority is a big fail, one wonders if future episodes will tone this boorish behavior down. It is a real drag. In the remote hamlet of Goodman's Land, local postman and Lothario Dave Cutler is murdered during his early postal delivery. Barnaby and Troy, together with WPC Jay Nash ( Gillian Kearney), start investigating and discover Dave had had numerous affairs with women in the village. A witness later recalls having heard strange 1950s dance music before the murder. When a local man's wife, an antique dealer, and a businessman ( Alan Howard) all become victims to the killer as well, the detectives need to find a possible link to connect the murders before Jay gets into a perilous situation herself. Celia Imrie also appears. After attending a retirement party for ex police officers, Elaine Bennet dies crashing her car. Fleur informs Barnaby that someone has tampered with Elaine’s car and the night before, she had an argument with Giles Franklyn in the car park. Challis Court is a tight-knit community for the retired police officers and one of the resident’s houses is broken into, where much of the evidence is stolen and destroyed. Damian Bennet is also found murdered and a well kept lie may help Barnaby and Winter to uncover the culprit.

Now we have the older couple. They are too into their telly to care about anything or anyone (including son). How they die? Sledgehammer to the heads!! Reminds me of that great Peter Gabriel song. Why? Because the man lets it slip that their "bastard""good for nothing" son was just that....a bastard. They never got around to marrying each other. Oh, and they laugh and laugh. And so, BAM, right in the head. Did they move? Nope. Too into the telly. New meaning to the phrase how watching too much telly can rot your brain. And last was the young lady who was roomies with the first victim. Why was she about to get her "due"? Because she was seeing a married man. So, yea, she had to go. But who saves the day? The peeping Tom! He saved the day. All in the name of David's "God". David, the pent up virgin who was a teacher who taught about history and how people died....yea! The "alleged motive" is usually some form of sexual frustration as in this episode. This means that the serial killer is almost always male, and the victims are almost always female, usually young women or girls. Note: the blood-red drips behind the letters of the title have returned, after having been changed to multi-color for two series. No. The scene at the end, where John was shaking, was a decent touch because you can see someone "breaking" his pompous self. This killer (imho) got to him.New acting Chief Superintendent John Cotton plans a team-building exercise at a Territorial Army centre run by Colonel Matt Parkes. Barnaby and Jones are very reluctant to take part, and when an explosion at the Parkes family haulage yard occurs, the detectives see the investigation as an opportunity to avoid the team building event. It is not long after that a body is discovered in a trunk that resurfaces from the nearby lake. The victim is identified as Alec Grainger, who had been arguing with Colonel Parkes' son Jamie. When Jamie is also found murdered, the detectives are faced with an abundance of suspects and motives, as Jamie seemed to have been universally hated. The village doctor ( Ian McNeice) of Newton Magna involves the police after he accidentally hits a man in the road following a party. However, the injured man is nowhere to be found. The body of Robin Wooliscroft, who disappeared over a year before, is then found in a well, having been bludgeoned to death. DCI Barnaby and DS Troy come across suspicions and all the lies, disapproving families, resentments, and hidden secrets, before another victim ( Jane Lapotaire) is found and they get to the truth. A 90-year-old feud between the male and female inhabitants of Broughton comes to a head with a Skimmington Ride event. When elderly Ms. Danvers is poisoned shortly before the event takes place, Barnaby and Jones must investigate whether her murder was related to the feud or another unknown cause. When the Rev. Anthony Gant is shot and killed whilst taking part in the traditional ride, and another murder follows, it seems likely that there are deeper secrets to uncover. When Bernard King, the owner of Finchmere airfield, is dropped to his death from a plane, Barnaby and Nelson enter a world of stunt pilots and military heroes. Upon investigating, they discover many hidden secrets. Possible suspects include anti-aircraft campaigners and employees who might lose their jobs after an imminent restructuring of the flying club. A tragic mission in World War II seems to hold a clue. Barnaby and Jones attend the Midsomer Abbas spring fair, a celebration of the village’s friendship with Midsomer Herne. After sampling the local cider, Barnaby becomes unwell, and moments later the body of Peter Slim is discovered inside the cider vat. Peter had been a tax inspector searching for illicit alcohol. The investigation reveals two very insular communities wedded to ancient traditions and suspicious of outsiders. When the bloodied fingerprints of the local cider mill owner are found on a wooden staff linked to the murder, the case seems solved. But Barnaby has his doubts. Meanwhile, the local vicar, the Reverend Conrad Walker, is appalled at plans to revive an ancient fertility rite known as 'The Stag,' and soon afterwards is himself murdered. Upon discovering that a local girl had been married to Peter Slim, the detectives realise that the motive for the killings is far darker than they had imagined.

Spoiler Alert: Reading this critique may affect your enjoyment of this episode if you have not seen this episode. Peter and Caroline Cave are house-hunting in Midsomer Newton and view a tumbledown cottage in secluded woodland. The following morning they are both found dead in their car near the house. DCI Barnaby and Acting DC Ben Jones enter a world where crooked estate agents, property developers, and eccentric villagers all seem to be withholding information. It is not long before another villager is murdered. The detectives find out that a years-old armed robbery holds the key to the case. When the archaeologists working on the dig in Midsomer Cicely unearth Cicely herself, this causes celebration. But shortly afterwards, the leader of the dig is murdered and found in one of the excavated trenches. DCI Barnaby and DS Nelson soon uncover many misdeeds in the village, and almost everyone has a skeleton in the closet that they would rather keep hidden. The truth will resurface but not before more murders take place. The writing is thin and the plot unconvincing. The killer's motive is contrived and preposterous, and by the way, insulting to people of faith. The murders are elaborately staged for no other reason to fill in for what is missing in plot and character development. John Barnaby sort of happens on the solution rather than solving it with his supposed detective skills. A new sculpture park opens in the village of Angel's Rise. On its opening night, Brandon Monkford is found murdered beside one of the centrepiece sculptures. It transpires that after Brandon’s wife Alexandra had started a relationship with Daniel Fargo, Brandon had cut Alexandra and their two children from his will, leaving the sculpture park instead to Tony Pitt. There is fury in the village when Tony reveals all of his plans for the sculpture park. Tony is the next murder victim and is discovered near the sculpture park. Further mystery ensues when it emerges that Lance Orden, the famous artist believed to have created the sculptures, had plagiarised his ideas.

See also

David confessed in his studies while teaching history and the French language, he adored the sensation of the early 19th century murders he first emulated, hoping to create his own painted pictures. John Barnaby, who was always furious from the extreme violence of the murders, merely hissed at David for feeling like he wanted to play God over innocent people by "punishing" them as he saw fit. David said nothing as he was taken away. An old pagan festival is revived in Midsomer Parva, with the burning effigy of a straw woman as its centrepiece. To the horror of the onlookers, the local curate, Alex Deakin, is found trapped within the effigy and burns to death. As the police investigate, a series of further deaths from apparent spontaneous human combustion follow. Barnaby and Scott soon suspect that someone is using the illusion of witchcraft to hide their true motives. From the pilot episode in 1997 until 2 February 2011 the lead character, DCI Tom Barnaby, was portrayed by John Nettles OBE.