Now on its 22nd series, this oddly comforting depiction of death in a chocolate-box county offers picturesque locations, early outings by acting royalty – and creative murder methods
Like many others, I have immersed myself in box sets, chiefly crime dramas, as a coping mechanism throughout the nightmare that has been the past year. But after scaring myself silly with The Fall and ending up cross-eyed with confusion at Marcella, I believe I have found the perfect lockdown watch: Midsomer Murders. I am not alone, either: viewing of show repeats was up 39% last year, with the biggest repeat audience for 2020 during the first lockdown: 2.4 million viewers.
For the uninitiated, each episode features a murder or four in the bucolic, fictional county of Midsomer, which DCI Barnaby and his detective sergeant then go on to solve. Even when half the partnership retires or moves on to pastures new, there is always another DCI or DS waiting in the wings toas ensure a seamless transition. For maximum continuity, we didn’t even have to learn a new name when John Nettles stepped down as DCI Tom Barnaby; he was replaced by his on-screen cousin John Barnaby, played by Neil Dudgeon.
The consistency does not stop there. There is a pattern to the plot, too: at least one murder early doors and probably at least a couple more untimely demises after that. Whoever looked fishy in the first half is almost definitely innocent, while someone who seems innocuous early on is probably guilty as sin. But you can rest easy: the murderer will get their comeuppance by the end of the episode, carted off in a police car (we’re thankfully spared any courtroom drama). Of course there is art in nuance, unanswered questions and cliffhanger endings, but, in these unpredictable times, I’m craving a bit of certainty – and Causton CID’s finest provide that without fail.
If lockdown drudgery means you’re looking for a bit of variety, though, you’re also catered for. Over 21 series and 126 episodes, its writers have found all sorts of ways to bump characters off. There are your common-and-garden shootings, stabbings and blunt-force-traumas, but they also branch out. Some especially choice slayings have included drowning in a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, being smeared with truffle oil to encourage fatal mauling by wild boar, and crushing by tank, newspapers and a giant wheel of cheese.
