Damn, those were good! Indeed they were the finest set of Midsomer Murders in the span of the entire series. I’ve seen every one of them, courtesy of Acorn, which has released them all on DVD in the USA. I must stress that you can watch these four episodes of and enjoy them immensely without having seen the rest of the series at all, as there is almost no continuity from episode to episode beyond the recurring cast.
I’ve said it before in reviewing sets eleven and twelve of this long running series but it’s worth repeating here:
That’s the principal difference between this set of episodes and those that came before, by the way. Once again, Tom is blessed with a new sidekick. This one isn’t even a DS (Detective Sergeant); he’s a mere DC (Detective Constable). Nonetheless, Ben Jones (played by Jason Hughes) seems a much better match for Barnaby the character and Nettles the actor than the previous sidekicks (Gavin Troy played by Daniel Casey and Dan Scott played by John Hopkins).
For some reason that I could never quite figure out, Barnaby always treated his Sergeants with barely concealed contempt. He never expected them to be terrible smart, and they in turn weren’t terribly smart. Ben Jones is smart and Barnaby respects him for being so. And thus the chemistry of the two principal characters is entirely more interesting and more enjoyable to watch.
The only other characters who have continued throughout the entire series are Tom’s wife Joyce (played by Jane Wymark), his daughter Cully (played by Laura Howard) and the medical examiner George Bullard (played by Barry Jackson).
I should note that Cully will figure prominently into the plot of ‘The Axeman Cometh’ where Barnaby’s favourite rock band Hired Gun rejoin for a comeback performance in a Midsomer music festival where murder comes before music. Did I mention that this episode has blackmail, sexual perversity, drug use, crooked band managers, and murder? Not to mention Roger Chapman of Family actually playing at the Festival? Oh, and Barnaby gets to jam with The Axeman!
I think I liked ‘The Axeman Cometh’ best of the four episodes here but the other three (‘Dance with the Dead’ with a WW II mystery as part of the plot, ‘The Animal Within’ with multiple wills leading to some quite grisly murders, and ‘King’s Crystal’ in which the first murder is committed in a truly gruesome manner) are all superb.
After watching this series, I recommend watching first the other episodes with Ben Jones in them. After that, start at the beginning and get ready to watch many, many hours of interesting material.
(Acorn, 2009)
