Midsomer Murders
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 numerous 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 series starred John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. The character's younger cousin, DCI John Barnaby, took over his position when Nettles retired from the show in 2011. Despite the change of lead character, the show has retained its popularity and began airing the 21st series on 21 January 2020.
Summary
Midsomer Murders is a detective drama set in modern-day England. The stories revolve around the efforts of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, and later his successor, cousin 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 Gavin Troy, DS Dan Scott, DS Ben Jones, DS Charlie Nelson and DS Jamie Winter.Production
Filming of Midsomer Murders began in Autumn 1996, and the first episode, "The Killings at Badger's Drift", was 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. 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 Helen Jenkins, Jeff Povey, Nicholas Hicks-Beach, Julia Gilbert and Chris Murray.
Actor John Nettles originated the role of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. Nettles' character 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, who was first seen in a series 13 episode, "The Sword of Guillaume". Neil Dudgeon appeared for the first time in Midsomer Murders in the episode called "The Garden of Death", in which he played the role of a tongue-in-cheek gardener, Daniel Bolt, rather interested in sex.
Series 20 began in the UK on ITV on 10 March 2019, with episode 1, "The Ghosts of Causton Abbey". In the US, the entire six-episode series was immediately released on the streaming services Acorn TV and BritBox, and became available on Netflix after the UK broadcast schedule had finished.
The show's official social media confirmed that production of series 21 began in March 2019. As with series 20, series 21 will be released in the USA first. The series will premiere on Acorn TV and BritBox, 1 December 2019, before airing in the UK in January 2020.
Setting
Midsomer is a fictional English county. The county town is Causton, a medium-sized town where Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby lives with his wife, and where the Criminal Investigation Department is located. Much of the popularity of the series arises from the incongruity of sudden violence in a picturesque and peaceful rural setting. 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 its actual town of Midsomer Norton, and became a naming convention within the show. Midsomer Wellow and Causton are derived from the names of real Somerset villages Wellow and Corston.
Each episode usually contains several murders, the high body count being a well known feature of the show. Despite this, the culprit is almost never a serial killer—very frequently the murderer is driven by circumstance to compound his or her crimes, and keeps killing to cover up the original murder.
Humour is a main feature of the series. There is often dark comedy, such as a woman being murdered with a wheel of cheese, and many scenes are examples of "dramedy" ; according to RadioTimes when describing the episode "Death and the Divas" : "Midsomer Murders never takes itself too seriously but here it’s got its tongue so far into its cheek, it hurts."
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. 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". "The spirit is obviously of the '50s", Nettles remarked, and the less crowded, less complicated village/world was clearly part of the books' appeal.
Filming locations
Causton is represented by a number of towns including Thame and Wallingford, in Oxfordshire.The Six Bells, a pub in Warborough, Oxfordshire, repeatedly features as the Black Swan in the Midsomer village of Badger's Drift. The Bull & Butcher, the village pub in Turville near Henley, featured in both "Murder on St. Malley's Day" and in “Schooled in Murder".
Filming took place on Sunday 11 August 2013 at White Waltham Airfield, southwest of Maidenhead, for episode 4 of Series 16, "The Flying Club".
In "The Killings of Copenhagen" — number five in the sixteenth series and the 100th episode overall — several scenes are filmed on location in central Copenhagen, like Rådhuspladsen, Nyhavn with its canal and old colourful houses, a Danish countryside church, and at the circular courtyard inside the Copenhagen Police Headquarters building. The murder in Copenhagen is one of two within the entire series that take place outside the fictional County of Midsomer, the other being in Brighton where Inspector John Barnaby is introduced.
Characters
Episodes
The pilot episode of Midsomer Murders was shown on 23 March 1997. As of 4 February 2020, 124 episodes have been broadcast in the UK, comprising 21 series.20th Anniversary Special
In June 2019, US streaming service Acorn TV began streaming a 20th Anniversary Special presented by John Nettles. The one-hour documentary brings together former and current actors on the show as well as producers and others working behind the scene to discuss memorable moments from the past 20 series and the peculiar quirks that have made the show a success.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 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. He was reinstated, having apologised "if his remarks gave unintended offence to any viewers," but he has since stepped down as producer.The following year in series 15, Asian actors played central characters on the show for the first time, in the episode "Written in the Stars". Beginning with series 18, the show gained an Asian member for its main cast: pathologist Kam Karimore, played by Manjinder Virk.
Broadcast
, Midsomer Murders has been sold to more than 200 countries around the world. In 2004, it was among the three most-sold British TV shows worldwide, whether as TV Programming or DVD.In Australia, first-run episodes and repeats are screened on national free-to-air network ABC with repeats also shown on the Nine Network channel, 9Gem. The series was originally only 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.
In Canada, the series is broadcast on TVOntario and Book Television in Ontario, on Knowledge in British Columbia, and via American PBS channels available throughout southern parts of Canada., the first thirteen seasons are currently available in Canada on Prime Video, while all seasons are available on Britbox.
In Ireland, the series is aired on Virgin Media Three every Monday night at 8pm. It is one of the channel's highest rated shows.
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 series. The show remained on A&E for many years until it was syndicated by American Public Television for broadcast on public television stations., episodes through series 19 are available for streaming through Netflix, and all series are available from the ITV/BBC collaboration streaming service Britbox.
Soundtracks
Composed by Jim Parker, the main theme is a moderate-tempo waltz, performed 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. 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.Multiple soundtrack CDs have been released so far, containing versions of the theme and musical cues from various series.
Home media
All 114 episodes that have aired so far have been released in the UK including three Christmas specials. The first 18 series and "Part 1" of series 19 of Midsomer Murders have been released in Australia and New Zealand. 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, 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 series five, six, and seven.
- Acorn's "Village Case Files" 8 disc collection includes the 16 episodes of series eight, and nine; and a 4 minute bonus clip from series one.
- Acorn's "Mayhem & Mystery" 15 disc collection includes the 17 episodes of series ten and eleven.
- Acorn's "Tom Barnaby's Last Cases" 15 disc collection includes the 17 episodes of series twelve and thirteen.
| Discs | Region 4 | Region 2 | |
| Complete Season 1 | 3 | 18 August 2006 | – |
| Complete Season 2 | 3 | 3 July 2007 | – |
| The Complete Series One and Two | 6 | – | 6 April 2009 |
| Complete Season 3 | 2 | 3 July 2007 | – |
| Complete Season 4 | 3 | 11 August 2008 | – |
| The Complete Series Three and Four | 6 | – | 11 May 2009 |
| Complete Season 5 | 3 | 11 August 2008 | – |
| Complete Season 6 | 3 | 11 August 2008 | – |
| The Complete Series Five and Six | 6 | – | 1 June 2009 |
| Complete Season 7 | 4 6 | 3 November 2010 | 6 July 2009 |
| Complete Season 8 | 4 6 | 3 November 2010 | 3 August 2009 |
| Complete Season 9 | 4 6 | 3 November 2010 | 7 September 2009 |
| Complete Season 10 | 5 6 | 4 February 2015 | 5 October 2009 |
| Complete Season 11 | 5 6 | 4 February 2015 | 23 August 2010 |
| Complete Season 12 | 6 | 4 February 2015 | 17 April 2011 |
| Complete Season 13 | 5 6 | 4 February 2015 | 9 May 2011 |
| Complete Season 14 | 4 6 | 9 March 2016 | 2 April 2012 |
| Complete Season 15 | 4 6 | 9 March 2016 | 6 May 2013 |
| Complete Season 16 | 4 5 | 22 March 2017 | 7 July 2014 |
| Complete Season 17 | 3 4 | 22 March 2017 | 8 June 2015 |
| Complete Season 18 | 4 2 | 4 October 2017 | 16 May 2016 |
| Complete Season 19 | 4 2 | 15 August 2018 | 21 May 2018 |
| Complete Season 20 | 2 | – | 2 December 2019 |
| The Complete Seasons 1–4 | 10 | 2 August 2017 | – |
| The Complete Seasons 5–8 | 14 | 2 August 2017 | – |
| The Complete Seasons 9–12 | 19 | 11 April 2018 | – |
| The Complete Seasons 13–16 | 16 | 11 April 2018 | – |
| Seasons 1–10 | 33 | 25 October 2017 | – |