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.
Even amid the slaughter, though, there is something undeniably cosy about Midsomer. The show’s executive producer, Michele Buck, says that the British public is “obsessed with murder. But these are scary times and everything is scary. Midsomer Murders does murder in an entertaining way. The reasons for the crimes, the acting, the characters and the methods of the deaths are larger than life. You can watch it, enjoy it and feel safe; you don’t really think you’re going to go out of your front door and someone is going to murder you and turn you into a human candle.”
For anyone who has enjoyed a lockdown binge, you’ll know the dissatisfaction of coming to an abrupt halt after just a couple of seasons. Midsomer won’t do that to you, with yet another series out this week. If anything, Buck says, Covid has opened up new possibilities for series 22. Usual commitments being put on pause has meant plenty of stars have been free to take part (Caroline Quentin, Keith Allen and Ade Edmondson are among those due to appear), and some “fabulous” locations previously impossible to film in were now available.
On top of stars already well established in the television world, Midsomer is also perfect for spotting a plethora of well-known faces before they hit the big time. Henry Cavill getting bitten by a fox and meeting a sticky – if not wholly undeserved – end, stands out for me, as well as early appearances by the likes of Orlando Bloom, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman, Hugh Bonneville and Peter Capaldi.
And who could forget the locations? If, like me, you are stuck in a small flat in the city, there is an element of escapism in glimpses of idyllic-looking villages (even if they are stuffed full of cold-blooded killers). Buck agrees that there is an element of “visual delight”. Even if you live in a chocolate-box hamlet full of thatched cottages, duck ponds and rolling green fields, Midsomer gives you the chance to see a different set of cottages, ponds and fields.
As with anything, Midsomer Murders is not perfect. There is a serious lack of diversity in the earlier series (improved upon in later offerings), and some storylines and characters that probably wouldn’t appear now. But on the whole, this is a show that has seen me through some of the strangest, darkest times imaginable. So if you need to escape the real world, why not pay a visit to Midsomer? Just keep an eye out for murderers …
Series 22 of Midsomer Murders begins on ITV on 21 March at 8pm. Series 1-21 are available to watch in the UK on BritBox.
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