The suburbs are at best supposed to be an escape from the crime-ridden and corrupt world of life in the city. The stereotype, which is what it really is, makes for an interesting plot device for film and television. ITV's Midsomer Murders sometimes feels like a drive through the mind of Charles Manson if he lived in suburbia with Agatha Christie.
Currently in its eleventh season, Midsomer Murders is a series of mysteries involving death and corruption in the English countryside inspired by the Tom Barnaby detective novels of Caroline Graham. Although the episodes have moved further and further away from the source material that inspired them, the show remains relatively the same. I don’t mind that in a television show.
Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) plays a detective chief inspector who investigates murders in the Midsomer counties. He’s a bit clichéd in one sense because at times he seems to love his job more than his own family, which consists of his actress daughter Cully (Laura Howard) and his wife Joyce (Jane Wymark). On the other hand, he never takes the job home with a sense of dread.
Instead, he tends to mock the situations he finds himself in. That in itself is a rare quality in crime dramas these days. Take a look at the average episode of Inspector Morse next to an episode of Midsomer Murders and you’ll likely see the difference.
There have been three partners (detective sergeants) in the course of the eleven seasons the show has been on. The first was Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), who left the series after his character passed the sergeants' exam and moved on to another station. The second one was Dan Scott (John Hopkins), who left the series after becoming mysteriously “ill” off-screen. The third, currently in the series, is Ben Jones (Jason Hughes).
Out of the three partners Barnaby has had, the award for the best easily goes to Daniel Casey's Troy. He was bumbling and tactless and had a penchant for political incorrectness compared to the rather mature and insightful Barnaby. John Hopkins' Scott could have easily been as good as Troy; instead he was written as merely wallpaper. It's hard to say how I feel about Hughes as Ben Jones; aside from being a Freemason, his character is written to be as flat as a pancake.
Article comments