The British mystery series Midsomer Murders debuted in 1997 and enjoys global success. Aired on ITV in Britain and on cable networks such as A&E and The History Channel in the United States, Midsomer Murders is highly popular in Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Russia, and the Ukraine as well as Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Veteran British actor John Nettles plays wise and experienced Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, who is accompanied, as the seasons progress, by three different younger and greener sidekicks. Originally based on the novels of mystery writer Caroline Graham, the stories take place in the various villages of the fictional county of Midsomer, England.
Despite the quaint and picturesque settings, Midsomer's inhabitants are pure country Gothic. Hidden love affairs, skeleton-filled closets, disputed legacies, small-town politics, brawls in pubs, covert criminal activity, swapped babies... you name it, Midsomer has it. The inclusion of one to five murders per episode gives Midsomer a daunting homicide rate — 193 murders in the first twelve years of the show — which the characters make a few wry jokes about. But you'd never imagine that life there was dull. With its eccentric and usually well-to-do characters, red herrings and plot twists, Midsomer Murders is what Law & Order would be if Law & Order was set in the rural English countryside and written in the style of British "cozy" mysteries. The combination is thoroughly delightful.
Almost all of the series is available on DVD in packaged sets and, in the U.K., as single episodes. Set Twelve was released in March, 2009 and includes the second four episodes of the show's ninth season (2005/2006). DCI Barnaby is assisted by his third partner, Detective Constable Ben Jones (Jason Hughes), who joined the cast at the beginning of the season.
"Death in Chorus" opens with a local artist, Connor Simpson (Patrick Drury), making a gruesome discovery when he returns home from a bucolic day painting in the countryside. Simpson is a member of the local Midsomer Worthy church choir, which is being abusively rehearsed by its manic conductor, Laurence Barker (Peter Capaldi), for the upcoming Four Choirs competition. Simpson collapses in the middle of rehearsal, refuses offers to be helped home, and is found on his hearth rug with a bashed-in skull a few hours later. The case has a personal element for DCI Barnaby as his wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) is such an enthusiastic member of the choir that she refuses to drop out of the competition even when the whole choir receives anonymous death threats. Does the murder have a connection with the competition? And who is the person — or is it persons — sneaking around the church at night with cameras and tripods? Wymark, a trained singer, states that she had urged the producers to do an episode about a chorus or choir for years.
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