Lockdown, Lowdown… Ringside Report Looks Back at the TV Show Midsomer Murders

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Legendary television programs last legendary amounts of times. The number of seasons chalked up to them tend to define their value to the viewer and can define the outcry if the word cancelled is ever posted against their name. In the UK, the longest running television dramas with crime as their focus have been The Bill, a soap style drama based in a police station and Taggart, a gritty Scottish cop show that began with a gritty man as the protagonist and then managed to survive his death and the onscreen demise of his successor.

Long running is a moniker now attached to the 21st season of a place filled with so much murder that it is also given the title of the most murderous place on British TV.

Of course, British TV series lengths are not the same as US TV series lengths so the 400 plus episodes of NCIS or Law and Order SVU dwarf to 114 episodes of the likes of Midsomer Murders. The episode lengths are greater for the UK versions of crime dramas, and it could be argued that the quality of the productions are more measured and less pressured for the British production crews.

Midsomer Murders works, I believe, because it is quintessentially that English summer on the small screen. It harks back to a time of tea with the vicar and the gentile thrust of cricket ball on willow on the village green. The traditions of Agatha Christie, GK Chesterton, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh shine through as you follow Chief Inspector Barnaby plus sidekick in their quest to uncover the truth. It takes plenty of meandering pathways to get to the truth without exposing us to the gritty reality of life. It is bubble gum for the gum shoe, rather than a mirror up to nature.

It too survived one principal character leaving to be replaced by another. We began with John Nettles as Chief Inspector (Tom) Barnaby and then he left to be replaced by Neil Dudgeon as Chief Inspector (John) Barnaby, his cousin. A neat and original, as far as I can gather, way of keeping the show going but allowing your principal to retire with grace and not an unlikely explosion.
It is an ITV production which made its debut in 1997 and was based on the novels of Caroline Graham. 25 years later and they are still producing them – must be a reason why.

The plot tends to be quite straightforward. The fictional county of Midsomer seems to have an abundance of villages. Within these villages there seems to be lurking evil on an episode by espisode basis where the Chief Inspector needs to delve deep into the lives of the residents and uncover the secrets therein. It takes around an hour and a half for him to achieve that and we have the features of the English countryside just like it always used to be exposed without much of a nod to the contemporary landscape of modern Britain.

Much of the plot is driven by lighthearted humor and the decency of the principal characters always win out in the end. So popular, it has lasted for an incredible 21 series with 114 episodes under its belt, you never feel cerebrally challenged by the end. It began with an incredible 13 ½ Million viewers for its first episode and whilst figures are now nowhere near that – we have had the explosion of things like Netflix, Sky etc. since it launched – ITV have had a sure fire hit on their hands. Both Barnabys have had sidekicks of note including Detective Sergeant (DS) played by Gavin Troy, Daniel Casey, DS Dan Scott played by John Hopkins, DS Ben Jones, played by Jason Hughes, DS Charlie Nelson played by Gwilym Lee and finally DS Jamie Winter played by Nick Hendrix. The interplay between them has been as you would expect – light hearted.

Of course, throughout their series, the problem with the fictional demographic was quite obvious. When in 2011, series producer, Brian True-May opined that the reason for no non-white characters was that it was “the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way”, he was suspended. He then stepped away from the show.

Then followed non-white characters – in series 15…

The series has been hugely popular abroad, perhaps because it hints at a time when things were simpler in a time when things seem increasingly complex. It is your hit of nostalgia that truly makes its mark. By 2016, more than 20 countries worldwide had bought the show.

Despite the obvious gap between its origins and the 21st century, this is a classic and deserves its place in amongst the best in the UK crime drama market. Of course, diversity never hurt anyone, and they should pay attention to the world as it is now – and they do – but the quality of the characters, the production values and the way in which they have created a believable world that delivers intrigue constantly is the heart of its success.

British television is a curious affair. Begun through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) it is funded through the universal license fee. In essence, if you wanted to watch the television, you had to pay the license fee. The BBC got it all and is state run, albeit at arms-length. Then came along commercial television in the form of the Independent Television (ITV) in 1955. Designed to bring a bit of competition to the BBC, it was paid for through advertising but still free to air… well they didn’t add another license fee to it. By the time that I was born, 1965, there was BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. And that was it. It was still years before Bruce Springsteen would moan that there were 55 channels and nothing on but here in the UK, we kept this going until in 1982, we added a fourth channel and in 1997, a fifth. With sparkling imagination, they were called Channel Four and ehm Channel Five… In between came Sky and we understood what Springsteen meant. And so, my childhood and leading up to early adulthood we had three options… But the programs made were exceptionally good. And so, here is some critical nostalgia as the lockdown has brought a plethora of reruns, new formats and platforms and old classics trying to make their way back into our consciousness as broadcasters flood their schedules with classics… or are they classics at all? Let me take you through an armchair critics’ view of what we have to see, to find out… Welcome to the Lockdown Lowdown…