Midsomer Murders - Set Four | John Nettles (II), Daniel Casey

Midsomer Murders - Set Four | John Nettles (II), Daniel Casey | Murders in imaginary rural England

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	Midsomer Murders - Set Four John Nettles (II), Daniel Casey Acorn Media, 2004 average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Midsomer Murders, Set Four, continues to keep DCI Tom Barnaby busy with an ever-growing number of bodies

"Make the call, Troy." When Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) says this to his police sergeant, Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), you can be sure he's found another body in one of the cosy, peaceful villages located in Midsomer County. All of the little picture-perfect villages and small towns have a wide and varied assortment of English citizens, ranging from wealthy magistrates and high Church of England prelates to milkmen and shopkeepers, wives and lovers, thieves and...a lot of murderers. Barnaby must apply all his experience, skepticism, persistence and unflappability to catch the culprits.

For the record, Set Four's mysteries are: Tainted Fruit (death by injection), set in the village of Midsomer Malham; Ring Out Your Dead (shootings), set in Midsomer Mellow; Murder on St. Malley's Day (knifing), set in Devington School near Midsomer Parva; Market for Murder (car fire) set in Midsomer Market; and A Worm in the Bud (drowning), set in Midsomer Worthy.

The charm of this series lies partly in its setting. Midsomer County is a very pretty place, green and cared for. The towns are tidy, filled with competent and knowledgeable tradesmen; the villages tend to have a few eccentrics and a lot of thatched roofs. This could be much too cosy except for three things. First, the performance by John Nettles. He's a fine actor who is completely at home in the role. Watching his Barnaby think his way through clever mysteries, unfailingly polite and unfailingly unintimidated, is a pleasure. Second, the mysteries themselves. This series has been going on through eight seasons. DVD sets are out for six of them so far. The mysteries are almost always real puzzlers; not flashy, but well disguised. They are consistently interesting and well written. In Set Four, I particularly liked one very black comedy (Ring Out Your Dead), one well-constructed look at the corrupting pleasures of an old-boy network (Murder on St. Malley's Day), and one examination of overlapping motives (A Worm in the Bud). The mysteries also play fair with the viewer. The clues Barnaby discovers all have been there for us to find as well as for him. Third, the quality of the production and the actors. I suspect a substantial budget has been allocated for each episode. The series looks first-rate. The actors are first-rate, too, which is typical of British productions which find their way over here. Daniel Casey does a fine job as Barnaby's assistant. He respects his boss and is smart enough to learn from him. But he also can be exasperated at Barnaby's penchant for not sharing everything. And he occasionally gets put out when an apparently important car trip (Troy almost always drives them) turns out to be a trip for a bacon sandwich Barnaby's been thinking about. Barnaby's wife is played by Jane Wymark, and it's a pleasure to observe how much at ease the two actors are with each other. They play a long-married couple, still in love and with a comfortable kind of middle-aged affection for each other. All the actors do outstanding jobs, and there usually is a sprinkling of well-known names. In Set Four, which consists of five programs of about an hour and forty minutes each, there are Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Gemma Jones, Anton Rogers, Graham Crowden, Carmen du Santoy, Ian Hogg and Desmond Barret.

If you're in the mood for civilized British television mysteries, where the mean streets have more cobblestones than crushed beer cans, where the occasional drug user is not a grubby loser but an upper-class wife, where the chief copper has a happy home life and no angst to share with the viewers, Midsomer Murders might be just the thing. The mysteries are consistently well developed and puzzling, and the acting is solid.

The programs in each set do not reflect very accurately the order in which the programs appear in each season's series. It doesn't make any difference since each mystery is self-contained. The DVD picture is excellent. There are a few extras such as a map of Midsomer County showing the towns and villages, cast filmographies of the major players and a biography of Carolyn Graham, the author of the books the series is based on.

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Murders in imaginary rural England

Delightful imaginary villages (probably mostly filmed in Surrey) are rocked by series of murders always solved by Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (who never looses his cool)with the help of his assistant Troy who is a terrible driver. The dialogue is pleasant, the relationship between the main detective and his assistant is that of kindly master and pupil, the detective work is interspersed with clues, so you can (maybe) guess the culprit, and the scenery is delightful. What more could you want of a detective series? I also love the eery theme tune.
It has no intellectual pretensions, like a Morse might. It has no really fast action, like an MI5 has. It is not complicated like the CSIs. It is not as funny as a Rumpole. It does have some 'ancient history' of characters, like some Agatha Christies. Only drawback: sensitive souls (esp. children) might be a little shocked by some of the gruesome murder scenes - not that you see much of them at all. All in all, a very civilized detective.
In case you are looking for particular episodes, the episodes in this series are: Tainted Fruit, Ring out your Dead (featuring villages Church Bell Ringing competition), Murder on St Malley's Day (featuring an English private school),Market for Murder (about a lady's reading group), and A Worm in the Bud.

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I am so Happy to be Back in Midsomer!

After a couple of box sets of CSI, it is so wonderful to be watching Inspector Barnaby deal with murders that involve more ratiocination than chemical reaction. After peering at corpses in various states of disassembly it is great to see only the occasional shot of stage blood-- although Murder on St. Malley's Day has one truly grusome moment that can cause you to drop your popcorn!

Snobbery and felony keep things going at a ively clip on Barnaby's patch.

Another Gem In This Series

Earns the same high standard of excellence common in this entire series. Plots are good, complex and have a plethera of murders to keep one riveted. If you think you've picked out the "who dunnit",think again. Barnaby will pull the wool over your eyes, as usual! The English countryside back drop throughout this series is very beautiful. You'll never go wrong with any one set from the series. In fact, once bitten, you'll become an addict!

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british mysteries

As great as the rest cds. No real hard violence in any part of the series. I do recommend the very highly.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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