The library keeps coughing up copies of the British tv mystery Midsomer Murders and I keep watching them. The show started in 1997 and it's still going. This list is what the Wikipedia calls series 7 and it's the list I'm using to make sure I see them all. The previous 6 series had 28 of the 90 minute long episodes and the 7th has 7 more. The library has 89 of them and that takes us up to the last series. So far most of them have been on YouTube. I have put the link to each episode in the title.
John Nettles play Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, Daniel Casey plays Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy, and John Hopkins plays Detective Sergeant Daniel Scott. They go about the fictional region, Midsomer, and solve the never ending stream of murders the area spawns. Tom does most of the work, the other guys are usually a bit behind. There's a smashing amount of great scenery, scads of grand houses and heaps of dead people. The stories are pretty entertaining and often the end comes out of nowhere. That might just be me, I rarely try to figure out who the murder is. Why would you, that's Tom's job. There's plenty of great characters, some nice and some you'd enjoy hating.
The Green Man November 2 2003 It's Gavin's last episode, he's been promoted to Inspector. Barnaby puts him in charge of the murder of a young man. David Bradley plays a hermit type who lives alone in the woods, he'd had a dust up with the dead man. I didn't think he did it, he has a fox for a friend. A cave in at a restoration project unearths some 100 year old skeletons, one of which turns out to be really recent. That's Midsomer, you can't even get through pokin' one dead body with a stick before another shows up. I'll miss Gavin's bad driving. I bet Tom won't.
Bad Tidings January 4 2004 DS Dan Scott reports for duty. He doesn't even get to his desk before Tom drags him off to a field with a dead woman in it. A dead woman with a rose in her mouth. DS Scott is lacking any interest in the area and hopes to move along soon. He'd been sent there as punishment for something. He's got some issues. He could learn from Tom, we'll see how he does. Scott gets a bit of settling in from Tom's daughter Cully. She's got a re-union with some college friends that ties in with the second murder. What up, Midsomer? Ruth Jones guests as a woman with a secret.
The Fisher King January 11 2004 A local wag got stuck with an ancient Celtic spear and that opens up a nice can of worms for our detective guys. There's some naughty stuff going on in the village and some people are pissed enough to kill. DS Scott sure is getting a lot of on the job training in Midsomer.
Sins of Commission January 18 2004 There's a big literary festival going on in Midsomer St Michael. A writer has his neck broken and then his body is dumped down some stairs to make it look like an accident. The Causton Police Forensic scientist figures the neck was broken before the fall. Cully's writer pal is a suspect. Tom's family seem to get caught up in the murders on a pretty regular basis. An editor is killed before Tom figures out what's going on.
The Maid in Splendour January 25 2004 Someone shot the barman of the Maid In Splendour pub. The owner of the pub isn't well liked. If you lived in Midsomer, and weren't liked, you'd be worried you might be next. The pub owner is next.
The Straw Woman February 29 2004 Pagen festivals will lead to murder, in Midsomer. Well, just about anything will lead to murder in Midsomer. A straw woman is burned at the festival. Oops, someone left the curate inside. Everyone hears him yelling but the fire is roaring and no one has any fire suppression. He was alive, drugged unconscious, when he was put in there. Some really fuckin' awful people live in Midsomer. Who put that guy in there, and why? Tom wants to know and he takes DS Scott for a poke around. Before too long there's another murder. Good thing they have a huge morgue in Causton. It's one of my favorite episodes so far, a nice complicated story, clever tricks, plenty of great entertaining characters, and well detailed place to play.
Ghosts of Christmas Past December 25 2004 Good show for the holidays and a pretty good episode. A Christmas cracker announces that 2 members of the Villiers family will die by midnight Boxing Day. That's the 26th. When someone turns up dead, Tom is almost glad to be out of the house. He's got a bad case of in-laws.
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