Midsomer Murders – The Ballad of Midsomer County

We’re now halfway through this latest series of Midsomer Murders, with a reduced run that has had a slight positive effect on quality. ‘The Ballad of Midsomer County’ is a solid instalment that focuses on plot and characters rather than spectacle, even if the identity and the motive for the murder are somewhat obvious from the off.

Barnaby and Nelson are called to an unusual crime scene – Toby Winning, the organiser of the Lower Crosby Folk Festival is found murdered, drowned in a bowl containing eels and eggs. The murder seems to have been inspired by a song made famous by the late, lamented star Johnny Carver, but why? They learn that Winning had upset the locals with his plans to move the festival from Midsomer to London, something that particularly troubled local entrepreneur Frank Wainwright (Clarke Peters). The detectives investigate and discover a number of motives for Winning’s murder but, when there are further deaths inspired by the folk song, they must uncover whether a tragedy from the past could have a bearing on the case.

It transpires that this is the first acting role for Lucie Jones (formerly of The X Factor), and she shines as Melody Carver, a young girl struggling with her overbearing father and the legacy of her famous uncle. There’s some humour to be found with both Rakie Ayola (as the victim’s divorcing wife) and Peters as Wainwright, who has his finger in a lot of local pies. This is a uniformly strong supporting cast, with the potential exception of Stephen Hagan as Jay Templeton, a promising folk star who idolises Johnny Carver. I didn’t really buy it, and he just vanishes halfway through as more interesting characters turn up.

This instalment does a lot right

There are some slight laughs in the Barnaby homelife storyline, in which he forgets his wife’s favourite song, but not enough is done there. In the John Nettles days, the appearance of his wife meant someone to spar with and share some charming moments, and I’d like a return to that. Or, if we’re going to have these minor storylines, they need to be more than a scene or two long, or it just doesn’t work.

‘The Ballad of Midsomer County’ is a good instalment and it feels cohesive in a way that some recent Midsomers haven’t, but this has come at the expense of some of the episode’s mystery. There are a couple of twists in the episode (including the motive), but they seem too obvious far too early on – I assumed that they were just meant to be red herrings, and so was a little underwhelmed to find that I just knew the answer less than an hour in. We’ve some solid murders that are nicely themed to the ballad, although there’s a huge problem that takes away from it – given how the episode pans out, it makes no sense whatsoever that the killer would draw attention to that. This has been an issue in a few episodes of Midsomer Murders, but this is one of the worst examples.

This instalment does a lot right, boasting a typically strong Midsomer guest cast and bolstering it with both beautiful production design and a song that could easily be a folk classic. What keeps ‘The Ballad of Midsomer County’ from being an essential episode is how easy the puzzle is from the off – the solid plotting doesn’t add much if your mystery show is