Midsomer Murders – Habeas Corpus

We’re back with a new series of Midsomer Murders, and this 18^th run kicks off with one of the most different stories to date – believe no-one who says that the show doesn’t try new things. The big question, though, is does ‘Habeas Corpus’ work, and the answer to that sadly has to be a big no. It tries something new, but the experiment really doesn’t pay off, leaving the whole episode feeling completely dull.

Wealthy landowner Gregory Lancaster dies of pneumonia, surrounded by his family and the local doctor. When the undertaker arrives a short while, the group find that the body has vanished. What looks to be a sick prank soon becomes more sinister as the body of the family’s former nanny is dug up at the local cemetery and also taken. Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and Nelson are called to investigate, aided by new pathologist Kam Karimore (Manjinder Virk), and they look into the macabre world of body snatching as they seek to identify the culprit. What has spurred this string of body snatches, and who is responsible?

You may have gathered that what makes ‘Habeas Corpus’ a particularly novel episode of Midsomer is that we’re investigating disappearances and body snatching, not murders. I’ve no issue with the change of pace, but the lack of any sign of a murder strips away a lot of the tension, and it often feels like the episode has no idea what to do with its time. There’s far too much padding, and very little actually happens at all. Annoyingly, the ending is then rushed, meaning that very few of the few mysteries we receive are answered, and it’s incredibly frustrating as a viewer.

To give you some idea of what we’re dealing with, perhaps the most engaging scene is a one-minute shot in which two men climb some rope (I kid you not). Subplots involving a friendly vicar and the activities of the doctor and the undertaker just go nowhere, and it renders ‘Habeas Corpus’ a dull watch. I don’t necessarily need murders, but I need something in the way of an engaging story.

There are few saving graces in ‘Habeas Corpus’

The sheer amount of filler helps explain some other issues. There’s a subplot in which a toy keeps moving around Barnaby’s house – there’s only one possible solution (you may even be able to imagine it now) and it really does stretch belief that it takes all episode to solve it. And then, we have Kam, our new pathologist – one episode in, and I’m not overly keen. She seems very wooden and condescending, but I do acknowledge that an episode lacking bodies puts a pathologist character in a weird space, so I’ll wait to fully make up my mind.

There are a few saving graces in ‘Habeas Corpus’, and they’re mostly confined to the supporting cast. I feel sorry for them, because you’ve a good bunch of actors given so little to do – Sarah Middleton is good as an undertaker’s apprentice with suspicions about her boss, and both Diana Quick and Helen Baxendale (as the matriarch and daughter of the Lancaster family) are always welcome. They shine, even if the material really doesn’t.

I’ve no issue with Midsomer Murders trying a change of pace (as it has done in other episodes, such as ‘Last Year’s Model’ and the brilliant ‘Murder by Innocence’), but ‘Habeas Corpus’ is an example of how not to do it. In a move to shake up the show’s formula, this episode forgets to replace it with anything, thus proving incredibly uneventful and boring. Even at its worst, Midsomer Murders was never boring. The only consolation after watching this episode is the certain knowledge that the next one can’t be worse.