Midsomer Murders – The Incident at Cooper Hill

Eighteen series in, and who’d expect that Midsomer Murders could still generate such controversy? This week’s instalment, ‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’, is a bit of a return to normalcy (or as normal as you’ll find in Midsomer). Sadly, an interesting set-up doesn’t save a generally underwhelming episode.

A number of mysterious lights have been seen over Cooper Hill, a location with a history of UFO sightings. But things turn far more serious when missing forest ranger Felicity Field turns up dead, suffocated in a cocoon full of black ooze. Barnaby and Nelson investigate – but when it transpires that the substance is not known to science, is it possible to dismiss extra-terrestrial involvement? There are plenty of motives, from the possibility of an affair to her butting heads with a local UFO spotter (Steve Evets), and an estrangement with her father, Group Captain Jeremy Ford (Pip Torrens) – so why was she killed?

After the bizarre events of ‘Habeas Corpus’ last week, ‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’ is a thankful step back to the Midsomer of old (in that we actually have some murders). It’s a weird set-up that doesn’t really make sense on any reflection whatsoever, but the episode really commits to its UFO theme and it works well in production terms. The music that plays when alien encounters happen is suitably extra-terrestrial and the craft works without looking too ludicrous – the production is great, even as the narrative stumbles.

‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’ suffers from a rather haphazard script

As is typical of Midsomer Murders, ‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’ also boasts a strong supporting cast. Dudgeon gets to but heads with Torrens, playing an obstructive army captain (although still remaining the right side of sympathetic). Alison Steadman appears as a charming UFO tour guide hiding her own secrets, and Evets takes a role that could have just been a cliché and injects it with real humanity (reminding me of his role in Rev). It’s a shame that the major players in the cast don’t get that much to do, because they are the episode’s strongest asset.

However, ‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’ suffers from a rather haphazard script – it feels overly padded, with the alien theme ultimately detracting too much from the mystery (and introducing further plot holes of its own). The solution once again feels rushed out of nowhere, and I’m still unsure of the motive for one of the deaths. There are also some very daft characterisations here, such as making half of this village incredible technological geniuses, and it really stretches belief – this is most an issue in the reveal of the UFO operator, a really non-descript character who is, like, the fifth genius in the episode.

On the subject of geniuses, it seems that new pathologist Kam is going to be defined as a genius who knows everything and is brilliant at everything, and there’s just no fun in that (particularly as Virk is no nearly good enough an actor to sell it, looking as confused as the viewer feels when she describes polymers). She gets far too much time in the episode, time which I’d rather have been used to strengthen the Barnaby birthday subplot – there was potential there, but too little is done with it for it to really make it work.

‘The Incident at Cooper Hill’ is a step-up from last week, but it still feels as though series 18 hasn’t found its footing yet. An interesting premise and a good cast are mostly wasted in a script that feels both bloated and under-filled, rendering the episode a bit of a waste of time. Hopefully things will pick up in later episodes, because this isn’t a good run so far.