Midsomer Murders – Saints and Sinners

Given that so many murder mysteries are centred around looking into the past to unearth secrets, setting one on an archaeological dig makes so much sense. That’s the premise of this week’s instalment of Midsomer Murders, ‘Saints and Sinners’, in which a local discovery is the inciting incident for murder. It’s got enjoyable performances and most of a satisfying mystery, but it once again suffers from its conclusion.

A team of archaeologists find the discovery of a lifetime at a dig in the village of Midsomer Cicely – the bones of a local saint. But news of the discovery is treated with hostility by many of the villagers, and things soon turn fatal when the leader of the dig is found murdered, buried alive on the dig site. Her colleague Penny Henderson (Julia Sawalha) suggests that the murder may have been motivated by robbery, but Barnaby and Nelson also come across a local vicar, Peter Corby (Malcolm Sinclair), who claims he already has the saint’s relics on display in his church. The detectives must dig into the past to find the true motive for the murder.

I found the story in ‘Saints and Sinners’ to be particularly engaging, with a bunch of interesting characters and murders that balance the fine line between interesting and stupid. The big issue is that all of the groundwork laid in the first hour or so is kind of irrelevant to the actual mystery. Once again, we have a puzzle that is impossible to figure out because you don’t get any pertinent information until the very last minute, and that’s not very satisfying. I also found it a bit bizarre that, with two competing sets of bones, the decision to actually examine them is left so bafflingly late – it’s a huge plot hole, and I found it very distracting.

A promising start is ultimately let down by an unfair conclusion

Fortunately, many of the faults in ‘Saints and Sinners’ are covered up by a strong supporting cast. Malcolm Sinclair is the highlight, clearly having fun as the outwardly-pleasant but deeply conniving Rev Corby. He has good rapport with Aden Gillett as his brother, a historian who is deeply unconvinced by the reverend’s claims and seeks to find the truth. There are also fun supporting turns from Julia Sawalha (Penny Henderson, an archaeologist) and Ralf Little (a pub landlord with a dark secret).

‘Saints and Sinners’ suffers from a couple of issues that have plagued this run. We open with a scene of Kam being all-too brilliant and all-too insufferable – it sets a bad taste from the off, although she fortunately doesn’t appear too much. There appears to be an effort to collapse all of Nelson’s character traits into just admiration for Kam (something the body language and acting doesn’t really convey), and it’s had the effect of making his character really boring. This is no dig at Gwilym Lee, but rather a desire for the writers to do a bit more with his character. He’s not the only one who suffers here – there are a number of characters who are just there, with little to do of any interest. Kingsley Ben-Adir as a priest and Gabrielle Lloyd as a farmer are the two biggest losers.

I enjoyed ‘Saints and Sinners’ and it’s certainly nowhere near being the worst episode of the series, but a promising start is ultimately let down by an unfair conclusion. Writing a mystery requires giving us some clues, in order that we could actually figure something out – hiding all of the facts until the last minute is not satisfying. Come to this one for the performances, which shine, even as the story peters out.