Midsomer Murders – The Village That Rose from the Dead

Good news, crime fans – Midsomer Murders is back for its nineteenth series, and it’s still as bloodthirsty as ever. We return with ‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’, an episode with a classic vibe and the show’s usual strengths, although the shake-up to the cast may leave a little to be desired.

70 years after the village of Little Auburn was taken over by the MOD and subsequently abandoned, it is about to be opened to the public. Local landowner Roderick Craven (Angus Wright) has decided to give the village to one of three schemes, with options including the creation of a ‘living museum’ and the installation of many holiday cottages. But, when the locals finally set foot in Little Auburn, they’re confronted with a hideous sight – the body of young Finn Thornberry, crushed to death by a tank. DCI Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and new sidekick DS Winter (Nick Hendrix) investigate whether the murder is linked to the village development, or whether something else entirely is going on.

When you come to Midsomer, a large part of the show is the murders, and the opening tank murder certainly sets the scene. There are a couple in ‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’, including the show’s first-ever murder by snake, and they don’t feel ludicrous for the sake of it (a line that the show sometimes struggles to find). There’s an atmospheric feeling to this episode – it looks stunning as ever, and the village of Little Auburn really feels like a place from the past.

‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’ feels like a classic episode of Midsomer Murders

The other thing the show guarantees is a strong supporting cast, and ‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’ is no different. Comedy actors Sally Phillips (as the manipulative Lucy Keswick) and Hugh Dennis (as Roderick’s brother Milo) both put in a strong showing, and I enjoyed Anthony Calf’s turn as lawyer Julian Lennard. The stand-out was Caroline Blakiston (as Julian’s mother Sylvia), who spends much of the episode in her typecast role as ‘prickly old woman’, but she really blows you away in the final 15 minutes or so.

The most striking new cast member is, of course, Nick Hendrix as Jamie Winter, who doesn’t seem to have found his feet quite yet. He’s introduced as having a prior working relationship with Dr Kam Karimore (Manjinder Virk, whose acting is still leaving a lot to be desired), and he doesn’t have that much chemistry with Barnaby. It’s his first episode and I’m sure he’ll develop, but we had a sense of who all the other sidekicks were almost immediately. Perhaps I’m just lost mourning the death of Sykes the dog, in what is a sombre note to join the Barnaby household (although where that storyline is headed is immediately obvious to anyone).

There’s not that much groundwork laid

I enjoyed the mystery in ‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’ and I didn’t guess who did it, but perhaps that’s because there’s not that much groundwork laid. When we finally learn the motive for the murders, you’d be forgiven for not remembering the throwaway comment more than an hour prior which hinted at it – I’ve rewatched it, and I nearly missed it again knowing it was there. There are other sub-avenues barely developed, like Finn’s bigamy or Lucy Keswick’s relationship with local MP Susan Leennard (Seeta Indrani), but they just fall into nothingness. The only thing you’ll be sure of is that one of the characters is being pushed far too hard as a potential murderer, essentially confirming that they must be innocent.

‘The Village That Rose from the Dead’ feels like a classic episode of Midsomer Murders, and some minor flaws with the story don’t overly detract from the experience. Although I’m unsure about Barnaby’s new sidekick and his relationship with Kam (perhaps he just needs a couple of episodes to settle in), this was a generally well-acted and interesting episode of the show, and it proves that Midsomer Murders hasn’t lost its bizarre charm.