Midsomer Murders – For Death Prepare

As Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote, and I’m sure DCI Barnaby would agree, a policeman’s lot is not a happy one. And so it proves to be the case in ‘For Death Prepare’, as the world of Midsomer Murders gets a little amateur dramatic. The episode is a fun one, boasting the return of a television legend to the small screen, although its success as a murder mystery is a little less so.

if you’re a fan of the duo, you will be spoiled here, as there are lots of performances and good ones at that

The Midsomer Mummers amateur dramatic society are hard at work rehearsing for their latest show, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. But things take a turn during the Pirate King’s song when actor Marcus Dunlow (Alexander Hanson) makes a grim discovery – the body of a man, concealed within the prop treasure chest. Nobody seems to recognise the victim, but Barnaby and Winter investigate and discover a web of tensions, secrets and fractured relationships within the theatre. It appears that the killer is keen on being centre-stage but, as the bodies begin to pile up, can the detectives figure out who is responsible?

I always discuss the show’s supporting cast, and there was a particularly big-name addition that really caught my eye here – returning from semi-retirement, it’s only Kevin Whately. Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Morse franchise, and his presence here is a very welcome one. He plays Jeremy Whittingdale, an old friend of the Barnabys and a former schoolteacher cast as the major-general, and his is by far the most interesting character here. But that’s not to say he’s the only strong point – Hanson is a compelling figure, and Samantha Spiro brings her customary energy as the show’s director.

it was so dramatic, I loved it

The Gilbert and Sullivan moments are mixed nicely into the plot – if you’re a fan of the duo, you will be spoiled here, as there are lots of performances and good ones at that. Fiona Dolman (getting much more to do than usual) and Nick Hendrix put in a musical moment, and there are good renditions of a number of classic Pirates songs – kudos too to the members of the music department, who threaded snippets of the opera throughout the score and even rearranged the Midsomer theme to have a Gilbert and Sullivan bent. And that final sequence, Barnaby and Winter trying to prevent a murder to a stunning performance of ‘Sighing softly to the river’, is gold – it was so dramatic, I loved it.

Sadly, where ‘For Death Prepare’ slips up is in its murder mystery aspect – although I was gripped and had a fun time with it, this is a case that’s pretty much impossible to solve. There are no real clues that factor into the reveal, and we don’t learn about the killer’s relationship with any of the victims until after their identity is already known – it shouldn’t have felt as forced as it did. Really, the episode is so fun that it forgot to present many of the characters as potential suspects.

Things generally hang together well otherwise, despite some baffling script moments. Most notably, a sequence in which a character, terrified of being killed, decides to follow bloody arrows telling them that their death awaits, rather than legging it out of there. I would also say that the episode is perhaps a little too packed with elements tangential to the actual crimes – there are many subplots, from a dodgy doctor (Simon Bose) to an unconvincing couple planning to leave the village to a man (Clive Rowe) caring for his paralysed father, and most of them just feel like time-fillers.

In a sense, it’s hard to know how to rate ‘For Death Prepare’. I really enjoyed it – I found it a fun and engaging watch, and I got swept away in the performances and the light air of musical theatre. But, if I take a step back and look at it with a critical eye, it doesn’t work too well as a murder mystery. Ultimately, it depends on what you want from your Midsomer Murders. For me, it was that air of cosy yet brutal fun and the return of Kevin Whately, and so I thought that ‘For Death Prepare’ completely delivered.