Cutting wit:
Midsomer Murders’ latest pathologist goes down a new track.
Annette Badland, the villain viewers loved to hate as Aunt Babe in EastEnders, is moving to the right side of the law in her new role in Midsomer Murders.
She joins the cast as forensic pathologist Dr Fleur Perkins, taking over from Manjinder Virk, who played Dr Kim Karimore.
It’s a poacher turned gamekeeper role for Badland who, as Aunt Babe, was more likely to create work for a pathologist.
“I suppose I should say it was daunting to join Midsomer Murders in its 20th-anniversary season but it actually wasn’t at all,” Badland says. “It was something to relish.”
Badland, 68, says appointing her as Midsomer’s police pathologist is a big departure for the series.
“In recent history the pathologist has been a love interest for Barnaby’s sidekick and Fleur is something quite different.
“She is so much fun, has a great sense of humour and intelligence and she is feisty with the boys. So I hope the audience finds that new dynamic amusing and stimulating.
“Having come from EastEnders, which was quite dark, it is nice to play a positive character and to embrace someone who is all for life and laughter.”
But she says it’s her life before she became an actress that has helped her the most in her new role.
“Before I went to drama school I worked at a doctors’ practice and discovered the gallows humour and the way the doctor, who is surrounded by death so often, has to find that to enable them to survive.
“This flowed into this character
for me. When you are dealing with the worst of humanity and darkness that surrounds death, you need something to help you get through that and for Fleur it is embracing life and laughing at the worst of it where possible.”
Badland describes Fleur as a self-possessed woman with a colourful past, which includes many husbands and lovers.
“She drives a very swanky black Jaguar convertible and she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She won’t ever be intimidated by the men’s police work as she has her domain and her skills and she does those to the best of her abilities.
“Fleur is someone who would use a scalpel to cut her apple up in the lunchroom,” says Badland.
“She enjoys teasing Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and has a sense of humour so she deliberately ruffles the boys’ feathers. She also teams up with Sarah (Fiona Dolman) and they work against the boys together which was really fun to film.”
But the new role came with its own challenges.
“Being the pathologist, you are the one who has to attempt to remember all of the multi-syllable words you’ve never heard of, which is a difficult but amusing task,” she says.
And she admits that she had to ask the props man what all of the, “weird tools and gadgets were for and what exactly was I to do with a petri dish”.
Badland has long been a fan of Midsomer Murders and recalls her favourite death from the show.
“There was a murder from an old season where all of these wine bottles are being lobbed at a wine merchant and that has stuck in my head. Someone dying by his or her own wine is a memorable way to go.”
“Fleur is someone who would use a scalpel to cut her apple up in the lunchroom.”
– Annette Badland on her character Dr Fleur Perkins