THERE’S BEEN A (LOT OF) MURDER
NEIL DUDGEON AND NICK HENDRIX LIFT THE LID ON WHAT MAKES MIDSOMER MURDERS SO POPULAR AFTER 24 YYEARS. YEARS. BY JOSH STE STEPHENSON TEPHENSON
YOU think Hastings and company have a tough gig trying to sniff out bent coppers in Line Of Duty? They should try policing the county of Midsomer.
Since the show first aired in 1997 – and over the course of a staggering 21 series and 126 episodes – we’ve followed the exploits of two DCI Barnabys (John Nettles and Neil Dudgeon) as they’ve solved an astounding 395 murders and stopped 164 attempted murders and suicides across Britain’s unluckiest fictional county (which includes such wonderful villages as Badger’s Drift and Martyr Warren).
We’ve seen incestuous affairs, feuds dating back to World War I, jealous business partners – and that one time Martine McCutcheon was crushed by a wheel of cheese. So to celebrate the show’s return, we celebrate five reasons why Midsomer Murders remains an enduring cult classic.
The murders!
You don’t go quietly into the night if you live in Midsomer, that’s for sure. We’ve seen people seemingly bitten by a vampire (it was a fork to neck, as you do). One dude was run over by a tank. A local farmer was covered in truffle oil and mauled to death by a wild boar (that particular murder being a favourite of Dudgeon’s). Plus, who can forget the time a man was chased by a forklift before being crushed to death with tins of relish?
Midsomer Murders isn’t just a British institution, it’s got global appeal too. More than 220 territories worldwide have the rights to screen Midsomer Murders (or Inspector Barnaby, as it is sometimes known), which has led to Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix being recognised in some strange places.
‘I got recognised for the first real time in Vietnam by a Sri Lankan woman who was married to a Finnish man and they both live in Luxembourg!’ laughs Hendrix. ‘She came across the road in Hanoi, where I was on my honeymoon, and shouted, “Midsomer Murders, DCI Barnaby!” at us. I just assumed she got t me confused with Russell Tovey – but no, she loved the show.’
And Dudgeon has been recognised in some strange places too.
‘I was once recognised in an art gal gallery in Wilmington, Delaware,’ he say says. ‘This woman walked up to me and said, “Ah, Inspector Barnaby!”’
The Th guest stars!
The Th great and the good have taken up residence in Midsomer for an episode or two. The latest series has Keith Allen, Imogen Stubbs and Mark Williams all turn up to potentially get knocked off. And it’s been a launch pad for stars of the future. How about this for an A-list roll-call – Henry Cavill, Orlando Bloom, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton. They’ve all stepped foot in Midsomer. Who could be next, then?
‘It’s a thing I love about Midsomer, this mix of new and old stars,’ says Dudgeon. ‘We have different levels of different stars from different eras and different genres – and it’s great. I was keen to get Barry Humphries and I did hear through back channels he’s a fan of the show. Give him any part he wants, I said, but it’s not quite happened. He’d be fantastic to get on the show.’
It’s familiar – yet different!
You’d think after nearly 25 years on the air that the Midsomer formula would be stale. But therein lies the secret – it’s not as familiar as you’d think.
‘The great thing about Midsomer is the formula of the show is so loose and basic, in that something happens in a rural setting and two policeman go to investigate it, and within that you can do anything,’ says Dudgeon. ‘There’s only four of us who are the regulars,
and mostly mo ostly it’s me and Nick. Everybody else is new from episode to episode: you’ve got a new writer, a new director, a whole new village, it goes on. So while you keep it recognisably like Midsomer, each new episode is a whole new world and story.’
It’s sustained further by a dedicated fan base, according to Hendrix: ‘It’s not just a longrunning show, it’s a constant through line for multiple generations – from grandparent to parent to child – and there’s this sort of quiet love for it.’
The sidekicks!
Midsomer has always had a rotating line-up of sidekicks ready to freshen things up at any given moment. There’s been five over the course of the series – all sharing a similar checklist of things in common, ranging from looking good in a suit to doing the hard running – and Hendrix is the latest, playing the role of DI Winter, whose tasks mainly involve rugby tackling perps to the ground. Does he enjoy being the (relative) action star of the show?
‘We’re almost held back a bit by insurance,’ he says. ‘I think I’m going to jump over something and they won’t let me. Or slide down something and that’s a no too. So it ends up being a lot of running from A to B and then someone else comes in and does the rest. ‘Although I did arrive at a Tough Mudder-style assault course [for an episode this series] feeling bullish that I was going to do the lot of it before I was faced with this massive wall – so I started eating my words and asked for the stunt man!’