The haka comes to Midsomer:
A rugby team looks to the All Blacks for inspiration in this week’s episode of Midsomer Murders. Jim Maloney reports.
It’s murder with an All Blacks’ twist in the British crime drama.
An All Blacks tradition finds its way into Midsomer Murders this week as Barnaby investigates a death at a local rugby club.
The Lions are a competitive and successful side and to show their lofty ambitions they copy the All Blacks by performing the haka before each game.
But with tension mounting within the team between certain players, where the rough and tumble of the game escalates to deliberate pushes and kicks in training, events take a sinister and deadly turn.
“It turns out that Barnaby was something of a rugby player himself when he was younger so he enjoys being at the club and watching them play,” says Neil Dudgeon, who plays Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. “It’s a fun episode and we are blessed with wonderful guest stars.”
Michael Maloney plays team physiotherapist Neville Gallagher and Don Gilet (Lucas Johnson in
EastEnders and Blake Albrighton in The Loch) plays The Lions’ enthusiastic coach Bill Viner.
The story centres on the death of much-liked former rugby player Mark Adler. Tamzin Outhwaite (Mel Owen in EastEnders) plays his glamorous wife, Samantha.
“She’s an interesting character who is pretty wealthy,” says Outhwaite. “She’s a businesswoman who has a shop where they make bespoke chocolates and cakes for weddings.
“She employs a temperamental chocolatier, Dominic, who is a perfectionist cake and chocolate maker. Samantha has a bit of history with Dominic’s grandmother who used to own the shop.
“Her husband, Mark, was a well-liked man and the people that surrounded him were pretty much the rugby team but I would say that Samantha is definitely a suspect in his murder.”
Midsomer is known for its elaborate murders. Some classics have been a woman crushed to death by a giant round of cheese and the memorable time that a hated lawyer was pinioned by croquet hooks on his lawn and turned into a human target as his vengeful wife catapulted bottles of his beloved vintage wine at him – a favourite death of the original DCI Barnaby, John Nettles.
“My personal favourite was in season 16 where a man is tied to a tree, covered in truffle oil and eaten alive by a wild boar,” laughs Dudgeon. “It’s a really twisted and bizarre way of killing someone but it’s kind of fun.
“We’ve never gone in with people getting bashed over the head with a shovel. Mostly the writers try to come up with the most exotic deaths they can, which I think is part of the fun of the show. People love the humour and the eccentricity.”
The show’s executive producer, Jonathan Fisher, teases that there is another elaborate murder in this episode which sounds like it is destined for the ‘classics list’.
“I can reveal that there will be our first-ever ‘death by chocolate’,” he chuckles. “So our poor victim is going to have his head encased in chocolate and made to look like an Easter egg, which I think will be really good fun.” Both he and Dudgeon know just how much viewers like these highly theatrical deaths and the idiosyncratic characters that are part of the Midsomer madness. “The characters are usually quite posh and terribly polite and reserved but then they go around garrotting people or slashing them to bits,” says Dudgeon. “I think the majority of viewers like to see posh folk behaving badly. One moment things seem relatively normal, but turn over a stone and there are all these little insects running around in a panic. “Everybody’s got secrets but only one person is lying about the fact they’re actually the murderer and that feeds Barnaby’s interest in all of the characters.” Unlike most cop shows where the lead detective is usually the most interesting character, Dudgeon is happy to be a little dull and let the guest-stars take the limelight. “Betty Willingale, who created this series, wanted an antidote to the police shows of the time where it was about having an interesting policeman, whereas this is not,” he says. “Barnaby is not an interesting policeman. He’s happily married, goes out to work and investigates murders, then goes home and puts his feet up.”