Evil of English villages, by Midsomer Murders writer
THERE is nowhere more evil than an English village because it breeds mistrust, suspicion and bitterness, Midsomer Murders screenwriter Anthony Horowitz claims.
He said the reason that many murder mysteries had rural settings was that ‘everybody is hiding something’.
Mr Horowitz, 61, who adapted the novels by Caroline Graham for TV, said cities weren’t as suitable because the fast pace of life dissipated any enmity or ill-feeling, but anger and resentment are able to fester in villages.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, he added: ‘Sherlock Holmes says nowhere is more evil than an English village – and I live in Norfolk, so I should know.
‘English villages are special places where hatred and mistrust and suspicion and anger and bitterness have a natural place to grow.
‘In a city, in London, your feelings get dissipated, it’s too loud, there are too many people, life is too fast. In an English village it can all fester slowly.
‘I love the fact that in an English village everybody is hiding something and people are far more curious about what is going on behind their net curtains.
‘Caroline Graham wrote the original novels on which Midsomer Murders were based and they were sold to me as “Agatha Christie on acid”.’
He said Miss Graham took ‘ordinary peo- ple, old ladies on tricycles, and the vicar, all these stereotypes, and discovered the most appalling things about them’, and everyone was up to something – ‘ sexual, drugs, violence, perversions’.
Mr Horowitz added: ‘That was the pleasure of those books. Pulling away the net curtains and going in.’ Midsomer Murders was first broadcast in 1997, and had more than 13million viewers at the height of its popularity. The 19th series will be screened next year.
It followed Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, played by John Nettles, as he investigated the morally bankrupt and murderous residents of Midsomer. Nettles retired in 2011 to be replaced by Neil Dudgeon as his cousin, DCI John Barnaby.
Filming has largely taken place in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in several picture-perfect towns and villages chosen to represent the idyll of British country life.
Mr Horowitz, who attended Rugby School in Warwickshire, also created the TV series Foyles War and has written dozens of detective novels, including the Sherlock Holmes book House Of Silk.
He said reading had become ‘racially divisive’, adding: ‘How many people who read are from the North rather than the South? Who are rich rather than poor? Who are black and not white?
‘I think it had always been the elephant in the room when it comes to reading. Reading is one of the most racially divisive activities in this country.
‘It’s just the way it is and we need to work to try to change it.’