Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Midsomer Murders, Series 17 Blu-ray Movie Review

It's a Dog's Life, Sykes

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 15, 2015

(Warning: The following review assumes that the reader is current with the lives of the recurring characters in Midsomer Murders. Anyone who has yet to watch Series 16, a/k/a Set 25, should read no further and avoid looking at screenshots.)

With this set of Midsomer Murders, Acorn Media has now adopted the numbering system used in the U.K., and it is reissuing the previous Set 25 as Series 16. Series 17 of Midsomer Murders opens with Sarah and John Barnaby experiencing the joys, disorder and sleep deprivation that come with being new parents. Meanwhile, their depressed terrier, Sykes, must adjust to the unaccustomed role of playing second fiddle in the Barnaby household, alternately sulking and "acting out" like an elder sibling. Sarah Barnaby (Fiona Dolman) has taken maternity leave from her teaching responsibilities, but her skills as a historical researcher prove useful to husband John (Neil Dudgeon) in his criminal investigations, especially now that he no longer has a sergeant with local connections. His new sergeant, Charlie Nelson (Gwilym Lee), is settling in nicely, and both Nelson and his landlady, Coroner Kate Wilding (Tamzin Malleson), are vastly entertained by the sight of DCI Barnaby in his non-official role as a doting dad.

It's just as well that infant Betty Barnaby is blissfully unaware of the hazardous environs into which she has been born. In Series 17, Midsomer Murders continues to revel in taking us to charming country locales only to reveal them as dens of iniquity teaming with duplicitous neighbors nursing ancient grudges and committing foul deeds. Any parent who has seen as much of Midsomer's dark side as Barnaby might be pardoned for insisting on home schooling and an armed nanny.

The Dagger Club (disc 1) Jan. 28, 2015

Luxton Deeping was the home of celebrated crime author George Summersbee, creator of the popular Jed Dagger series. Now, three years after Summersbee's death, the manuscript of an unpublished Dagger novel has been found by the writer's executor, Suzie Colebrooke (Oona Kirsch). The new book is expected to be the highlight of the third annual crime fiction festival run by Maggie Markham (Lia Williams), who is married to Summersbee's brother, Nick (Adam Kotz), a doctor. Nick's recently published memoir about his famous older sibling will also be a major item at the festival, and the entire affair should be good business for the book store run by Summersbee's daughter, Bella (Georgia Taylor), and her husband, Rob Mead (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith). About the only person who doesn't seem thrilled by the festival is Summersbee's embittered widow, Jeannie (Charlotte Cornwell).

But then Suzie Colebrooke is murdered just as the festival starts, and the only copy of the manuscript for the new Jed Dagger novel mysteriously disappears. What's more, Suzie is killed by an odd and innocent-seeming device in a package delivered to her home, and DS Nelson determines that another, identical package was sent to someone unconnected to either the festival or the Summersbee family. The killings are a dead ringer for those in the very first Jed Dagger book. What is the killer's motive? What connects the two targets?

Like any Midsomer Murder, there are plenty of interesting suspects, including George Summersbee's former publisher, Miles Rattigan (Simon Kunz), to whom Suzie Colebrooke refused the rights to the new Jed Dagger book, and the Braylesfords, a mother and son (Una Stubbs and Ed Birch), neighbors of the Summersbees who seem to bear them an ancient grudge. But despite much suspicious behavior, Barnaby can't tie any of the suspects to both of the victims, who appear to have nothing in common other than being killed by the same peculiar means.


Murder by Magic (disc 1) Feb. 4, 2015

Midsomer Oaks has recently become home to a famous magician (or, as he prefers to be called, "illusionist") named Gideon Latimer (Andrew Lee-Potts), who is giving a series of benefit performances to raise funds for the restoration of St. Cyprian's Church. The local vicar, Magnus Soane (Jack Shepherd), is grateful, as is the vicar's wife, Lorna Soane (Deborah Findlay), but the vicar's assistant, curate Andrew Maplin (Justin Salinger), is a zealot who considers the practice of magic, even as make-believe, to be an abomination to the Lord. Maplin also objects to Gideon, because he purchased Melmouth Hall, the estate of an 18th Century paganist, Sir Hugo Melmouth, whom Maplin regards as a devil-worshipper.

Maplin's predictions of doom seem prescient when Gideon's equipment collapses from sabotage during a performance in the church, killing Hannah Altman, owner of the local pub, who happened to be playing piano for the occasion. Gideon's manager (Fraser Ayres) and his over-protective mother (Amanda Burton) are convinced that the magician was the target, but Barnaby has doubts. Among other things, Hannah and her husband, Luke (Joe Absolom), were having marital troubles, and investigation quickly reveals irregularities in their finances.

Curate Maplin may also be onto something about the town's pagan history. The woods surrounding Melmouth Hall are the scene of odd occurrences: hooded and masked figures, ceremonial bonfires and sinister rituals. But what does any of this have to do with a celebrity magician or a piano-playing pub owner? The answers lie in the past, some of them hundreds of years ago.




The Ballad of Midsomer County (disc 2) Feb. 11, 2015

If a song is named after Midsomer County, it must be homicidal, and indeed the folk song "The Ballad of Midsomer County" tells of a beautiful country maid who lures a young man to a cabin, then slits his throat. Several artists have recorded the ballad, but now an actual killer seems to be using the lyrics as inspiration for a series of killings in Lower Crosby on the eve of its annual folk festival. The first victim is the festival's organizer, Toby Winning (Stuart St. Paul), who is drowned in a bowl of fresh eggs and eels, one of the ballad's more vivid images. Are these macabre references meaningful or misdirection? As it turns out, they are both.

The evening before his death, Winning announced to the assembled business owners of Lower Crosby his intent to move the festival to London the following year, thereby depriving them of their biggest source of revenue. The response was predictably negative. Winning's widow, Alice (Rakie Ayola), was divorcing him, but now stands to inherit everything, if there's anything to inherit. Winning's assistant, Brian Grey (Daniel Brocklebank), ran up considerable debts arranging the festival's move to London, but Winning seemed confident of a major windfall in the offing. Perhaps it has something to do with the headliner he managed to secure for this year's festival, a folk star named Jay Templeton (Stephen Hagan). Or perhaps it's something else. The alert Sgt. Nelson notices that a laptop is missing from Winning's residence. What secrets (or songs) might it have contained?

Many of Lower Crosby's residents are amateur musicians, including bar owner Frank Wainwright (Clarke Peters, The Wire ), who used to perform with the town's most famous musician singer, Johnny Carver, the object of a cult obsession since he committed suicide 25 years ago. Johnny's niece, Melody Carver (Lucie Jones), dreams of a musical career, but her father, Danny (Sean Gilder), won't hear of it. Convinced that the music business destroyed his brother Johnny, Danny hasn't picked up an instrument since Johnny Carver's death. The most that Danny will do is wire the sound systems for the festival, while his daughter Melody remains safely tucked away, waiting tables in the hotel and restaurant operated by Tom and Claire Asher (Dean Andrews and Claudie Blakely). Or at least that's what Melody's father thinks she's been doing. Secretly Melody has been writing and recording songs.

As is so often the case in Midsomer County, explaining the present requires a journey into the past, and the past often proves elusive. Just ask Barnaby, who spends much of the episode trying to solve the mystery of what he and Sarah once chose as "their" song. To his great embarrassment and his wife's reproachful glee, the chief inspector can't recall.


A Vintage Murder (disc 2) Feb. 18, 2015

The town of Midsomer Vinae is home to the winery owned by William and Diana Carnarvon (Mark Bonnar and Ruth Gemmell), who, after five years of struggle and debt, believe they have created a winning vintage. However, at a gala tasting intended to launch the brand, a noted wine critic Nadia Simons (Naoko Mori, Torchwood) pronounces the Carnarvons' creation a flop. Shortly thereafter, a dozen guests collapse from what turns out to be slug poison slipped into their glasses. "Everyone's a critic", mutters Nadia, smiling.

Barnaby and Nelson quickly discover that the Carnarvons have enemies everywhere. The Farmers Wives Association led by Elspeth Rice (Selina Griffiths) accuses them of damming up streams and other environmental damage in the construction of their wine-making facilities. Even more serious is the death of ten-year-old Jennifer Tyler in a hit-and-run accident immediately following the Carnarvons first promotional event five years ago. The culprit is assumed to be an intoxicated attendee; in fact, the chief suspect is the very same Nadia Simons who delivered such an unkind review just before the poisoning. The dead child's mother, Judy Tyler (Rosie Cavaliero), has never recovered and can barely leave her house. The father, Roger Tyler (Wayne Foskett), is bitter and angry. Only the older daughter, Tina (Sabrina Bartlett), seems to have moved on.

More than moved on: Tina has fallen for the Carnarvons' son, Tom (Tom Rhys Harries), a relationship they must both keep secret. But Tina also has to evade the romantic clutches of Kevin Payton (Max Bennett), who works for the Carnarvons and whose father, Louis Paynton (Lloyd Owen), owns the local hotel that derives substantial business from visitors to the Carnarvon vineyard. Louis, in turn, has been carrying a torch for Diana Carnarvon for years and wouldn't mind seeing the winery fail, so that she will have no choice but to turn to him. Diana's mother, Matilda Stowe (Claire Bloom), lives at Paynton's hotel, and she might not be unhappy with that outcome.

When bodies begin to fall (literally, in one instance), Barnaby cannot decide whether the motive is greed, jealousy, revenge or family loyalty. The solution to this particular episode of Midsomer Murders is unusually complex, and multiple motives overlap.

Midsomer Murders, Series 17 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cinematographer James Moss returned for Series 17 of Midsomer Murders, which continues to be shot on the Arri Alexa. Like Sets 23, 24 and 25, this latest series has been released by Acorn Media with two episodes per BD-50, providing the same superb clarity, detail, depth of field and color that has been typical of the series on Blu-ray. Although I noticed a few fleeting instances of aliasing in these episodes, I have not decreased the video score, because I suspect these are there in the original capture; they resemble the kind of edge "flickers" that sometimes appear even in feature films finished on 2k digital intermediates. For those interested in numbers, the average bitrate of these digitally shot episodes is around 23 Mbps per episode, which is somewhat lower than on the previous set, but is still very good. The compression has been capably performed.

Midsomer Murders, Series 17 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Provided in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, the stereo sound design for Midsomer Murders has not changed in any major respect, and none of the episodes in Series 17 presents any obvious opportunity for directional effects. "The Ballad of Midsomer County" includes several acoustic and vocal performances that have a warm and natural sound, and the opening "illusion" in "Murder by Magic" has a few sound effects that are unusually loud for this show. Otherwise, the sound design remains modest and restrained, with emphasis on the dialogue, which is always clear, and on the spare underscoring by Jim Parker, including his signature theme.

Midsomer Murders, Series 17 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This set of Midsomer Murders has some interesting extras, but an unfortunate omission is the complete lyrics for "The Ballad of Midsomer County".

• Murder by Magic—The Actors (disc 1) (1080p; 1.85:1; 9:14): Director Charlie Palmer discusses the casting of the episode. Additional interviewees include Jack Shepherd (Magnus Soane), Gwilym Lee (DS Nelson), Neil Dudgeon (DCI Barnaby), Amanda Burton (Carole Latimer, Gideon's mother) and Stephanie Leonidas (Annabelle Latimer, Gideon's wife), who describes her character as "not a happy bunny".



• Murder by Magic—The Tricks (disc 1) (1080p; 1.85:1; 7:26): Introduced by Neil Dudgeon, this featurette looks at the various illusions performed in the episode.



• Behind the Scenes (disc 2) (1080p; 1.85:1; 10:25): This featurette was made during the filming of "The Ballad of Midsomer County" and includes interviews with director Renny Rye, Dudgeon, Lee, Clarke Peters (Frank Wainwright), Rakie Ayola (Alice Winning) and other cast members.



• Bonus Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn Media, Foyle's War, Set 8 and New Tricks, Season 11.

Midsomer Murders, Series 17 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As with many other series released by Acorn, the U.S. has now caught up with the U.K. Series 17 is the most recent set of Midsomer Murders to air in Great Britain. Series 18, which is currently filming, is scheduled for release in 2016. About a year from now, we can expect to see another Blu-ray set that will bring us the latest skullduggery from England's green and pleasant land. Although nothing was said at the conclusion of Series 17's final episode, it has already been reported that Tamzin Malleson's Dr. Kate Wilding will not be returning as coroner, for reasons that will presumably be explained in the first episode of the new series. I look forward to meeting her successor. Meanwhile, Series 17 is highly recommended.