TV Showings of 'Midsomer Murders'

Series Nine News

The four final episodes of series nine are to be broadcast. The new episodes will also come on TV exactly a decade after the first episode, 'The Killings at Badger's Drift', was filmed (September 1996). The episode attracted 13.5 million and the good decision to make it into a long-running series was made. 

Death in Chorus - The 50th episode goes back to all Midsoomer's original elements which made the show such a success, with a story about the Midsomer Worthy choir fearing the worst when one of their group is killed - a choir which Joyce Barnaby is part of! This episode also contains a nude scene in which DS Jones is singing in the shower! When filming was completed on this episode, the crew celebrated with a glass of champagne. The episode is written by David Lawrence and directed by Sarah Hellings.

Country Matters - A village of saucy shenanigans falls uppon Barnaby and Jones when a man surveying the site of a controversial supermarket is shot dead. The man had apparently been using the service of three posh but impecunious women who are running a brothel! A show insider said: "It is a homely Midsomer vice ring. One of the women, played by actress Juliet Aubrey, runs a 'stable' but it's really a front for a brothel where she is the resident dominatrix. It's whips 'n' all! Another woman is in charge of a 'cookery' school, but it's not the usual recipes that are on the menu! I will let you use your imagination. It's actually a very funny episode. Barnaby, of course, doesn't get involved. He is merely tickled by the whole thing." The episode is written by Andrew Payne and is directed by Richard Holthouse.

Midsomer's Future

The last episode filmed was  episode 55, 'The Axeman Cometh', directed by Renny Rye, who has also directed episode 53. 

The show has no plans to stop and is only looking forward, as said by Brian True May who is currently working on an 11th and 12th series: “I currently over commission at least three scripts per series. So if we have any we’re not sure about, we don’t make them. And we get the scripts months before we shoot and that means that the actors, director and technicians can get their act together and make sure we’ve got a polished production.

"ITV are planning on a substantial amount of daytime repeats, starting in September. So we’re having to re-edit them. We have to check that they comply for daytime viewing, because we had some pretty horrific murders in the early ones, which we’re very careful to avoid."

Unfortunately some of the methods of murder have been banned, including an episode filmed recently in which the episode starts with a suicide pact in a car. Some of the more graphical parts of this method had to be cut. 

The crew have been trying their best to find some new locations - 'We've gone through Buckinghamshire, and we're moving onto Berkshire now!' says John Nettles, who plays the leading detective. 

In 'The Axeman Commeth'  which is was filmed in August/September 2006, doors are opened for possible new stories when Cully meets her future husband, leading to a big wedding near the end of series 10!

In series nine, the crew filmed at the coast of Beer, Devon to change the environment a bit. It proved to be a success, and the same writer who penned this episode, Douglas Watkinson, has written an episode, 'Death and Dust', about Cully and her new boyfriend trekking in North Wales - obviously, one of their number doesn't stay alive for too long. 

Old Midsomer News