Original subtitles

(groovy upbeat music)

- "Midsomer Murders" is like Agatha Christie on speed.

(horse whinnying)

- We're in Midsomer now, and things happen differently here.

(gun blasting)

- The deaths are unusual and fascinating.

- Who in their right mind chooses to be surrounded by death?

- [Narrator] "Midsomer Murders"

is one of the most popular crime dramas,

not just in Britain, but on the planet.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- The French version is quite my favorite.

- [Narrator] Over the next hour,

we'll celebrate 25 years of the strangest goings on.

- I loved the human candle,

which was particularly amazing to just see on set actually.

- [Narrator] Reveal the show's dark secrets.

- I believe I've killed 18 people. And I'm still at large.

- [Narrator] Bring curious insights.

- He said, "I'm not gonna blink."

And I went, "Wow."

- [Narrator] And look back at the world-famous stars-

- I will drive straight over you.

- [Narrator] Who dared take their first TV steps

in Midsomer County.

- It's actually quite family-friendly,

despite all the murders. (chuckling)

- [Narrator] As we go behind the scenes

on a quarter of a century of mystery-

- It's like I was in some sort of apocalyptic world

where people just died all the time. (laughs)

- [Narrator] And mayhem-

(shelves crashing) (cheese clattering)

- You know, we Kill people with cheese.

There isn't another program, I think, that can do that.

- [John] Have we got a murder weapon?

- You're standing in it.

- [Narrator] In the glorious English countryside.

- What's not to like about Midsomer?

(pensive whimsical music)

As long as you survive it, really.

- [Stephen] I killed them because I wanted to.

- [Fleur] Death by chocolate.

- [Artie] No good deed goes unpunished, eh?

(shelves crashing) (cheese clattering)

(upbeat rock music)

- [Narrator] Here in these deadly woodlands,

filming for the latest series

of "Midsomer Murders" has begun.

- [Director] Action!

- [Narrator] And Inspector Barnaby

has yet another death to investigate.

Quite possibly, the 396th Midsomer murder,

but no one really knows.

- They've got this beautiful scenery

and then they've got these murders,

which sometimes are quite outlandish.

- [Narrator] Over the past 25 years,

audiences the world over have embraced Midsomer's reputation

as the deadliest place on television.

- "Midsomer Murders" has a light feel to it,

in a lot of ways,

and has an awful lot of comedy within it.

- Of course, the public laughed

at the unfeasible number of deaths, and all those things.

There would be at least three or four murders

before Tom Barnaby found out whodunit!

(laughing) He's the most useless cop in the world!

- [Narrator] But, thankfully,

the Causton Police are dogged and reliable,

and over the years have brought us, not one,

but two Inspector Barnabys to keep on top of the body count.

- Midsomer takes everything

seriously enough for us to enjoy it,

but not so seriously that we can't also go,

"What is going on in this place?" (laughing)

- There's nothing intrinsically nasty

about Midsomer anywhere.

Although, people get murdered.

- They're sort of escapist deaths, fun deaths.

(light upbeat music)

- Here we are all celebrating the 25th anniversary

of "Midsomer Murders".

- [Narrator] Already enjoying the sights

of Oxfordshire today, this group of "Midsomer" fans

are about to discover the location

of one of the series' most infamous murders.

- Here we are in Badger's Drift,

otherwise known as The Lee in Buckinghamshire.

And what you are looking at here is exactly where,

in the opening sequence of that very first episode,

you saw Emily Simpson riding her bicycle along the road.

Here is where the whole story of "Midsomer Murders" started.

(bright majestic music)

- [Narrator] 25 years ago,

the fictional Midsomer village of Badger's Drift

was the sleepy setting for the debut episode

of a brand-new crime drama.

- Hello, Miss Simpson. Have a very good afternoon.

- The "Killings at Badger's Drift,"

all the tropes of the provincial murder drama were there.

There was blackmail and knife killings

and all the rest of those things.

- How'd she die?

- [George] That's easy. Broken neck.

The question is, did she fall?

- (chuckles) Or was she pushed?

- The brother and sister had been caught by the Rainbirds,

who were the local undertakers.

And so they were blackmailing people.

- How much do you think it's worth?

- Think what the police will make of it

if their forensic people get hold of it!

- (laughs) They'd have a field day.

- Oh! (laughing) This is the big one, Denny.

This is going to make us very, very rich!

- Mummy!

- The characters were wonderfully well-written.

They were caricatures, of course, they were.

(light whimsical music)

- [Narrator] But of course, the main star

of this opening whodunit,

was the genial local detective, Inspector Barnaby.

- Who are you? What do you want?

- I'm Detective Inspector Barnaby

and this is Detective Sergeant Troy.

Who are you?

- The producer came to see me with the proposition

that I should play a detective

in this new series he had coming up.

I thought, "Well, I've already done 'Bergerac."

But it was as far away from the world of "Bergerac"

as could possibly be.

Here was a guy who was a respectably married man.

He had no hang-ups, no psychological difficulties of life.

- What's this, then?

- It's Delia Smith.

Stewed neck of lamb with mushroom dumplings.

You can't go wrong with Delia Smith.

- That's what I've always thought.

- He finds himself in a world

full of extraordinary characters.

Every one of the people he sees in the high street there

is a potential murderer.

And I thought that was fun.

- You know, Mrs. Rainbird, I'd have said that eight o'clock

was a bit late for your hobby.

I mean, what are you likely to see flying at that time?

- Owls.

- I was right there from the beginning.

The pilot, we went to the then producer,

Brian True-May, and we said to him,

"So, you know, do you think this is going well?

"Do you think we might get a series out of it?"

And he said, "I've got plans for 'Midsomer Murders'

"for 12 years."

We went straight to John

and said, "Do you wanna hear something really funny?

"Apparently, we're gonna be doing this for 12 years."

- Why do I get the feeling that everyone is lying to me?

Everyone!

- They always lie to you, Tom, and you always know.

That's why you're so good at your job.

- And then I was in it for another 14 years. (laughing)

- Oh, it was amazing.

We got 15.8 million viewers for that first episode.

- It's 2:15.

Said I'd meet Joyce at the fete. You coming?

- Yeah, I thought I'd win myself a coconut.

- [Narrator] And what inspired this series,

full of strange people and plots,

was a collection of acclaimed crime novels.

- Argh!

- It was a series of books by a lovely writer

called Caroline Graham.

I'd read them, actually, and they were terrific.

The original sort of artistic

producer on it, Betty Willingale,

it was clever to spot it, you know,

and do what she did, along with the first writer,

to make it work for television.

(gun blasting)

- [Narrator] Caroline Graham's books

inspired the first five episodes,

but over the next few years,

a host of new writers would take Barnaby

on many new adventures.

- We're on.

- [Narrator] But there was another key character

whose role was to remain calm

amongst this wicked world of murder.

- Dinner's ready, Tom.

- Believe you me, it's not easy

playing the nicest woman in the world.

- You know Cully's coming tomorrow?

She's going to want to see a bit of you.

- Yes.

- Just I know how you are when you get started on a case.

- Yes. - For 14 years,

it was Barnaby's wife, Joyce,

whose happy home life with Tom and their daughter, Cully,

was in stark contrast to the many

deadly challenges they faced, including Joyce's cooking.

(toaster clanks)

- Not much meat on this chicken, is there?

- It's not a chicken, it's a quail.

- She was a terrible cook. Fried wren and stuff like that.

And Barnaby had to pretend to like them.

- Dad, I brought you a present from Cambridge.

- [Tom] What is it?

- It's chicken and ham.

- The bad cooking lasted for a bit

but there's limits to how many lousy meals you can cook.

- So she became more and more involved

in the actual cases as time went on.

- It was very handy that Joyce didn't have a career,

because she could therefore have hobbies.

- You've caught me digging up rather too much of your lawn.

- Yeah, I'm still working, actually.

Do you have pictures in those plant encyclopedias of yours?

- Yes. - That was quite a handy

device for writers and nice for me, you know,

to not always be sitting in the kitchen.

Being out in the world, being blown up in a canal.

Or doing watercolor painting, that was a good one.

- Instead of being a kind of grace note

in the great symphony of "Midsomer,"

she became a whole theme on her own.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Coming up,

there's confessions of a "Midsomer" sidekick-

- When I think of my time on it,

it's like I was in some kind of apocalyptic world

where people just died all the time.

- [Narrator] As we celebrate a hit series

that's always left us seeing stars.

- I'd already watched the show since the beginning

and loved it, so I jumped at the chance,

little thinking that I might return for a longer stay.

- This is the new DCI Barnaby,

cousin of the other DCI Barnaby.

- [Narrator] For 25 years, "Midsomer Murders"

has led us on a trail of death and destruction.

(explosion blasts)

A path which, has, in turn,

put many of the quaintest villages in Oxfordshire

on a rather unusual tourist map.

- Here we are outside the estate agent

that was used in an episode called "House in the Woods."

It was Harriet Davis estate agency in that show.

In that episode,

a couple who were looking to buy the house in the woods

find themselves garrotted outside the house,

and there, the mystery begins.

- [Narrator] Over the years, fighting crime in Midsomer

has been quite a task for the overworked,

understaffed Causton Police.

And when it comes to the real legwork,

the running, jumping, flirting, or going undercover,

it often falls to the "Midsomer" sidekick,

the lowly detective sergeant,

and first in line was Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy.

- John and I clicked from day one

and we laughed every single day.

- [John] In the books, he was a right little thug.

- I could force it, sir.

- You've broken enough rules for one day, Troy,

thank you all the same.

- He had no charm at all

and was entirely not good detective material.

That was changed in the television version.

(cat food squelching)

The character became, I think the word is lovable.

He couldn't drive a car.

Wherever he went, used to hit the hedge

or hit somebody else.

- Yeah, Troy was an appalling driver.

(car horn blares) (car tires screeching)

But I used to love it because it meant that I could do

a lot of the stunt driving that we could do.

Some of it I wasn't allowed to do, but a lot of it I was.

- No, no, no! Hey!

(bicycle bell ringing)

(car tires screeching)

Troy!

- [Narrator] But after six years on the rural beat,

actor Daniel Casey decided to move onto pastures new.

- Thank you, sir.

I mean, thank you for everything over the years.

- I will never forget that final scene

‘cause we filmed that last,

and when Barnaby speaks to Troy

it did feel very real.

- I know how much I've relied on you, Troy.

(gentle thoughtful music)

Midsomer will miss you.

- And I'll miss Midsomer.

- He's a leading man in every sense of the word.

He led that company beautifully.

- Troy?

- [John] Now, the next sidekick was John Hopkins.

He's a terrific actor.

- What we got?

- Good question, sir.

Victim's name's Nicholas Turner, he's a local solicitor.

Took a stroll off his roof.

- He was a very dark and kind of brooding figure.

- Initial impression as to cause of death,

catastrophic head and spinal injuries.

- He's quite a snappy dresser.

-Um.

- And then Jason Hughes came in.

- And you are?

- Constable Jones, sir.

- Constable Jones.

- Yeah, I thought it was just brilliant

the way that they did it.

- [George] No Scott this morning?

- No, he called in sick. I'm on my own.

- I just showed up in a uniform

and somebody said, "Well, where's the guy?"

And they went, "Oh, he's sick." (laughs)

And that was it!

He was gone and I was in. (laughing)

- Do you possess a suit, Jones?

- Yes, sir.

- And a tie?

- I do, sir, yes.

- How do you fancy working

with the CID for a couple of days?

- Yes, sir.

- They made me do all kinds of stuff.

The nun would be the standout one.

I was luring a Killer, to then pounce on them.

(suspenseful music)

- Oh! Oof! (blows thudding)

(lights clanking)

- [Officer 1] Stay on the floor!

- [Officer 2] On your feet.

- Who the hell trained her?

- I mean, when I think of my time on it, those seven years,

it's like I was in some kind of apocalyptic world

where people just died all the time.

(camera shutter whirring)

I haven't been up that way for a while.

Junction two to junction seven on the M40,

I just divert, go somewhere else. (chuckles)

Start to get kind of hot flashes

and you know, memories of murder.

- [Narrator] Well, there's plenty of that around,

but one of the key questions in any episode of "Midsomer"

is not just whodunit, but more like, who's in it?

- How wonderful!

But no.

- [Narrator] I was one suspected of murder myself.

- Apart from the person who killed him,

I was probably the last person to see him.

- [Narrator] Because across the past 25 years,

the series has played host to a who's who

of the British acting profession.

- We get fantastic guests.

- Over the years, there was just the entire range

of the British acting profession.

- I took an order earlier,

three-tiered Dungeons & Dragons in white and dark chocolate.

- As an actor, I always think "Midsomer Murders,"

it's one of those boxes that has to be ticked.

What was brilliant about my character is that

she was the suspected murderer

for pretty much the whole episode.

- Do you really think I would kill Dominic

and keep the weapon?

I mean, do you honestly believe

that I would be that stupid?

- The twist was she actually wasn't the murderer.

That was ideal for me.

- [Narrator] And there was one TV comedy national treasure

who set the wheels in motion for guest stars to come.

- An early one was Richard Briers. Legend.

- [Narrator] In "Death's Shadow," from 1998,

the star of "The Good Life" was playing the village priest

and "Call The Midwife's" Judy Parfitt, his wife.

- I have a police inspector coming to see me.

- Oh, don't tell me, Stephen,

you've been found with your hand in the steeple fund.

- Don't be ridiculous.

- He came along to play a priest

and he was wonderfully enthusiastic.

- Yes, vicar.

Looks as if we are gonna have the weather for it.

- Absolutely.

- Did you manage to find someone to open the fete,

a celebrity?

- No, not yet, but I may have had an idea.

I'll be back forthwith.

- We were sitting waiting to go into the church

where there was gonna be the big scene, the reveal,

that Richard Briers, who, you know,

the loveliest man in the world kind of thing,

does turn out to be the bad guy.

And I'm sitting with him

and he says to me, "I'm gonna do some acting in this scene."

And I went, "Are you, Richard?" (laughs) Yes.

He said, "I'm not gonna blink."

And I went, "Wow."

And that's exactly what he did.

It was terrifying.

- Stephen Wentworth, we're arresting you for the murders

of Richard Bailey, David Whiteley, and Simon Fletcher.

You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defense

if you do not mention when questioned

something which you later rely on in court.

- It was him.

- [Tom] No planning, no calculation,

he had to die by your hand before his operation.

- And it was all the more shocking

because it was Richard Briers, ‘cause you didn't expect it.

- Please, come in.

(tense dramatic music)

(drum thuds)

- It was a lovely bit of casting.

- [Narrator] Many a famous face

has popped up in "Midsomer Murders,"

but the cast list also includes some now well-known names

who weren't quite so familiar at the time.

- [Bernice] Edward, what was all the noise about?

- It was a police car.

- Police car?

- [Narrator] In 2009, the Causton Police

were called to investigate the very strange death

of a young man in Midsomer's miniature village.

What they found

was future Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman

playing the unlikely suspect, Bernice.

- The police have found a body. Here in the village.

- A body?

- Oh, Edward, that's terrible.

- She wasn't a huge star then.

She just has a kind of truthfulness as an actor.

- I was just gobsmacked.

She had that extraordinary ability

of being 100% within the part.

- I just know you're going to win.

I'll be cheering for you all the way.

- Oh, for God's sake, leave me alone, will you?

- She just can't step an emotional foot wrong.

I don't think she could do it if she tried.

- [Bernice] She didn't like me

putting flowers on the graves.

She smashed them.

(hammer thudding)

So I smashed her.

(ominous music)

♪ And the green grass grows all around, all around ♪

♪ And the green grass grows all around ♪

- I'm not in the least surprised

that she's gone on to be a great lady of English acting.

Not at all surprised.

- [Narrator] But amongst a cast

of more than 1,000 actors over 23 series,

there have been some surprises.

- Are you still seeing that girl?

I wonder what she'd say if she knew about me.

- Get lost, Laura.

- I used to do mentoring at the Guildhall School

and one of my mentees was Orlando Bloom,

and the minute I met him,

I knew he was gonna be a movie star.

And so I read the current script

and I thought, "Well, Orlando could do that so easily,"

so I put his name forward to the casting director

and there you go.

- You're Peter Drinkwater?

- And you're police.

It's the same smell. You can always tell.

(car engine revving)

- And then he went on to be an elf, there you are. (laughs)

- [Narrator] And "Midsomer" was the starting point

for another British movie star.

Spotted here by "Harry Potter's" David Bradley,

who's worked with a fair few budding actors himself.

- Nice day for it, young'un.

- It was my last episode and there was this young boy,

really handsome and he was quite a gentle soul,

really nice guy.

I just thought, "I hope he doesn't get eaten up

"and spat out by this business."

- I will drive straight over you!

(car horn blaring) (car engine revving)

- Henry Cavill went on to do rather well for himself.

- [Narrator] Unfortunately,

for the future star of "Superman,"

Henry's Kryptonian powers weren't quite developed enough

to save him from death by "Midsomer."

(dramatic music)

(gun blasting)

But there was one fleeting appearance

that would blossom into something far more long-term.

(light upbeat music)

- Excuse me.

- Neil actually had appeared in "Midsomer Murders"

in a fairly early series, I think, playing a gardener.

(cork pops)

(Gavin sniffs) (Gavin coughs)

- He spent a lot of time in the hothouse being quizzed

and being generally suspicious.

- Where are you going?

- Back to the garden.

I'm a gardener, remember?

- A particularly randy gardener

who flirted with Joyce Barnaby.

Much to Tom's irritation.

- Brought you a few Pennington Gems.

- Oh, that's very kind of you, Daniel.

- Bear in mind, the White Bedder is vigorous.

- I think that was the only time

anybody flirted with Joyce Barnaby.

- I'd be quite happy to come back

and make sure everything's nicely-

- Bedded in?

- [Jane] That was a fun day's filming.

- Right. Well, uh, I'll be off, then.

- I'd already watched the show since beginning and loved it,

so when my agent rang up

and said, "Ooh, they've offered you

"an episode of 'Midsomer.""

I said, "Oh, that'd be fantastic, that'd be brilliant."

So I jumped at the chance, little thinking

that I might return for a longer stay.

- [Narrator] It was nine years later

when that moment finally came for DCI Tom Barnaby,

and actor John Nettles,

to retire from this hotspot of murder and mayhem.

(all cheering) - Whoa! Champagne!

- Well, I did it for 13 years. A long, long time.

I was getting on for 70 and I couldn't run anymore.

I couldn't think of any more reactions to dead bodies,

to be honest with you, I couldn't.

- [Ben] So, are we saying it's suspicious?

- Well, the question is, was she dead before immersion?

There's no obvious signs of struggle.

I'll know more when I've opened her up, Tom.

Tom?

- Sir?

- Ah, yeah. Well, I suppose I'd better get changed.

- When John decided to retire,

we started quite a long process

of quite a long list of potential replacements.

- [Narrator] After two years, it was finally decided

that Neil Dudgeon was the man for the job.

(phone ringing)

- Barnaby.

- It's John. - Oh, John!

- He was on everybody's shortlist.

- This isn't personal, is it, Tom?

- Oh, no, no. This is preventative detection.

- Okay. I'll, uh, dig a little deeper.

- [Narrator] But there was something of an unusual hurdle

for anyone replacing Inspector Tom Barnaby.

- In Britain, "Midsomer Murders"

is known as "Midsomer Murders,"

whereas in a lot of territories around the world,

it's called "Barnaby" or "Inspector Barnaby,"

so somebody came up with the idea that Tom Barnaby,

John Nettles's character, has a cousin

who's also a police detective chief inspector

and his name, of course, being his cousin, is John Barnaby.

- That was miraculous. (laughs)

- Yeah, he was a cousin who had come from

Cousin Land.

- This is the new DCI Barnaby,

cousin of the other DCI Barnaby.

- Oh.

- And I certainly didn't think, "Oh, I'm going to 'Midsomer'

"and change anything.

"I'll go to 'Midsomer' and do what John was doing,

"'cause it was brilliant."

It's a great show.

- You're the local. You take it.

(gate creaking)

- My first scene as John Barnaby,

once John had left and I'd kind of moved in,

it was in the sort of pathology lab

and then all these people came into this little room

and they were all having a look going, "Can he do it?

"Is he gonna be all right?

"Is this okay,

"or are we all gonna be looking for another job next week?"

- But somehow we have to encompass this little news item.

"Palmer was never keen on driving a Lotus X4,

"because being a left-hander,

"he found the positioning of the gear lever

"more awkward than usual."

See, right-handed headshot, easy-peasy,

bang, as per your photos.

But, as a lefty,

damn near impossible.

Conclusion?

(light whimsical music)

Precisely.

See you later.

- [Narrator] But the real test would come

when we saw the new Inspector Barnaby on TV,

along with his wife, Sarah, and dog, Sykes.

- When we first took over, there was lots of talk

of there being sort of big shoes to fill.

I think, for fans, there was a mixed reaction,

I think at the beginning.

- [Millie] Mr. Barnaby, Mrs. Barnaby.

- I was certainly concerned,

but, actually, the reception was very warm.

- I hope Sykes didn't disgrace himself.

- Oh, he did make some amorous advances

towards two of my bitches, which wasn't the best of starts.

But I think from Sykes's point-of-view, it was top banana.

Consider him part of the pack.

- Fantastic news, thank you.

- I get people who sort of see me in the street and go,

"Oh, yeah, you are the new Mrs. Barnaby, aren't you?"

And you think, "I've been doing it for 10 years,

"how long do I need to do it?" (laughing)

- Here we are, 10, 12 years later,

we're still here talking about it, so fingers crossed.

- [Narrator] Coming up,

how "Midsomer Murders" went on to make a Killing

around the world.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- It's just great in French.

- [Narrator] And "Midsomer's" greatest mystery

is finally solved.

- A lot of people think it's the same village

we keep going to.

- They look at you and then they say,

"There can't be anybody left alive in that village."

- [Narrator] In the Oxfordshire town of Thame,

a place that has featured regularly

as the fictional town of Causton,

a "Midsomer Murders" guided tour is in full swing.

- Here we are, at Causton Town Hall,

the center of Midsomer County.

Of course, it's not really Causton,

we are actually outside Thame's Town Hall, as you can see.

- [Narrator] Indeed, one of the key attractions

of "Midsomer Murders" is its quintessentially English

chocolate box setting.

- The countryside's very important, I think.

When I used to watch it before I was in the show,

I'd be on the sofa with my wife

and you'd have this opening shot of some beautiful village

and a Norman church and lovely thatched cottages.

We were sort of intrigued,

"Where do they film that? It's so beautiful."

And I still, I find myself in a beautiful village like this

and I say, "Where are we exactly?"

(cricket bat thwacks)

- Yep! (spectators applauding)

- Midsomer is...

Well, it's along the M4, M40 corridor, usually west.

It's Hertfordshire, it's Oxfordshire,

it's Buckinghamshire.

Anywhere the script demands.

- [Narrator] Hear that, dear viewers? A script.

Because Midsomer,

home of the national collection of rural murders,

is, we must remind you, a completely fictional place.

- I don't know how many times

I've had to sort of explain that to people who go,

"This little village and all these murders?"

- They look at you first, they set it up as a gag,

and then they say,

"There can't be anybody left alive in that village!"

- "Bet it's cheap to buy a house!"

- A lot of people think it's the same village

we keep going to, but it's not.

We make up the names.

Gotta hammer that home, it's not.

- It's not a village.

- It's a county, everybody, not a village.

- It is a huge English county made up of beautiful villages.

And made up of people who are insane

and want to Kill people! (laughing)

- Suddenly, there was a rather weighty object in my hand,

and, well, what can I say?

She stepped out in front of it.

- Let's put Solomon Gorge on the Psycho map!

Are you ready?

(runners cheering)

Three, two-

- [Narrator] Over 25 years, Midsomer County, not village,

has delivered an impressive number of murders,

nearly 400 at the last count,

with ever imaginative new ways to tax the Causton Police.

- I think what's genius about it

is that it manages to marry together all of the components

of your Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham,

you know, all the greats of the golden age

of whodunits in England,

while being nominally contemporary.

- This is the essential contradiction,

that all these beautiful, look-at-me villages,

the half-timbered cottages and so forth,

all this is subversive, of course, in "Midsomer Murders"

because your dear old lady is a homicidal maniac.

- All human life is there.

That chocolate box image is frayed slightly in Midsomer.

- I always say that if Jesus had played a sport,

I'm sure it would have been cricket.

(chuckles) Come in.

(gentle whimsical music)

- You're looking at beautiful cottages and gardens

while fetishes are going on in the background! (laughing)

- (panting) Behold, I was shapen in wickedness.

- People just like to see,

especially somewhere where you think,

"This is all so beautiful, isn't it? This is all lovely.

"Oh, my goodness, that man's been eaten by a wild boar!"

- Most of his chest and stomach are gone.

Not to get too technical about it,

I'd say he's been eaten by something.

- That sort of contrast of one with the other,

I think, is sort of rich and appealing to us,

in some human way.

- [Narrator] It might seem like

the most British of TV dramas,

but you might be surprised to hear that "Midsomer"

is exceptionally well-traveled.

(translator 1 speaking in foreign language)

(translator 2 speaking in foreign language)

(translator 1 speaking in foreign language)

- The international appeal of "Midsomer"

is something that a lot of people don't know about.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- It's massive in Scandinavia, huge in Europe,

and Australia and New Zealand love it, it's now in America.

When I signed up to the job, I didn't know that.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- Yeah, I got recognized on my honeymoon

in Vietnam, of all places.

And I was just like, this is crazy.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- [Tom] John Kinsella.

(boxer grunts) (blow thuds)

- It's just great in French because the man voicing me,

he had the most beautiful voice in the world,

and he made Tom Barnaby sound like the most kind,

loving man God ever put breath into.

(translator speaking in foreign language)

(translator speaking in foreign language)

- Denmark is one of the countries

that has been a great supporter of "Midsomer's."

When we got to the 100th episode of "Midsomer,"

as a kind of celebration

and a sort of thank you to the international audience,

somebody came up with the brilliant idea

of setting part of the 100th episode in Denmark.

We were in Copenhagen with some lovely actors

who I'd only just stopped watching in "The Killing."

- Everything here tallies with the crime scene

at the Calders factory,

which means he was killed in Midsomer.

- And that makes him your problem.

- Ann Eleonora Jorgensen,

she played the mother in "The Killing,"

and she said, "They said, 'What are you doing next?"

She said, "I'm doing an episode of 'Midsomer Murders."

They go, "You're doing an episode of 'Midsomer Murders?'

"That's fantastic."

She said they just go bonkers

for "Midsomer Murders" in Denmark.

- We're treated incredibly well.

The name "Midsomer" or "Barnaby"

opened doors you would not believe.

We were allowed to film outside the royal palace,

we filmed inside Copenhagen's police headquarters.

And we had a fantastic couple of weeks in Denmark,

and I think made for a very good episode.

- You're sneaky.

That impresses me.

- Well, I'm glad you're impressed.

(Birgitte chuckles) (upbeat whimsical music)

- [Narrator] Coming up,

(gun blasting) "Midsomer's greatest murderer

is finally unmasked.

- I believe I've killed 18 people, and I'm still at large.

- [Narrator] And how "Midsomer" dines out

on the most savory of deaths.

(shelves crashing) (cheese clattering)

(upbeat mysterious music)

"Midsomer Murders"

has found a unique place in television history,

not just because it's been killing people off for 25 years,

or the volume of deaths it manages to squeeze

into each episode.

No, it's the way they kill them

that's really caught our imagination.

- The great joy about "Midsomer Murders," one of them,

is that, for the slightest reason, people will Kill.

- What are you doing?

- I was just...

(victim screams) (body thuds)

- She fell.

- [John] They don't have to have great motive.

- Very short tempers.

In Midsomer, you don't wanna go upsetting the apple cart

down there, mate.

- Just wanted to shut him up.

And the bowling machine was right there.

- There are many favorite odd ways

that people have found to kill other people.

(dramatic music)

(gun blasting)

It's not your urban murdery thing where,

oh, it's some sort of drug-addled mugging goes wrong.

(water splashing)

They're sort of escapist deaths, fun deaths.

- [Narrator] Over 22 series,

the pressure to deliver ever more outlandish deaths

has proved a grisly challenge

for the writers and set designers.

- I love the human candle,

which was particularly amazing to just see on set, actually,

the way that they made the, sort of, entire wax body.

- The human Roman candle.

One of Nero's favorite ways to kill naughty Christians.

- My favorite deaths in the show?

There are so many to choose from over the years.

There was an episode called "The Dark Rider."

It opened, there was a storm over this castle.

(lightning crashing)

In the storm, he looks down and sees a headless horseman.

(dramatic music)

- Argh!

(horse neighs)

- And I love it when I'm reading an episode

and think, "How are we gonna sort of justify

"he, and we, have seen a headless horseman?"

(light pensive music)

- [Ben] Eye holes.

- But no current occupant.

- [Narrator] And fans on our tourist trail

are about to discover the location

of one of "Midsomer's" most infamous crimes.

- Everything in this village centers around one thing,

the dairy.

- So, this is the beautiful picturesque village of Turville,

which has been used frequently,

not only in "Midsomer Murders,"

but in "The Vicar Of Dibley" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

In fact, you can see at the top of the hill,

the very windmill that was used

in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

And, of course, also in "Schooled in Murder,"

the episode where it particularly featured

in "Midsomer Murders."

- The cheese one is the one that everyone absolutely loves.

(tense music)

- Hello?

- People are forever saying,

"Oh, the one with Martine McCutcheon."

- What are you playing at?

Because I'm not in the mood for games.

Not today.

(shelf creaking)

(shelves crashing) (cheese clattering)

(cheese smashing)

- Crushed by wheels of cheese.

Brilliant. (laughs)

- And I think that's really, sort of, clever.

- [John] Have we got a murder weapon?

- You're standing in it.

- We kill people with cheese.

There isn't another program, I think, that can do that.

- I mean, the writers,

whoever are thinking up all of these murders,

how they keep going, finding new ones, I'll never know.

- Picking a murder out of the air is amazing.

I spend most of the year sending texts to myself saying,

"This'd be a great murder.

"Oh, this'd be an even better one."

(gun blasting)

- [Narrator] Over the past eight years, writer Jeff Povey

has come up with some of "Midsomer's"

most talked about deaths.

Hooking in some deadly fishing-

- The man in the vat of worms, he was Killed,

and then dragged into the tackle shop.

The actor was amazing, he said, "Yeah, I'll get in there,

"and they can crawl over me if they want."

- [Narrator] Creepy comic book capers,

and a somewhat gruesome adventure in the art world.

- I had one where he was drowned in paint.

- You know what they say, Nelson,

in art, everything has a deeper meaning.

- I think the process for a spectacular death

is, basically, what is your world?

- What are you doing here?

Come to tell me how great I am?

- When I did the cricket one, I knew for a fact

that they had these bowling machines that hurled balls down.

(button clicks)

(ball thuds)

I thought, "What if you were tied up and you couldn't move?

"And there was 100 balls going 100 miles an hour,

"it's bound to kill you, isn't it?"

And then we talked to a medical person,

they said, "It just takes one to hit them on the heart

"and it'll stop it" or whatever, you know.

And you go, "Okay."

(balls thudding) (tense music)

That's probably one of my favorite ones

‘cause it's very visual.

And you could feel it, you can really feel that.

(balls thudding) (tense music)

- And I just think the writerly imagination,

you sometimes think, "Oh, get help.

"Where has this come from? What's wrong with you?"

- There's a few good deaths in the next one,

that's filming at the moment.

- [Director] Camera set! And action!

- [Actor] As soon as you get this message,

grab Etta and get to the shelter.

- Including this latest episode,

I believe I've killed 18 people.

And I'm still at large.

- Prior to his demise, he called two numbers.

- It's terrible to say, but it's great fun killing people,

it really is. (laughs)

- [Narrator] But come every "Midsomer" murder,

often the first person at the death scene

is not a police officer.

- Looks like she was immersed in this stuff

when it was in liquid form.

- For Kam, I think one of her favorite murders, possibly,

was the incident at Cooper Hill,

with the aliens and the spaceships,

because she couldn't solve it.

- So, you're saying this stuff's alien?

- I'm saying it's alien for me.

- For her, that was probably fun,

for the actors, but was probably not fun,

because they had to be put into black bags,

covered in black goo.

I used to be very protective over the murdered actors.

Just because they had to hold really uncomfortable positions

for long periods of time.

I would just make sure there's a pillow,

or they could lean on something. (laughs)

- [Narrator] In 2016, Manjinder Virk became the fourth actor

to take on the busy role of Midsomer pathologist.

- [Manjinder] The first day on set, it was quite surreal.

- Please, call me Kam.

- There was something familiar about being with Neil,

it was part of my growing up.

- Don't suppose there's much you can tell

from an empty room, is there?

- Quite the opposite.

- Right.

- I took the job on because I liked the character,

and I thought she was interesting.

- See this? The weft of the carpet?

It's flattened in the same way.

- I didn't realize that it would be part of

a, sort of, controversial headline

because I was the first person of color

as a regular on the show.

It's important to have this discussion.

And the thing about "Midsomers"

is it's so out there as a show,

it's important to realize that people from all walks of life

can be represented.

- So, how are you finding the job?

- It's not what I was expecting so far,

but I'm enjoying the challenge.

- Cheers. - Cheers.

- Cheers. (glasses clinking)

(sparse upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Across the years, the Midsomer pathologists

have had one of the most gruesome jobs on television,

and not just because

of the criminally shapeless boiler suits.

- Fleur came into the series peering into a vat of beer.

- Boiled human flesh isn't something I work with every day.

I'll need to consult a specialist.

And possibly a cookbook.

- I believe there had been five pathologists.

Barry Jackson played the first pathologist, of course.

- So where is it, then, the body?

- Most of it's in the hall.

- I know, of late,

they have been often the love interest for the sidekick.

- Do you remember when they took us to watch a postmortem

and the big Scottish guy fainted?

(Kam laughs) You and I

had to take him outside.

- Then you suggested we go across the road for sushi,

and he nearly fainted again.

- Didn't know what he was missing.

- Fleur came in and she was not that.

(door clunking)

- Sorry I'm late,

I was removing a chainsaw from a chest cavity.

- She's a force of nature. She always knows best.

She's always sort of solving the crimes for us.

And we sort of are scared of her, love her, need her.

- Fleur has wonderful backstories.

She's part of a female biker gang.

She's been married in Las Vegas.

- [Fleur] It's bringing back memories of my first wedding.

- I didn't know you'd been married.

- (scoffs) I've been down the aisle a few times.

Although, it wasn't an aisle as such in Vegas.

- So, Neil and I spend most episodes pulling looks

and going, "What?"

- What's that?

- A shinai stick. With modifications.

They use it in kendo.

I once shacked up with a local champion.

- She's some girl. (laughs)

- Enrobed, that's how they describe it, isn't it,

on the box?

Mind you, they're usually talking about a hazelnut.

- My very favorite murder to explore was death by chocolate.

- I won't be able to get the stuff out of his windpipe

until I get him back to the lab.

It'll be all the way into his lungs, I shouldn't wonder.

- Pathologists, traditionally,

are shown to be rather ghoulish, dark-humored people.

- I'd say he died because he got turned into a human lolly.

- I think humor is very important.

It's a light-hearted show, really.

We're not "Line Of Duty," that's the point of "Midsomer,"

it's the other end of that spectrum.

- The comedy element, I think,

is a very important part of the tone.

- You missed a bit.

(Joyce huffs)

- It's what helps it to be cozy rather than scary.

- It's not that we are glib.

You have to worry about someone who's been Killed,

and then be humorous to survive yourself.

- Now buzz off, let me get back to work.

- Barnaby stays very, very sane

and true straight through it.

- Mrs. Dagmar, I'm here on official police business.

- Oh!

In that case, I'm all ears, all eyes,

and all the rest of me.

- He never jokes about victims, never, ever.

Winter can, and he could get admonished for it.

Fleur can, 'cause she does, she jokes about everything.

- That's the last time I go to a gym.

- You go to the gym?

- But as long as Barnaby doesn't succumb to it,

we're on safe ground.

- Do you believe her?

- It all sounds plausible enough,

but something just doesn't feel right.

- I say this with some pride.

Years ago, there was some sort of survey among police

as to what was the most accurate

representation of the police.

- All right, I give up.

Why did you cross the road?

- Like I said, it's my day off.

- (laughing) And "Midsomer,"

you'll be astonished to hear this,

"Midsomer" was adjudged the least accurate

representation of actual police work.

Well, I was amazed.

- Which I think is probably another part of its charm.

We're not trying to be real, it's a made-up land, you know?

These stories are fantastical

and we're not gonna apologize for it.

And I think that's probably something that people enjoy,

‘cause they're like, "At least they're honest.

"They're not trying to be anything that they're not."

- Cheers.

- So, ladies and gentlemen,

this is where our tour of Midsomer County ends.

Exactly where it began, here in Badger's Drift,

25 years after that very first episode.

And so I hope that you've enjoyed our little tour today.

Thank you very much.

(group applauding)

- This is actually my 25th year as well.

I started filming in 1997.

To be honest, it's as fresh today as it was then.

(upbeat music)

- The storylines are...

What we're working on at the moment, is extraordinary.

- Killer reconfigured the venting system.

- 25 years?

It's kind of incredible that any show could have within it

the seeds of its own reinvention

so much that it can keep changing.

- There's no reason for it ever to stop,

as far as I can see.

- When you look at the rest of the TV landscape,

it's really astonishing.

- Are you retiring?

- Me?

Whatever gave you that idea?

- Well, you did. Sort of.

All those pictures of quaint cottages.

- Retire? I'm in my prime, Winter.

(Jamie laughs) - I just want people

to carry on loving "Midsomer Murders," as I do.

Happy birthday, "Midsomer."

(glasses clinking)

- Happy quarter-century, "Midsomer Murders."

- Many, many happy returns.

(cork po - Oh! Pe)

- So many years, so many deaths, so many criminals caught.

Well done.

(pensive whimsical music)

(pensive whimsical music continues)

(pensive whimsical music continues)