Midsomer Murders
There must be something about Sunday nights that switches off my critical faculties and turns my brain to mush. I can find no other rational explanation for the fact that on Sunday I enjoy watching Midsomer Murders. For those unfamiliar with the British TV landscape, this show is classic Sunday night fare, featuring; lovely rural thatched cottage locations, mild tongue-in-cheekiness, great British Institutions (WI, bell ringers, Regattas etc.), andâof courseâgruesome murder.
There are many reasons to find Midsomer Murders laughable1, but the thing that gets me every week is the sound effects. At some point, the people responsible for sound effects must have reasoned thusly:
- Midsomer is a rural area.
- Rural areas have lots of foxes and owls.
- Foxes and owls come out at night, and their calls are a bit spooky.
- Therefore, every night scene should have a minimum of one fox scream or owl hoot per two seconds.
If there were as many foxes in Midsomer as there appear to be from the soundtrack, the dead bodies would never actually hit the groundâinstead, they would recline gently on a carpet of screaming foxes. If there was a BAFTA for “Most Gratuitous Use of Nocturnal Animal Cries and Calls” (and there should be) then Midsomer Murders would be a dead cert for the award.
1Not least of which is the stunning body count of an average of 3 murders per week in a tiny rural area. It’s true that Inspector Morse had much the same problem, but Oxford is a little more urbanised, and anyway he carried it off with a bit of gravitas.
1
As an Oxford resident, I'm only too pleased that since Morse's demise I am less likely to be murdered here now, and the body-count-hotspot has shifted to Midsomer. Especially as I don't know where that is. (Though I was a tad anxious last night when it looked suspiciously like Henley ... is Midsomer itself migrating back towards Oxford?)----- I blame house prices. If there wasn't a shortage of affordable housing no one would move to Midsomar Norton and the population would presumably be one, dangerous and lonely psycopath.
by Ian @ 19/10/2004 9:11 am • Permalink •
2
I must agree that I normally have a naturally inbulit aversion to anything shown on ITV, but I do enjoy watching Midsomer Murders. I think it is more of a spot the location exercise though, because Midsomer is actually a vast "rural conurbation" spreading from north of Aylesbury, east to the Chalfonts, south to High Wycombe and Marlow, west to Henley and all points in between. As it covers such a huge area, perhaps those of us living in the Chiltern area can sleep a little easier in our beds as opposed to worrying about the high death rate!
by Pete @ 19/10/2004 10:11 am • Permalink •
3
I too am a fan of Midsomer murders, but I am a bit of a sucker for both TV, and book detective stories. If I could have the time back that I have frittered away on them, I could probably have done another couple of degrees by now! The problem with the murders in MSM seems, to me, not to be the number of murders, but the fact that there are only two detectives to investigate them. By coincidence I was only wondering the other day if the sound track is dubbed on because there always seems to be the same blackbird singing everytime they go outside during the day.
I notice that MSM is replaced by Foyle's War this week, another series in the same vein, if a little less light hearted.
by Keith @ 19/10/2004 7:10 pm • Permalink •
4
tony: Yes, I recognised Henley too. As Pete says (see #3), Midsomer seems to be encroaching across a huge swathe of countryside North of Oxford.
Ian: Hehe. But what would Mrs. Barnaby do without all those exciting murders at Summer Fetes to get mixed up with? She'd be taking an axe to Mr. Barnaby, I bet.
Pete: I like location spotting in it too. When Mr. Bsag worked for a blacksmith, they actually filmed one of the episodes with the blacksmith's parents' house. And they had to stop banging hot bits of metal with hammers for the duration. Very exciting.
Keith: I don't know what it is about detective stories, but they do draw you in, even if they are poorly scripted, acted and filmed. I'm sure some psychologist must have done a study on it at some point.
by bsag @ 19/10/2004 9:11 pm • Permalink •
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If there were as many foxes in Midsomer as there appear to be from the soundtrack, the dead bodies would never actually hit the groundâinstead, they would recline gently on a carpet of screaming foxes.
Here I was, just innocently drinking my coffee when I read that part. Shame on you! I almost choked to death from laughing so hard!
by Nathan @ 19/10/2004 10:10 pm • Permalink •
6
Lyle/bsag- I noticed that too!
by Ian @ 20/10/2004 8:10 am • Permalink •
7
MSM is indeed filmed in Henley, and several other places around Aylesbury/ Thame/ Oxford - a lot is filmed around the vicinity of Long Crendon, Chearsley and Cuddington.
It's still a bog-awful series though, in my humble opinion.
On a total tangent, this comments system is horrendously slow using Firefox 1.0. The text in both comment and preview is appearing like the teletype printer used to be on BBC Grandstand with the football scores! (I've just have to wait 45 seconds for it to finish typing out that last sentence. The joys of a decent typing speed.)
by Lyle @ 20/10/2004 8:11 am • Permalink •
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Oh, spooky - after your post, Sapientum talks about the same thing - he was there for the filming itself.
by Lyle @ 20/10/2004 11:10 am • Permalink •
9
Nathan: Sorry! :-D
Lyle: Yes, it is bog-awful. But for some reason, I still like it
And the coincidence with Sapientum's post is a bit spookyâI hadn't seen that.
Lyle/Ian: Hmm, that's odd. Has it always been that way for you on Firefox, or has it just happened after I upgraded WordPress or you upgraded Firefox? I haven't changed anything about the script that delivers the preview. If it's really obnoxious I might just disable it.
by bsag @ 20/10/2004 6:10 pm • Permalink •
10
I just came here to find out why the sudden invasion of visitors to my site from this site.
I have blogged several times about MSM and seem to get the most visitors from Belgium of all places.
Did you know there are now more MSM episodes that there were Morse episodes? The old adage of quality being sacrificed for quantity is certainly true.
Oh, and Lyle is right - I have appeared in a couple of episodes. Buy me a drink sometime and I will tell you what John Nettles is REALLY like to work with!!
by Peter @ 20/10/2004 11:11 pm • Permalink •
11
BSAG : I'm honestly not sure whether it's happened just recently, it was mere coincidence that I was using Firefox instead of the more normal Opera (which has no problems) so I'm not sure of what's changed, or whether it's just a browser issue.
However, it's doing the same today, so shrug. I'll just go back to using Opera for BSAG instead...
by Lyle @ 21/10/2004 8:11 am • Permalink •
12
May I churlish point out that it's an English type of institution, and a south of England one at that.
Sorry, irks me that.
Although I didn't realise it was part shot in Aylesbury - I used to live there. I'm still not gonna watch it though
by Gordon @ 21/10/2004 10:11 am • Permalink •
13
Peter: An extra eh? Sounds interesting. I've always assumed that there's an awful lot of boredom involved with being an extra, waiting around for things to happen.
Lyle: Weird. It's a pain if you have to use another browser, though.
Gordon: [[blushes]] Sorry, yes, you're quite right. Slip of the tongue.
by bsag @ 23/10/2004 11:11 am • Permalink •
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Not to forget that bl**dy pheasant! The foxes used to really irritate me, I grew up on Dartmoor where there are actually lots of foxes and you would hear maybe one a month if you were lucky.
The Oxfordshire locations are also confusing, AFAIK it's actually set in Midsomer Norton and Corston near Bath.
P.S. If you really want a laugh, read some of the earlier books, where Sergeant Troy is a city-slicker cop out in the sticks, and described as "like a shark, but without the shark's redeeming nice nature".
by ijw @ 30/10/2004 10:11 pm • Permalink •
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Midsomer has even made it down to Devon of late. Personally if there weren't so many confessions I would suspect Joyce. Everywhere she goes death is sure to follow. If she turned up at any function I attended I'd be out like a shot.
by Andrew Jackson @ 09/02/2007 3:59 pm • Permalink •
16
Really glad to see this analysis: I am a Midsomer Fan I notice that in every episode there is a distressed blackbird sounding off in a nearby hedge. Yes, its laughable, but the acting is really quite good. How wonderful to see ancient British actors being wheeled out for their final performances. I was sorry to watch Richard Briers fling himself from the tower of his own church. But, really, I dont blame him: Suffering a wife like that. I wish the team would come to Wiltshire, I desperately want to be an extra and take a lovely, long look at Joyce Barnaby (Jane Wymark). I am sure she played the part of "Jayne Eyre" in a late Sixties TV production. (But she would have been about 15 then? Can anyone confirm this please? Albert
by Swinners @ 21/10/2007 7:11 pm • Permalink •
17
Hope this gets in! Loved Bergerac and still enjoy John in Midsomer Murders as his older self. Since he is older a little humour suits his new image. Still getting his man tho! I drool over every thatched cotage and long to see it close up as a townie who enjoys country settings this programme has it all. Gruesome bits well try not to look too hard. And if you want a copycat set in Yorkshire can't beat Dalziel and Pascoe. not an uglier man to be seen when he chooses to sneer at someone reminds me a bit of fat porkies. Guess what? luv him just the same, tho' at definite pension age and female. no wonder real love passed him by! at least John N. has good looks now going over the hill.
by June Ritchie @ 05/11/2007 3:19 pm • Permalink •
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