SARAH VINE’s My TV Week: No wonder they got 25 years for murders this barmy
MIDSOMER MURDERS – 25 YEARS OF MAYHEM SUNDAY, ITV
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Some shows are just part of the fabric of British TV. You don’t have to make a conscious effort to tune into them, they’re just always there when you turn on the telly.
Reliable and familiar – like a favourite comfy chair: lovely to sink into after a long day’s work, or when you’re a bit poorly-sick, as my mother used to say.
Midsomer Murders is one such show. For 25 years, the citizens of rural Oxfordshire have been cheerfully dispatching each other in a variety of inventive ways against a backdrop of country pubs and perfect borders, all under the watchful eyes of the politest men in police detection, John Nettles’ Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, now retired, and his newly arrived cousin John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon).
DCI John Barnaby and DS Jamie Winter in Midsomer Murders, which aired a special quarter century episode on Sunday
I say newly arrived, Dudgeon took over in 2011, but it takes a while for people to get used to new faces in Midsomer. Especially since most don’t stick around long before they meet with some untimely accident.
The catalogue of destruction presided over by these two gentlemen is legendary. In no particular order, death by cheese, candle wax, cricket, chocolate… the English countryside can be a dangerous place along that stretch of the M40.
Sarah (pictured) says that Midsomer Murders has been a conduit for some of Britain’s finest acting talent including Olivia Colman, Peter Capaldi and Orlando Bloom
Part of the show’s appeal is, of course, the contrast between the outwardly respectable setting and the simmering tensions beneath, a theme that, like the show’s apparently endless selection of sidekicks, never seems to get old. Again, that’s all part of the genius: a variety of good-looking young fellows, from Daniel Casey as DS Gavin Troy to Jason Hughes as DS Ben Jones to Nick Hendrix as the current incumbent, DS Jamie Winter.
It’s a show that perfectly captures the English temperament – charming and lovely for the most part, but woe betide you if you overstep the mark.
This special was an affectionate romp through a quarter of a century of mayhem, with contributions from all the major players. I must say, Nettles looks very good for his age, still the housewives’ heartthrob at 78, and there were plenty of anecdotes from other cast members including the first Mrs Barnaby, Joyce (Jane Wymark), AKA ‘the nicest woman in the world’ (but also the worst cook) and her succesor, Sarah (Fiona Dolman).
The show’s also been a conduit for some of our finest acting talent, many of whom have gone on to scale far dizzier heights. Sadly, of all the many stars who owe a debt to Midsomer – Hugh Bonneville, Olivia Colman, Peter Capaldi, Tom Ellis, Orlando Bloom and the current Superman, Henry Cavill – only Tamzin Outhwaite voiced her gratitude. Shame.
And a big mistake. After all, we all know what happens to those who get on the wrong side of the good burghers of Midsomer…
AWFUL ON EVERY LEVEL
Drawers Off will be coming back for a second season. The competitive art show is hosted by Jenny Eclair (pictured), who Sarah says is ‘utterly unsuccessful’ as a presenter
God only knows how Drawers Off (Monday, Channel 4) got a second season, but here it is. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of a competitive art show.
Sky does it brilliantly with Portrait Artist Of The Year. But there they take the work and the artists seriously; this is just a chance to make puerile jokes about the nude models and take the mickey out of the contestants, and Jenny Eclair is utterly unsuccessful as the presenter. Awful on every level.
- Author, lecturer and mathematician Hannah Fry was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2021, having missed a smear test because of lockdown. She approached the situation the only way she knew how – with her brain. She threw herself into the data, analysing and questioning every step of the way, all the while dealing with the emotional fallout of her treatment. The result is Making Sense Of Cancer With Hannah Fry (Thursday, BBC2), one woman’s highly intelligent and incisive response to cancer. I can’t fault it, or her.
THE JEWEL IN THE JUBILEE CROWN
SECRETS OF THE QUEEN’S CORONATION SATURDAY, CHANNEL 4
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Secrets of the Queen’s Coronation will show vintage footage including that of Andrew Parker Bowles who was a page at the Coronation
It’s been wall-to-wall Jubilee specials the past few weeks, but this was a cut above, both in terms of the vintage footage and its participants – including Andrew Parker Bowles (who was a page) and Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, a tremendous old toff who was one of the Queen’s maids of honour at the Coronation.
At the time a stunning (and one suspects rather naughty) 18-year-old aristocratic beauty, her memories of waiting in the robing room of Westminster Abbey before the ceremony, smoking cigarettes and tracking the Queen’s progress on the radio, brought the event to life in a way a thousand historians never could.
As for Parker Bowles, his participation was a reminder of the merry-go-round of pairings in upper-class society, his own ex-wife of course now married to Prince Charles, then a four-year-old observing his mother’s elevation from the sidelines.
Elsewhere, there were more fascinating nuggets; the long coronation train created friction with the carpet in the Abbey, making it near-impossible for the Queen to move. She had to ask the maids of honour to give her a ‘shove’ to get her started.
And by the end of the ceremony she was wearing two dresses, one gold coat and one cloak weighing 10kg – a profound symbol of the weight of responsibility being placed on her slender shoulders.
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