Midsomer Murders - Set Four
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Daniel Casey, John Nettles (II)Brand: Acorn
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Acorn Media
Movie Reviews of Midsomer Murders - Set Four
Movie Review: Midsomer Murders, Set Four, continues to keep DCI Tom Barnaby busy with an ever-growing number of bodies
Summary: 5 Stars
"Make the call, Troy." When Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) says this to his police sergeant, Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), you can be sure he's found another body in one of the cosy, peaceful villages located in Midsomer County. All of the little picture-perfect villages and small towns have a wide and varied assortment of English citizens, ranging from wealthy magistrates and high Church of England prelates to milkmen and shopkeepers, wives and lovers, thieves and...a lot of murderers. Barnaby must apply all his experience, skepticism, persistence and unflappability to catch the culprits.
For the record, Set Four's mysteries are: Tainted Fruit (death by injection), set in the village of Midsomer Malham; Ring Out Your Dead (shootings), set in Midsomer Mellow; Murder on St. Malley's Day (knifing), set in Devington School near Midsomer Parva; Market for Murder (car fire) set in Midsomer Market; and A Worm in the Bud (drowning), set in Midsomer Worthy.
The charm of this series lies partly in its setting. Midsomer County is a very pretty place, green and cared for. The towns are tidy, filled with competent and knowledgeable tradesmen; the villages tend to have a few eccentrics and a lot of thatched roofs. This could be much too cosy except for three things. First, the performance by John Nettles. He's a fine actor who is completely at home in the role. Watching his Barnaby think his way through clever mysteries, unfailingly polite and unfailingly unintimidated, is a pleasure. Second, the mysteries themselves. This series has been going on through eight seasons. DVD sets are out for six of them so far. The mysteries are almost always real puzzlers; not flashy, but well disguised. They are consistently interesting and well written. In Set Four, I particularly liked one very black comedy (Ring Out Your Dead), one well-constructed look at the corrupting pleasures of an old-boy network (Murder on St. Malley's Day), and one examination of overlapping motives (A Worm in the Bud). The mysteries also play fair with the viewer. The clues Barnaby discovers all have been there for us to find as well as for him. Third, the quality of the production and the actors. I suspect a substantial budget has been allocated for each episode. The series looks first-rate. The actors are first-rate, too, which is typical of British productions which find their way over here. Daniel Casey does a fine job as Barnaby's assistant. He respects his boss and is smart enough to learn from him. But he also can be exasperated at Barnaby's penchant for not sharing everything. And he occasionally gets put out when an apparently important car trip (Troy almost always drives them) turns out to be a trip for a bacon sandwich Barnaby's been thinking about. Barnaby's wife is played by Jane Wymark, and it's a pleasure to observe how much at ease the two actors are with each other. They play a long-married couple, still in love and with a comfortable kind of middle-aged affection for each other. All the actors do outstanding jobs, and there usually is a sprinkling of well-known names. In Set Four, which consists of five programs of about an hour and forty minutes each, there are Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Gemma Jones, Anton Rogers, Graham Crowden, Carmen du Santoy, Ian Hogg and Desmond Barret.
If you're in the mood for civilized British television mysteries, where the mean streets have more cobblestones than crushed beer cans, where the occasional drug user is not a grubby loser but an upper-class wife, where the chief copper has a happy home life and no angst to share with the viewers, Midsomer Murders might be just the thing. The mysteries are consistently well developed and puzzling, and the acting is solid.
The programs in each set do not reflect very accurately the order in which the programs appear in each season's series. It doesn't make any difference since each mystery is self-contained. The DVD picture is excellent. There are a few extras such as a map of Midsomer County showing the towns and villages, cast filmographies of the major players and a biography of Carolyn Graham, the author of the books the series is based on.
Summary of Midsomer Murders - Set Four
The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary British television mysteries. Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham, modern master of the English village mystery, the series stars John Nettles (Bergerac) as the unflappable Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby with Daniel Casey (The Wingless Bird) as his eager young assistant. Guest stars include Hugh Bonneville, Gemma Jones, Wendy Craig, and Paul Venables. Includes the following mysteries:Tainted Fruit ? A wealthy young landlady in Midsomer Malham fears for her life after she callously ignores the plight of an elderly tenant.
Ring Out Your Dead ? Just before a big competition, someone starts killing members of the church bell-ringing team in Midsomer Wellow.
Murder on St. Malley?s Day ? After a murder at the Devington School in Midsomer Parva, members of an elite student club close ranks.
Market for Murder ? In lovely Midsomer Market, a ladies reading group starts losing members to murder.
A Worm in the Bud ? A woman is found dead in Setwale Wood, an apparent suicide, except that her suicide note is emailed after her body has already been sighted.
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