Midsomer Murders: The Early Cases Collection
List Price:
Our Price: $92.28
You Save: $67.71 (42%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $84.99 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Barry Jackson, Jane Wymark, Jason Hughes, John Nettles, Laura HowardBrand: Acorn
Writer: Caroline Graham
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Acorn Media
Movie Reviews of Midsomer Murders: The Early Cases Collection
Movie Review: Midsomer Murders
Summary: 5 Stars
They are amateurs and pros, London dwellers moving equally comfortably in international society as in that of their occasional forays into the English countryside, and lifelong inhabitants of those rural settings. They investigate crimes in the Thames valley and cities as large as Oxford, midsize towns like a certain Kingsmarkham, and villages with such all-English names as St. Mary Mead or King's Abbot. And they have been portrayed by some of Britain's finest contemporary actors, from Jeremy tBrett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke (Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson) to Roy Marsden (Commander Adam Dalgliesh), Patrick Malahide and William Simons (D.C.I. Roderick Alleyn & D.I. "Br'er" Fox), John Thaw and Kevin Whately (D.C.I. Morse & D.S. Lewis), David Jason (D.I. "Jack" Frost), George Baker and Christopher Ravenscroft (D.C.I. Reginald Wexford & D.I. Mike Burden), Peter Davison and Brian Glover (Albert Campion & Magersfontein Lugg), Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter (Lord Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane), David Suchet/Albert Finney (Hercule Poirot) and last but not least Joan Hickson as Miss Jane Marple, the grandmother of all English village detectives.
To that illustrious group, British author Caroline Graham in 1987 added another sleuthing couple, the middle-aged D.C.I. Tom Barnaby and his young colleague D.S. Gavin Troy, coppers in a cluster of villages which, collectively, make up an area known as Midsomer County, and which could easily rival Agatha Christie's very own St. Mary Mead in per-capita occurrences of treachery, crime, and bloodletting. The series' first entry, "The Killings at Badgers Drift," was so successful that it won a Macavity Award for best first mystery and, for its author, an instant loyal following. Before long, the books had spawned a television series, which at now over 50 episodes has long since outrun the number of its print originals. Starring as Barnaby and Troy are Royal Shakespeare Company alumnus John Nettles, best known to TV audiences as Jerseyan Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac in the 1980s' series of the same name (based on the books by Andrew Saville), and Daniel Casey, whose most notable other roles to date have been appearances in the BBC's "Our Friends in the North," ITV's "Steel River Blues" (for which he gave up "Midsomer Murders" in 2004), and the 1998 Catherine Cookson adaptation "The Wingless Bird." Nettles and Casey are an engaging team, not quite faithful to their characters' literary versions - which however works well to their advantage; particularly in the case of Daniel Casey's Troy, who despite a certain learning curve in political correctness is less brash than in the books, and who presents a good foil for Nettles's emphatic Barnaby; in turn overall more reminiscent of George Baker's Wexford than of Nettles's own Bergerac, whose domestic bliss is spoiled, again and again, by the callings of his job, to his regret as much as to that of his culinarily-challenged wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) and theater-bound daughter Cully (Laura Howard); yet, he is to much of a professional not to heed those callings every single time.
Bringing together the series's first eighteen episodes, this set provides a most welcome opportunity for fans to reacquaint themselves with the initial (and for most intents and purposes, strongest-written) cases solved by this winning pair of detectives, as well as with the not-so peaceful, albeit wonderfully filmed setting of rural Midsomer County. Crucially, this also includes the TV version of "The Killings at Badgers Drift," which (re-)introduced the characters of Barnaby and Troy (as had Caroline Graham's book, ten years earlier), and among whose high profile roster of guest stars were screen luminaries and TV regulars such as Elizabeth Spriggs, Jonathan Firth, Rosalie Crutchley, Julian Glover, Christopher Villiers and Renee Asherson. In addition to the 1997 pilot, this set features the series's complete first three seasons (1998 - 2000) and five of the six episodes from the fourth (2001) season:
The Killings at Badger's Drift (1997)
Written in Blood (1998)
Death of a Hollow Man (1998)
Faithful Unto Death (1998)
Death in Disguise (1999)
Death's Shadow (1999)
Strangler's Wood (1999)
Dead Man's Eleven (1999)
Blood Will Out (1999)
Death of a Stranger (1999)
Blue Herrings (2000)
Judgement Day (2000)
Beyond the Grave (2000)
Garden of Death (2000)
Destroying Angel (2001)
The Electric Vendetta (2001)
Who Killed Cock Robin? (2001)
Dark Autumn (2001)
Also recommended:
The Killings at Badger's Drift (Inspector Barnaby Mysteries)
Inspector Morse - Complete Collection
Ruth Rendell Mysteries - Simisola / Road Rage
P.D. James: The Essential Collection
Summary of Midsomer Murders: The Early Cases Collection
MIDSOMER MURDERS:EARLY CASES COLLECTI - DVD MovieSimilar DVD Movies
Pie in the Sky Complete CollectionAcorn; Release date: 2011-11-01; DVD
Best price: $70.00
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders, Set 19Release date: 2012-02-28; DVD
Best price: $33.49
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 17Acorn; Release date: 2011-02-22; DVD
Best price: $29.99
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 16Acorn; Release date: 2010-09-28; DVD
Best price: $32.64
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 15Acorn Media; Release date: 2010-06-01; DVD
Best price: $25.44
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 14Acorn; Release date: 2010-02-23; DVD
Best price: $32.65
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 13Acorn; Release date: 2009-09-29; DVD
Best price: $31.77
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Set 18AMG; Release date: 2011-09-06; DVD
Best price: $23.39
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Barnaby's CasebookAcorn; Release date: 2009-11-10; DVD
Best price: $98.50
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders: Village Case FilesAcorn; Release date: 2010-11-02; DVD
Best price: $87.59
Price in other shops: