Midsomer Murders - Painted in Blood

 

There have been 131 episodes of Midsomer Murders over, so far, 22 series. We must have watched them all and have been watching repeats over last few years. I have had to keep a list so I know that recently we have seen 83 episodes and have another 36 recorded. But there has never been an episode like "Painted in Blood".

This was Episode 3 of Series 6 that was first shown on 17th January 2003. The reason why it is such an unusual episode is that for once it fails to live up to the title of the show. So no "s" in Murders. Just the one at the very beginning. One of the artists whom Joyce Barnaby has joined on the green of Midsomer Flory (actually The Lee) is found dead. Ruth Fairfax is an elderly lady intent in keeping her particular place.

So what is so different ? This is a story about bent detectives and the hidden proceeds of an armed robbery. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (John Nettles kept this role until Series 14 when he finally decided to leave and was replaced by Neil Dudgeon who actually had a small part in an earlier series). Here is Barnaby with Sergeant Troy.

There is a mystery about Ruth Fairfax that increases as Barnaby is taken off the case and Troy seconded to those detectives. The scene alternates with the characters painting on the green under the watch of John Sessions, somebody who might have been involved in a major robbery, his boss in prison, the new detectives and a local bank situated on the High Street of Great Missenden. These were the days that so much of the filming was located in our part of Buckinghamshire.

So very little to do with who committed that earlier murder (until right at the very end) but the uncovering (by Barnaby of course) of a web of intrigue and crime. In its way, highly original and one of the very best of all 131 episodes. And then of course there was Leslie Phillips (here with John Sessions and Joyce Barnaby), but only interested in a blonde.