Midsomer Murders Location Guide E-Book

Frank Hopkinson

• Herausgeber: Pitkin
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 62

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A visitor's guide to Midsomer, pinpointing the most popular real-world locations used for filming the series. 'Midsomer Murders' was an immediate success from its very first episode 'The Killing at Badger's Drift', aired in 1997. With this guide, fans of the show can pinpoint the most popular locations used for filming the series, including familiar pubs, churches, villages and countryside that are open for visits. The guide features: - Famous pubs such as The Lions at Bledlow, which has been five different pubs in its Midsomer lifetime, and The Crown in Sydenham, which can claim at least three. - Villages clustered around the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire border – Turville, Hambleden, Fingest, Haddenham and Long Crendon, all favourite backdrops in the show. - Grand country houses including the Mapledurham Estate, Chenies Manor House and Dorney Court, all open to the public. - Ancient churches to admire, quite often the scene of grisly goings on in the vestry. - Short profiles on the two DCI Barnabys, John Nettles and Neil Dudegon, along with the five Detective Sergeants and Sykes the dog.With all episodes available on BritBox, fans of the show can watch old episodes with the Midsomer Murders Location Guide in hand and spot exactly where Inspector Barnaby brings the sometimes unlikely villains to book.

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

2

DCI Tom and John Barnaby

4

Detective Sergeants + Sykes

6

Dorchester-on-Thames

10

Warborough

12

Wallington

14

Mapledurham

15

Turville

16

Hambleden & Fingest

18

Bledlow

20

Sydenham

22

Thame 24

Long Crendon

26

Haddenham 28

Cuddington 30

Wormsley 32

Brill 33

The Lee

34

Chenies Manor 36

Hurley 38

Littlewick Green 40

Little Missenden 41

Dorney Court 42

Places to Visit and Stay 44

MIDSOMER

MURDERS

LOCATION GUIDE

BELOW

The village of Turville

on the Oxfordshire/

Buckinghamshire border,

viewed from close to the

Cobstone Windmill. It’s a

view replicated in ‘Dark

Autumn’ (Series 4), when

Barnaby walks with the

flirtatious Louise August

played by Celia Imrie.

BELOW

Looking past the Bull

& Butcher pub to the

notorious village green

at Turville.

LEFT

AND BOTTOM

Tom Barnaby at The

Lee. John, Sarah and

Betty Barnaby outside

The Six Bells.

3

T

he pilot episode of

Midsomer Murders

first appeared on ITV screens on 23 March

1997 with actor John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. It was a

resounding and immediate success; over 13 million people watched the small-screen

adaptation of Caroline Graham’s novel

The Killing at Badger’s Drift

. Producers Betty

Willingale and Brian True-May had found a winning formula. Willingale had worked

as a BBC script editor since the 1960s and was involved in some of the corporation’s

classic dramas:

I Claudius

,

The Barchester Chronicles

,

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

to

name but a few. She commissioned writer Anthony Horowitz to adapt the first of the

Inspector Barnaby novels and an impressive cast was assembled.

With the instant success of the pilot episode, the four remaining novels were adapted

to form Series One, and appeared on screen in 1998. John Nettles, knowing that there

were only five novels written for Barnaby, imagined he would soon be treading the

boards back in London’s West End. In all he filmed thirteen series, finally retiring from

the part in ‘Fit For Murder’, which was broadcast in 2011.

His place was taken by cousin John Barnaby, who had been working for Brighton CID,

and with whom he had collaborated on ‘The Sword of Guillaume’, when a deputation

from Causton (the county town of Midsomer) visited the South Coast en masse.

Actor Neil Dudgeon, aided by Fiona Dolman playing glamorous headteacher Sarah

Barnaby, were the perfect replacements for Tom and Joyce. Like his cousin, John was

stubborn, dogged, a man of great thought, and someone who shared his cousin’s

deep intolerance of exercise.

John Barnaby has been in charge of cases from Series 14 onwards, making it an

amazing total of 25 years of

Midsomer Murders

that can all be viewed via BritBox.co.uk.

One of the strengths of the series, apart from the rules that Betty Willingale laid down

of “no punch-ups, no car chases and as few sex scenes as possible”, is the stunning

English countryside in which the series is set. Episodes canter through delightful,

picture-perfect villages and their inviting country pubs. This is one of the reasons why

Midsomer Murders

has been sold to so many countries around the world and can

count former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a fan. Betty Willingale described it

as “Agatha Christie on speed”, but it’s a whodunnit with a backdrop supplied by the

English Tourist Board.

This location guide takes readers on a tour of the most familiar streets, churches,

pubs, village greens and cricket pitches that have appeared over the last 25 years.

Armed with this guide, viewers can re-visit their favourite episodes on Britbox and play

spot the village, or better still, go out and experience them for themselves. Although

the full list of locations is spread across many counties, there is a tight band of familiar

haunts around the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire border, but please be advised

not to disturb the locals. As Detective Sergeant Dan Scott memorably remarks to

Barnaby in ‘The Maid in Splendour’: “It’s a typical country village, sir – full of yokels

and nutters.”

INTRODUCTION

4

and if Jackie Weaver lived in Midsomer,

it would only be a matter of days before

Barnaby was parking his Volvo in the

drive. Into this regular rural pageant

of anger and retribution stepped

the calming, unruffled figure of Tom

Barnaby and the formula became a

ratings winner.

Before Series Thirteen started filming

John let the producers know that he

wanted it to be his last. In an ITV press

release, he explained: “I’d filmed over

80 episodes so I felt it was the right

time to go. I didn’t want to be the oldest

policeman on the telly. I want to do more

stage work and I see myself spending

my twilight years treading the boards.”

Subsequently he’s appeared in the BBC’s

Poldark

series set in Cornwall, a perfect

fit for an actor from St. Austell. He now

lives near Holsworthy in North Devon

and spends much of his time fighting the

imposition of solar farms all around his

smallholding – something that sounds

like the beginning of a

Midsomer

plot.

H

e was Betty Willingale’s first choice

for the part, but having devoted

a decade of his life to playing Jersey

detective Jim Bergerac – nine series and

eighty-seven episodes – John Nettles

might have been forgiven for passing

up the opportunity to play DCI Tom

Barnaby. What appealed to Nettles,

who had spent five years working with

the Royal Shakespeare Company when

approached, was that Barnaby had no

demons. He wasn’t hooked on the bottle,

stuck in a turbulent marriage, or raging

against his idiotic superiors. No, he was

an ordinary bloke, with a loving wife

(Joyce), sensible daughter (Cully), and

with no hang-ups apart from an aversion

to shopping for clothes, especially with

Joyce and Cully.

Against this canvas of normality could be

thrown some of the most bizarre killings

seen on TV in a county populated by a

band of supercharged rural eccentrics

who revelled in deceit, adultery and,

inevitably, murder. During the Covid

lockdown we saw the heat that could be

generated in Parish Council meetings,

DCI TOM BARNABY

JOHN NETTLES

ABOVE

DCI Barnaby directs

a trio of Causton

‘woodentops’.

BELOW

Barnaby, who prefers

not to be the Flashing

Blade, examines a

sword with DS Charlie

Nelson in ‘A Christmas

Haunting’, Nelson’s

first case.

DCI JOHN BARNABY

NEIL DUDGEON

“T

hat one’s called White Bedder; it

flowers very well, right through

till Autumn.” These were the unlikely

first lines spoken by Neil Dudgeon in

Midsomer Murders

(‘Garden of Death’

from Series 4) as he identified some

penstemons for Joyce Barnaby in the

garden of Inkpen Manor. Before he

was cast as John Barnaby, Neil played

randy gardener Daniel Bolt with an eye

for the ladies and a sideline distilling

highly alcoholic ‘pumpy’ in one of the

outbuildings. Ten years later he would be

back, but this time asking the questions

and with eyes for only one lady.

Unlike cousin Tom, John Barnaby has

a degree in Psychology from Durham

University, something that irritates his

detective sergeant Ben Jones when

he first arrives in Causton. That degree

not only helped his job prospects, it

also introduced him to wife Sarah, who

he met at university, and who plays a

larger role in

Midsomer

plots than Joyce

Barnaby, as Headteacher of Causton

Comprehensive. Daughter Betty (named

after producer Betty Willingale) came

along in Series Seventeen, but it is the