Judgement Day

There is a village competition in this one, and that is practically an invitation for Midsomer Murders to start killing people. The victim is a local thief and womaniser, dispatched with a pitchfork, and the residents of Midsomer Mallow react the way residents of Midsomer always react: they worry about their chances in the Perfect Village Competition.

That fear gives the episode its engine. Every neighbourly chat becomes a careful interrogation, because the village knows the judges will not be impressed by a police presence on the high street. But nobody wants to be the one whose doorstep the officers keep visiting when the inspection comes round. DCI Tom Barnaby and Sergeant Gavin Troy work the case while Joyce and Cully Barnaby run their own smaller dramas alongside, which is the usual division of labour in this family.

The suspect list is a good one. Bella Devere (Hannah Gordon) and Marcus Devere (Timothy West) bring the family angle, Rosemary Furman (Maggie Steed) brings the sharp edges, and the Brierly siblings, Laura and Gordon (Marsha Fitzalan and Richard Hope), plus Frank Mannion (Nickolas Grace), give Barnaby plenty of doors to knock on. With this many people, the interest lies less in the forensic detail and more in who cracks first under the strain of keeping up appearances.

Anthony Horowitz and Caroline Graham wrote it, with Jeremy Silberston directing. The cast reads like a roll call of dependable British character actors, which is exactly what the show does best.

There is something quietly funny about the whole business, if you can look past the pitchfork. A village that polishes its verges and hides its grudges, competing to be judged perfect, while a man lies dead in the churchyard. Midsomer Mallow wants the trophy. Barnaby just wants the truth, and the two ambitions turn out to be incompatible.