Dead in the Water

Regatta day should be the safest of village occasions, all cream teas and genteel shouting at boats. Then the chairman of the rowing club turns up in the river, bludgeoned and drowned, and everyone remembers that Guy Sweetman was a bachelor who had made his way through the county's female population with more enthusiasm than discretion. Jealousy seems the obvious answer. Barnaby treats obvious answers with suspicion, and the morning's sunshine curdles nicely from there.

The inquiry crawls through the usual Midsomer crop of alibis and resentments. Dr George Bullard examines the body and raises an eyebrow at the force of the blows, which suggests the killer was making a point as much as removing a man. Phillip Trent and John Parkway, both of whom had their own reasons to wish Sweetman gone, give carefully worded interviews, while Clare Bonavita and Hettie Trent offer less guarded opinions on the deceased's character. Joyce keeps the home fires steady and Cully drifts through the margins of the case, as is her habit.

Douglas Watkinson and Caroline Graham wrote the script, and Renny Rye directed. John Nettles is DCI Tom Barnaby with John Hopkins as Sergeant Dan Scott. And the guest list is a treat: Benedick Blythe as Sweetman, Adrian Lukis as Trent, William Scott-Masson as Parkway, Diana Quick as Bonavita, Clemency Burton-Hill as Hettie Trent, with Barry Jackson as Bullard and Jane Wymark and Laura Howard as the Barnaby women.

The regatta gives the story its cruel little joke: a drowning in front of the whole village, in full view of people pretending not to look. Everyone saw the river that morning. Nobody saw a thing, and the rowing club's reaction is studied horror and quiet relief in roughly equal measure. Midsomer has never needed much of an excuse to add a body to the water, and this one wears its blazer all the way down.