Hidden Depths

A troubled solicitor named Nick Turner falls from the roof of his own house. The official view is that he jumped. Barnaby thinks the case needs a second look. But in Midsomer, a tidy death is usually a lie wearing a suit, and suicide or staged accident, the evidence will have to do the talking. Somebody in the village knows more than they are saying.

The investigation pulls in everyone who knew Turner, and Turner seems to have collected people the way some men collect ties. His wife Felicity is left to hold the pieces, and her composure is a little too arranged to be real. Antonia Wilmot and Otto Benham circle the edges with their own ideas about what happened on that roof, while Steve Hope and Sarah are mixed up in the business side of things, though neither of them is eager to say exactly how. Dr George Bullard goes over the evidence and finds cracks in the accident theory, and Joyce Barnaby provides the quiet domestic counterpoint to all the professional grimness.

David Hoskins and Caroline Graham wrote it, Sarah Hellings directed. John Nettles leads as Barnaby with John Hopkins as Sergeant Scott, and the supporting cast is strong throughout: James Weber Brown as Nick Turner, Lucy Russell as Felicity, Nancy Carroll as Antonia Wilmot, Oliver Ford Davies as Otto Benham, John Lightbody as Steve Hope and Vicki Hopps as Sarah, with Barry Jackson as Bullard and Jane Wymark as Joyce.

Rooftop falls are a classic of the genre for a reason: easy to stage, hard to argue with. The episode's quiet pleasure is watching Barnaby refuse to accept the easy version. Whether Turner jumped or was helped, someone in the village can tell the difference, and the show knows exactly how long to make them hold the secret.