Vixen's Run

Sir Freddy Butler dies in mid-sentence at a public function, and the Prime Minister is quick to call it natural causes. The PM does not often weigh in on Midsomer deaths, which is itself a clue that the death is anything but natural. The collapse happened in front of half the county, which makes the cover-up all the more brazen. Sir Freddy's will goes missing, and then his lawyer's house goes up in flames. Arson, in this part of England, is the traditional way of destroying a document without admitting you want it.

Barnaby is not convinced by the official line, and events keep backing him up. But the Butler family closes ranks with the efficiency of people practised at it: Lady Annabel, Lady Lucinda and Lady Tara each have their own version of Sir Freddy's wishes, and Richard Butler is somewhere in the middle of the inheritance scrum. Dr George Bullard gets the body and finds reasons to be cautious, while Joyce and Cully keep the Barnaby household in order around the edges.

Michael Aitkens and Caroline Graham wrote the script, Peter Smith directed. Joss Ackland plays Sir Freddy Butler with all the weight the name implies, Siân Phillips is Lady Annabel, Sheila Ruskin is Lady Lucinda, Annabel Mullion is Lady Tara and David Beames is Richard Butler. John Nettles leads as Barnaby with Jason Hughes as Ben Jones, Laura Howard as Cully, Barry Jackson as Bullard and Jane Wymark as Joyce.

A stolen will and a burnt solicitor's office are the sort of plot machinery Midsomer loves, and the episode runs with it. Death by natural causes is never natural in this part of England; it is just the first draft of a story the village intends to improve on. The question is who wrote the second draft, and why they felt the need to burn the evidence.