Dance with the Dead

The body of a young man is found in a Second World War hangar, the air thick with exhaust fumes, and it all looks very much like suicide. The victim was not alone before he died, though, and somebody had hit him over the head, which rather spoils the theory. The hangar smells of oil and old war, a strange place for a dancer to die. Where his girlfriend has gone, the newcomer Laura Sharp, is the question that keeps Barnaby and DS Ben Jones busy for the rest of the episode. The young woman appears to have vanished without trace, and the young man's last hours are the only map they have.

The trail leads to the ballroom dancing classes the pair attended, a pastime that turns out to be as dangerous in Midsomer as any other. And the dancing classes turn out to be a small, gossipy world of their own, which is very much Midsomer's kind of pond. Joyce and Cully make their usual appearances, Dr George Bullard lends an expert opinion, and the wider circle of suspects includes Rosemary Wood, played by Georgine Anderson, Frances Kirby and her brother Tony, whose involvement keeps pulling the investigation in new directions, in the hands of Felicity Dean and Danny Webb, Elaine Trim, played by Harriet Thorpe, and Richard Budd, played by Derek Hutchinson.

Peter Hammond and Caroline Graham wrote it, with Peter Smith directing. The hangar makes for an atmospheric set-piece, all industrial gloom and lingering fumes, and the script makes good use of it.

What the episode does well is wrap a private tragedy in a very public-looking setting. The death looks like despair, then like a crime, and the dancing classes give the whole thing a slightly absurd edge that the show wears lightly. The case is neatly done, and the final revelation sits fairly in the clues. It is a solid season opener, and the search for Laura Sharp keeps you guessing to the end.