Death and Dust

Two families in the village have been feuding long enough that nobody remembers the original grievance, and the bad blood has finally produced a body. The feud has been simmering for generations, and the murders have a way of reviving every old insult in the parish. Barnaby and DS Ben Jones find themselves dealing with a series of killings, and the case turns on a question that changes everything: did the killer hit the wrong person, or was the recently engaged Dr James Kirkwood the intended target all along?

A young GP is dead either way, and if the killing was a mistake then the man the killer actually wanted is still walking around. The detectives work through the feuding families and the people caught between them, and the faces in the frame include Simon Dixon, played by Sam Hazeldine, Delyth Mostyn, played by Sharon Morgan, Alan Delaney, played by Simon Wilson, and Kath Bullard, played by Alwyne Taylor. Dr James Kirkwood himself is played by David Yelland. Joyce and Cully Barnaby provide the domestic grounding, and Dr George Bullard turns up with his usual professional patience. And the young GP's death, whichever way it points, has reopened every old argument in the parish.

Douglas Watkinson and Caroline Graham wrote the episode, with Sarah Hellings directing. The wrong-victim setup is a good one, and the script uses it to keep the suspicion moving from house to house. The uncertainty about the intended victim hangs over the whole episode, and it keeps the suspects on their toes.

The show has always been fond of feuds, and here it gets to enjoy one in its natural habitat. Old resentments make for busy detectives: everyone has a motive, everyone has an alibi, and nobody is entirely sorry. Nobody in the village is neutral, which is exactly how Barnaby likes it. It is a sturdy episode, built on the reliable Midsomer conviction that the past is never really past, and that a family grudge is as good a reason to kill as any.