Midsomer Life

A man who has been missing for two weeks is found dead in the woods near Midsomer, and the trail runs straight to a magazine editor whose reviews of local hotels and restaurants were the kind that close places down. The body has been out there long enough that the medical details are best left to Dr Bullard. The victim's line of work is a gift to a murder inquiry. Every chef, landlord and innkeeper he ever wrote about has a reason to wish him ill, and few professions make enemies as reliably as professional criticism. The dead man had been at it for years, which gives Barnaby a long list of suspects and very few of them heartbroken.

The investigation mostly means working out whose grudge got big enough. Simon Williams's Guy Sandys is firmly in the frame, with Pooky Quesnel's Julia Benson and Selina Cadell's Eleanor Crouch keeping the suspicion moving, while David Crow's Garth Platt and Debbie Chazen's Gemma Platt add local colour. Kirsty Dillon's WPC Gail Stephens does the legwork, Barry Jackson's Dr Bullard looks after the dead man, and Jason Hughes's Ben Jones keeps the paperwork in order. Jane Wymark's Joyce, as ever, keeps the home front running.

David Hoskins and Caroline Graham wrote the episode, Peter Smith directed. It is a satisfying procedural that keeps the puzzle front and centre, and the script resists the urge to turn the editor's professional enemies into caricatures. There are no fireworks, just careful detection, which is often the better trade.

There is something quietly funny about a village murder that turns on restaurant reviews. But the case is never quite that simple, and Barnaby knows it. The reviews were the weapon; the motive was always personal. The episode gets a lot of mileage out of a profession that most of us only meet through its results.