Not in My Back Yard

The argument is as old as village life. A pristine stretch of land, a development proposal, and suddenly everyone has to pick a side. The conservationists want it left alone, and the builders want to get on with it. The ground in question is the kind of place postcards are made of, which is exactly why nobody wants a digger on it. In Midsomer the disagreement soon stops being about planning permission and starts being about funerals, because a mysterious killer starts claiming victims from both camps.

Barnaby and Jones find themselves investigating a case where half the village has a motive and the other half is pretending it has nothing to do with anything. Barnaby has seen villages split by less, and he knows that in a dispute like this the killer is rarely a stranger. Norman and Eleanor Swanscombe are the establishment face of the affair; James Otley, Liz Gerrard and Maureen Stubbs each carry their own stake in the outcome. Joyce lends support, Dr Bullard does the medical work, and DC Gail Stephens tries to keep the paperwork ahead of the body count. The inquiry has to be conducted while both sides keep filing complaints about the other, which slows everyone down except the killer.

J.C. Wilsher and Caroline Graham wrote it, and Peter Smith directed. John Nettles and Jason Hughes lead the regulars, with Peter Egan, Jill Baker, Dominic Mafham, Amanda Drew and Joan Blackham giving the argument plenty of faces.

But a planning row in the countryside is so reliably poisonous that the episode barely has to exaggerate. The killer is just the logical endpoint of a feud conducted in public with maximum politeness and zero mercy. Everyone gets a cup of tea and a chance to lie, and Barnaby gets to be the only person in the room asking why.