Fit for Murder

Joyce means well. She talks Tom into enrolling at a spa in a remodelled manor house, on the theory that a little relaxation will do her detective husband good. The theory lasts about as long as it takes the first body to turn up. The brochure promises serenity; what Barnaby gets is a crime scene. He goes looking for a massage and finds a murder instead, and from there the corpses arrive with a regularity the spa's advertising never mentioned.

What should be a retreat becomes a closed-off crime scene with a short suspect list, and Barnaby has to run an inquiry while technically on holiday. There is something faintly absurd about a detective taking statements in a dressing gown, and the show keeps that note without letting it tip into farce. Ben Jones and DC Gail Stephens get dragged in to help, and the guests start eyeing each other over the herbal tea. Miranda Bedford is there with Geraldine James's particular brand of polite steel, the Archbolds, Phoebe and Luke, have their own interests, and Cully pops in to see how her father's rest cure is progressing. Dr Bullard remains the voice of grim common sense.

Andrew Payne and Caroline Graham wrote it, and Renny Rye directed. John Nettles and Jason Hughes are joined by Neil Dudgeon, who puts in an appearance as DCI John Barnaby, a reminder that the family now fields more than one detective. Jane Wymark, Laura Howard, Geraldine James, Jason Durr and Lesley Manville complete the guest list.

But there is something satisfying about watching Barnaby try to relax on command and fail because the village simply will not let him. The manor is handsome and the spa suitably soothing; the murders are as untidy as ever. Most people holiday to recover. Barnaby's holiday comes with a body count, whether he wants it or not.