The Christmas Haunting

A man is stabbed with an antique sword on Christmas Eve, at a ghost-hunting party in a haunted manor house. It's the sort of evening that would be too much in any other county, but here it just means Barnaby is working the holiday. He's got a new partner for it: DS Charlie Nelson, and there's quiet amusement in watching the two of them find their rhythm in a house full of people listening for bumps in the night. It's also a test for the new partnership, and the episode is sensible enough to let it happen naturally.

The victim was one of the guests, and the manor is the kind of place where everyone has a story and a reason to keep the séance going. The Fergus-Johnsons are out in force: Simon, Tabby, Pippa and Valerie, with Ollie Tabori and Brendan Pearce adding their own fragments of the evening's version of events.

The story runs on the gap between what the party claims to have seen and what actually happened. And ghosts are easy; the living are harder. Barnaby and Nelson sort the genuine witnesses from the ones who are simply enjoying the drama, which takes most of the episode and most of their patience.

Neil Dudgeon's Barnaby and Gwilym Lee's Nelson lead, with Fiona Dolman's Sarah Barnaby and Tamzin Malleson's Kate Wilding around them. The manor's company is played by Mark Heap's Simon Fergus-Johnson, Nadia Cameron-Blakey's Tabby, Hannah Tointon's Pippa and Emily Joyce's Valerie, with James Murray's Ollie Tabori and Les Dennis's Brendan Pearce completing the guest list. Chris Murray and Caroline Graham wrote it, Nicholas Laughland directed.

It's a proper festive treat: murder and mulled something, in a house full of people pretending not to be afraid. The ghost, when the case is done, turns out to have been thoroughly human, as it always does in this county. A fine way to spend Christmas Eve.