Saints and Sinners

First, an archaeological find in Midsomer Cicely: the bones of a saint, dug out of the earth where they have rested for centuries. Then, not long after, the body of the man who was running the dig, found close by and buried alive. Whatever the excavation disturbed, it was not just the soil. The discovery stops being a matter for historians and becomes a case.

Barnaby and DS Charlie Nelson take it, and the inquiry leads them through the small circle of people the find touched: Alex Dyer, Bartholomew Hines, Dexter Ingram, Christopher Corby, Jared Horton, Hannah Dewsbrough. Each of them has a stake in what the bones mean, and each has a story that shifts a little with every telling. A relic like that carries status, and status in Midsomer has a habit of turning lethal. The digging stops, the questions start, and nobody in the village is quite as pleased about the discovery as they were at the start.

The episode does not rush. It spends its time in the fields and the church records, letting two mysteries run side by side: what happened to the dig leader, and what the bones really are. The second question turns out to matter more than the first. And the manner of the death hangs over the whole inquiry; being buried alive is a nasty way to go, and the horror of it is never quite shaken off.

Lisa Holdsworth and Caroline Graham wrote it, Renny Rye directed. Neil Dudgeon's Barnaby anchors the inquiry with his usual steadiness, Gwilym Lee's Nelson alongside him, less sure of himself and more willing to be surprised. Fiona Dolman and Manjinder Virk are in support as Sarah and Dr Kam Karimore, and the guest list runs from Jonathan Aris and Kingsley Ben-Adir to Stefano Braschi, Aden Gillett, Ralf Little and Gabrielle Lloyd.

It is a solid, quiet outing with a properly horrible centre. And it earns its place by remembering that in Midsomer, history is never safely buried. It gets dug up, and someone usually pays for it.