Last Man Out

A star cricketer dies during a tournament, and the case lands on Barnaby with an unwelcome extra: a visitor from his own past. Leo Henderson's death at the ground starts out as a straightforward inquiry and then stops being one, because the past keeps walking into the middle of it. For Barnaby, the surprise is personal; for the viewer, it is part of the fun.

Barnaby and Jamie Winter work the tournament crowd, a world of players and families with long memories. Kia, Elliot and Serena Luthando carry most of the emotional weight, with St John Beachwood, Cilla Troughton and the rest of the club filling in the gaps. And there is Jason Hughes, back as DI Ben Jones, a face any long-serving viewer will recognise from years of Causton service. His return gives the episode a charge that the mystery alone would not have had.

The case is a reminder of how Midsomer does sport: the game is never the point, the people around it are. Barnaby's own cricket past gives him an easy way in, and Winter follows the trail as it leads through club committees, scorebooks and grudges that outlasted the players. Winter, new to the area and its customs, gets a useful lesson in how much of village life runs on who you know. The death of a local hero, it turns out, is a poor excuse to stop playing politics.

Jeff Povey and Caroline Graham wrote it, Matt Carter directed. Neil Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix lead, with Fiona Dolman and Manjinder Virk in support. The Luthandos are Tia Bannon, Joe Dixon and Esther Hall, John Bird plays St John Beachwood, Frances Grey is Cilla Troughton, and Jason Hughes brings DI Ben Jones back to Causton.

It is comfortable viewing with an uncomfortable undercurrent, the show at its best. And it is genuinely good to see Ben Jones again, whatever the circumstances.