Till Death Do Us Part

Barnaby is less than impressed when Sarah drags him to the wedding of a family friend. There are few things a working detective enjoys less than a long day of polite conversation and floral arrangements, and this one looks set to run well into the evening. What begins as a reluctant social outing turns serious quickly. Tragedy strikes at the festivities, and the man who came as a guest is suddenly the man leading the investigation, trading the small talk for the harder questions. Sarah, to be fair, could not have known how the day would end. The village, as ever, is full of people who smile and mean none of it.

The case carries an unpleasant pattern from the start. The killer appears to have a disturbing, highly specific interest in local brides, and newly married women in the village are suddenly looking over their shoulders. Barnaby and DS Jamie Winter work the wedding and its aftermath, picking through a community where secrets are kept close to the chest and reputations are fragile things. Nobody says all that they know. Everyone has a version of events they are prepared to defend, and in Midsomer that is a crowded field. The clock matters here; each new bride in the county is a potential target, which gives the investigation an urgency it rarely wears so plainly.

Helen Jenkins wrote the episode with Caroline Graham, and Audrey Cooke directed. Neil Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix anchor the investigation as Barnaby and Winter, with Fiona Dolman as Sarah, Annette Badland as Fleur Perkins, and Camilla Arfwedson, Ella Balinska, Kelly Brook, Michael Fox, Liz Fraser and Gabrielle Glaister completing the guest list. It is a full guest list, and the episode makes good use of it.

The episode keeps the familiar Midsomer balance: an idyllic village setting with malice hiding behind the flowers. Even when the motive looks romantic, the outcome is anything but. And the wedding guests will remember this one for a while. So will Barnaby, though probably not fondly. Marriage, as the show keeps reminding us, is a serious business.