The Scarecrow Murders

The annual scarecrow festival is meant to raise funds for the church, and for a while it looks like a pleasant piece of village nonsense: rows of straw figures, some clever, some baffling, all of them judged with deadly seriousness. Deadly is the operative word. Bodies turn up placed on the piles next to the straw creations, staged like exhibits in the very competition that is supposed to celebrate rural life. Barnaby and DS Jamie Winter are called in to sort out a crime scene that looks like an entry form.

The deaths are not random, and Barnaby sees quickly that the staging is the message. Under the festival's cheerful surface runs a deep competitive rivalry, the kind that makes people do just about anything to win, and the inquiry keeps circling back to the bad blood between neighbours. The festival, after all, is a competition, and Midsomer's competitions have a history. The paths lead him to Naomi Ashworth, Bryony Hayden, Rachel Taylor, the Reverend Oscar Hayden, Thea Stannard, and the Mallicks, Samira and Lukesh, each with a scarecrow on the village green and, it emerges, a reason of their own.

Helen Jenkins wrote the episode with Caroline Graham, and Christine Lalla directed. Neil Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix anchor the investigation, with Fiona Dolman as Sarah, Annette Badland as Fleur Perkins, Emily Bevan pulling double duty as Naomi Ashworth and Bryony Hayden, Jacqueline Boatswain as Rachel Taylor, Simon Shepherd as the Reverend Oscar Hayden, Holly Freeman as Thea Stannard, Goldy Notay as Samira Mallick and Raj Bajaj as Lukesh Mallick. Seeing one actress hold down two of the village's key roles is half the fun.

There is a grim comedy to the whole thing that the show handles better than you might expect. Bodies posed next to scarecrows could tip into silliness, but the episode keeps the threat real and the rivalry felt. And next year's festival will be quieter, with considerably more nervous judging. The church, at least, should reach its fundraising target.