The Blacktrees Prophecy

Deep in Blacktrees Forest stands a bombproof shelter built by Warren Kaine, a man so sure the end of the world is coming that he has prepared for it in concrete and steel. He built it out of sight, which in Midsomer is the quickest way to make sure somebody finds it. His paranoia proved catching. Other survivalists drifted into the area, and a doomsday prepper group now meets there weekly to compare notes on the collapse. When a body is found inside one of those reinforced shelters, DCI John Barnaby arrives to work out which member of this careful community decided the end could come early for someone else.

The case drops him into a closed world of people who have planned for every disaster except the one that has actually turned up. Barnaby has to ask how far a person will go when they genuinely believe the end is near, and the conspiracy he uncovers has little to do with survival. It is about who gets away when the end arrives, and who gets left behind. All the planning in the world does not account for a murderer at the weekly meeting. The shelter that was meant to keep everyone safe becomes the scene of the crime, which is the sort of irony nobody in that village is in the mood to enjoy.

Caroline Graham and Jeff Povey wrote it, Roberto Bangura directed. Neil Dudgeon's Barnaby and Nick Hendrix's Jamie Winter anchor the case, with Fiona Dolman's Sarah Barnaby and Annette Badland's Fleur Perkins in support. Warren Kaine himself is played by Aran Bell, with Sonita Henry as Clodagh Kaine, Cora Kirk as Etta Derby, Pal Aron as Randall Salt, Nina Wadia as Medora Salt and Tej Obano as Stu Levy.

And there is something quietly funny about Midsomer's version of the apocalypse. These are people who planned for every ending. The ending that got them was an ordinary one, no prophecy required, and nobody had stockpiled for it.