The world of Midsomer Murders (ITV1) never gets less fanciful. This episode’s crime scene involved mysticism, sorcery, tarot readings and other manifestations of the hocus pocus industry.
Meanwhile, on the undercard was a subplot about great crested newts, beavers and – oh hello – Holly Willoughby. It must have seemed a fine idea when they shot this episode, back when the This Morning imbroglio was a twinkle in no one’s eye. Willoughby is a Midsomer superfan, who on live TV more or less begged to be cast. She’s also a purveyor of crystals and stones via her wellness brand.
Now her sweet little speech to DS Winter (Nick Hendrix), as she gave him a gem to deal with the loss of his grandfather, was freshly freighted with subtext: “it brings emotional trauma to the surface to be healed and released.” Might want to take some yourself, Holly? DCI Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) mistook her for Gloria Hunniford, bless him. She was guesting as herself at a Psychic Fayre in the village of Angel’s Rise, which came under suspicion when several necromantic fruitcakes were murdered.
Barnaby had a job getting anyone to talk sense. The rule, for viewers sleuthing from the sofa, is to point a finger at the one character the plot has been ignoring. In this case that meant the lone rational atheist in a crowd of credulous crazies. Not believing he could communicate with his dead girlfriend, he bumped off anyone who said he could. Well, it’s one way of proving there’s no such place as the beyond.
A word on the (over-)acting. Midsomer attracts its fair share of outrageous hams, and a script with barking mediums and flirty witches meant an extra-lavish serving of charcuterie from Janine Duvitski, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Sarah Paul. The episode, whose theme was grief, closed with a toast to Winter’s Grandpa Jimmy. It was a fitting way to end the first Midsomer Murders to be broadcast since the death last month of Jim Parker, who composed incidental music for over 120 episodes and whose theme tune remains a very Midsomer merger of cosy and eerie.