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Post by roverman on Jun 2, 2015 22:21:53 GMT
Its hard to believe its been around as long as Frost or Heartbeat (18 years) I used to watch it because Nettles used to insist on driving a Rover 75 (he's a big fan of them). A friend of mine managed to buy one of Barnaby's cars a few years back. I think my favourite of the earlier episodes was the one with the bizarre book club (Season 5?) where they all were really making a fortune on the stock market.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 7:23:37 GMT
Midsomer is shown on French tv under the title of Inspector Barnaby, all dubbed as well.
Whilst it's all very polished I don't watch, after all its a dangerous place to live with multiple murders every week in a clutch of tiny villages.
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Post by kitkat1971 on Jun 3, 2015 13:11:01 GMT
May favourite story about Midsomer Murders crime rate was the Mayor of Baltimore, allegedly responding to accusations that 'The Wire' would damage the city's Tourist trade that Midsomer Murders hadn't put people going off England's West Country. So true!
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Post by CollieWobbles on Jun 4, 2015 23:36:50 GMT
Just seen Colliewobbles has mentioned the same ones as me. I do have to say that the murders that stick in the mind tend to be from not very good episodes - it is like the basic plot and script weren't up to much so throw in an outrageous death. The earlier ones, death weren't as gruesome but they were better written generally. The earlier ones were very very good, they had a good decent story, were well written and had decent murders, but like most things, the quality is going to go down when you've done 80 odd episodes with around 3-4 murders in each one and there's only so many things you can come up with. The earlier ones were still quite gruesome though, Death's Shadow with Richard Briers as a vicar had someone decapitated with a sword, Death of a Hollow Man had someone slit his throat for real by accident during a play, and in Written In Blood the killer was keeping a corpse in their bedroom smiley-yikes (that scared the bejesus out of me when I first saw it, it's still one of the moments that creeps me out most in the whole series). Its hard to believe its been around as long as Frost or Heartbeat (18 years) I used to watch it because Nettles used to insist on driving a Rover 75 (he's a big fan of them). A friend of mine managed to buy one of Barnaby's cars a few years back. I think my favourite of the earlier episodes was the one with the bizarre book club (Season 5?) where they all were really making a fortune on the stock market. I always wondered why Barnaby's cars were always Rovers! I usd to think the one with a reg plate ending in AHA was a joke by the show because he's a detective . the episode your thinking of is Market For Murder which had a seriously scary looking doctor's receptionist who'd doctored the phone so she could hear everything everybody said so she could bump them all off and become lady of the manor
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Post by CAEF on Jun 6, 2015 22:08:16 GMT
Tom Barnaby did look very young in tonights ITV3 episode. The first ever ep from 1997. I think he was meant to be in his early to mid 50s and was about 67 when he retired in Fit For Murder. I suppose being a DCI he could delegate orders rather than chase criminals at that age.
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Post by CAEF on Sept 29, 2015 12:22:08 GMT
I think the original Barnaby, Tom Barnaby, is the only reason why I can "Take or leave" MM. The episode Second Sight was pretty cringeworthy with the so called psychic baby Christine wailing, she makes EastEnders babies look quiet.
As I said, when MM began and during the Troy years, Tom Barnaby was more like Jim Bergerac, a harder nosed copper who was more intolerant to suspects. After about 4 series, and when Troy left, they turned Tom into a boring and patient copper. I suppose he mellowed as he aged but yes, in the pilot in 1997 and subsequent first few series Barnaby could be quite fierce and moody at times esp when he threatened to wipe the fake bruises off a woman's face if she did not do it herself. He even bellowed "What" down the phone to a colleague when they rung him.
I suppose some areas of England do have an outdated way of life even in 2015. And towns and cities, multi racial characters and refs to chavs have been featured in the show since the start. In the first episode of MM, Barnaby and Troy went to Brighton and you could see high rises in the background and again in 2010. And in an early ep there were a lot of multi racial kids at a Midsomer community centre, the episode with the dance teacher who was a suspect paedo.
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Post by CollieWobbles on Oct 1, 2015 21:00:19 GMT
All this Midsomer talk got me checking out Bergerac, curious to see a young Barnaby...holy smokes if I didn't like him in that way before I bloody well do now!! -face -face -face
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2015 7:04:24 GMT
Bergerac made Jersey out to be the crime capital of the world where every single crime somehow involved that dodgy old rake Charlie, his ex-father-in-law.
Betcha didn't know that John Nettles' daughter is a copper on the island. She spent so much time there during filming with her Dad that she went to live there and I suppose it was a natural progression that she joined The Force. Bergerac lives on!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2015 7:10:23 GMT
I loved Midsommer Murders but only the ones with John Nettles who is now an unbelievable 71. They were far fetched and a bit silly but I enjoyed seeing England in full summer bloom and I liked the warmth between Tom, Joyce and Cullie, something that was lacking with the new "Barnaby" and his rather hard wife. The best part of the new series was Sykes the dog. The later eps had black actors in some of the lead roles as I think there were complaints (as usual) that it was just white folks in these rural villages.
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Post by CAEF on Oct 2, 2015 15:30:18 GMT
I think the first 2 or 3 series were the best, MM was a modern rural set police drama, it had the idyllic country villages mainly but some of the extras were Asian and African looking, esp in the second episode at the dance hall, and they did film the odd scene in Brighton and London. And as I said, Tom Barnaby had a bit of an attitude problem and a slightly aggressive manner, he was an older clone of Jim Bergerac. By about 2001 they turned Barnaby into a watered down boring man and the show lost a lot of its modern edge. I think some of that has returned in the past few series but the writing can be a crock of shit.
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Post by Lotty27 on Aug 3, 2016 17:23:46 GMT
I've been watching quite a few of these lately, the earlier ones with the great John Nettles and am thoroughly enjoying them as it's that long since I watched them I've forgotten who's dun it! I'm watching Blood Will Out from 1999 at the moment. No one's been murdered yet, very disappointing lol! Cully has to have the worst hair do ever in it, really short, good job she's got a small face and can get off with it (there were some awful hair do's in the 90s). Honeysuckle Weeks features too which is topical considering she went missing for about 24 hours last week, she looks really young in this and not quite as posh as she sounded on Foyle's War. John Duttine still looks quite tasty (I had such a crush on him in The Mallens when I was a kid!). Come on! You've been on 15 mins and there's been no imaginative murder yet. Pull your bloody finger out Midsomer!
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Post by CAEF on Aug 3, 2016 19:14:17 GMT
The early years felt more like a continuation of Bergerac.
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Post by butterball on Mar 22, 2021 10:43:50 GMT
Back last night for a new episode but for me they shouldn't have bothered, it lost its charm ages ago, the acting is hammy and John Barnaby is too old and stiff now to be a DI. His posh voiced sidekick Winter is as dull as ditchwater with the personality of a stoat and that forensic woman is creepy and has a face for radio. Time to put to bed now I think.
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Post by CAEF on Mar 22, 2021 14:51:43 GMT
John Nettles was quite wooden in MM I think, he just whispered his lines like a robot. I actually quite liked it when Tom finally left, he was as dull as ditchwater. The new Barnaby is going the same way as well.
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Post by roverman on Mar 23, 2021 9:16:02 GMT
In those earlier shows Barnaby lived in or on the outskirts of Causton (the main town) and this helped keep a balance between rural and town life but moving him to one of the villages was a mistake IMO as this put him right in the middle of everything and it started to feel forced, almost like “oh look, here I am at the scene of yet another murder, wasn’t it handy I was in the area.
In real life they rarely let cops investigate their friends and neighbours!
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