Neil Dudgeon is settling nicely into the role of DCI Barnaby and this episode sees him investigating a case that is bizarre even by the standards of Midsomer! The episode opens with a man being pursued and eventually cornered by a group of men with dogs
the next scene sees Barnaby and Jones at a fate in Midsomer Abbas searching for a missing tax inspector. While they are there the man turns up in a vat of cider; but not before Barnaby had had a drink of it! The locals are a strange bunch to say the least and if the rumours of an illicit still are to be believed they might have a motive for wanting to kill a taxman. Of course there are a few more motives to be uncovered as well as a sinister ritual known as 'The Stag' that hadn't been carried out in over a hundred years but is about to happen again.
This episode might not have had a high body count but it made up for that by having a delightfully bonkers storyline and an equally strange group of characters. As usual for this series regular cast members and guest actors alike perform well. I wasn't too surprised at who was eventually unmasked as the killer but to be honest at one point I thought the whole village could be in on it as they seemed an even more closed society than the people of Summer's Isle in The Wicker Man'! I expect fans of the series will enjoy this and first time viewers may to although they may find it a little strange compared to other murder mysteries CSI this is not!
This episode might not have had a high body count but it made up for that by having a delightfully bonkers storyline and an equally strange group of characters. As usual for this series regular cast members and guest actors alike perform well. I wasn't too surprised at who was eventually unmasked as the killer but to be honest at one point I thought the whole village could be in on it as they seemed an even more closed society than the people of Summer's Isle in The Wicker Man'! I expect fans of the series will enjoy this and first time viewers may to although they may find it a little strange compared to other murder mysteries CSI this is not!