Midsomer Murders (TV Series)

A Worm in the Bud (2002)

John Nettles: DCI Tom Barnaby

Photos 

Quotes 

• [leaving courthouse] 

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : Where do they get these judges from? The man burgled his way through every village in the county.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Look, we catch the criminals; we offer up the evidence. Not everyone likes what happens in court. Maybe the judge was right; give the boy one more chance. Oh, look. A squadron of pigs over Causton.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : That's better Troy. Don't start discussing matters of the flesh with delicacy and discretion, they'll never know what you're talking about.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : He last saw his wife 8 o'clock yesterday morning. What about Bloxham? Was he here all day?

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : On and off. Last saw Mrs. Bartlett at 12 o'clock noon on her way into the village. She was leaving the Harrington farm.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : And Bartlett was just about to go into court with this man, Harrington. Not the best time to drop in for a cup of coffee, was it?

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : Susan Bartlett only ever went to Bartlett farm when her husband wasn't around.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Do I detect a euphemism?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Bloxham reckons they were at it.

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : That's better, Troy. Don't start discussing matters of the flesh with delicacy and discretion. I'll never know what you're talking about.

• James Harrington : You're wasting your time here. Don't husbands usually top the list of suspects?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : There's no one on the top of any list as yet, Mr. Harrington. Doesn't mean to say there would be. I may not know a lot about farming, but I'm very used to separating the sheep from the goats.

• Sergeant Gavin Troy : If Julie did see the body, it was at least six hours before Mrs. Bartlett died.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Well, that gives us something to go on, doesn't it?

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : What?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : It doesn't make any sense at all, does it? As I was walking up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

• Bernadette Sullivan : I'm not some criminal you've pulled in off the street, Chief Inspector...

  DCI Tom Barnaby : I find criminals in very unexpected places, Miss Sullivan. May even be, if Mister Bartlett isn't a suspect, you still are.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : [to Bernadette Sullivan]  I think you're under a misapprehension as to why you're here. You provided Simon Bartlett with a false alibi for the night of James Harrington's death. You don't need legal advice from me to understand the implications of that.

• Dr. Bullard : Tom, I know you're not a great believer in coincidences, but I was struck by where Mrs. Bartlett was found.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : In Setwale Wood?

  Dr. Bullard : Valerian's had various names in its long and ancient history, but in the Middle Ages it was called Setwale.

• [last lines] 

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Bloxham's damn dog.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : You do admit he wasn't there.

  Bernadette Sullivan : I made a mistake.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Not something a distinguished lawyer should make mistakes about.

  Bernadette Sullivan : I made mistakes much dumber than that. I believed a weak man was something else. I believed he wasn't still in love with the dull, stupid woman he married.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : I have to ask these questions, Mrs. Harrington, to make sense of things.

  Caroline Harrington : You find people's lives make sense, do you? It'd be very nice if they did. It's not my experience.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : Do you know Mrs. Susan Bartlett?

  James Harrington : What kind of a question is that?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Look, I haven't got time to waste. Can you say when you last saw Mrs. Susan Bartlett, please?

  James Harrington : I wouldn't know. I pass her in the street. I don't talk to the woman.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Mrs. Bartlett's body was found in a pond in Setwale Wood this morning. She was dead. The wood belongs to you.

  [pause] 

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Shall we come inside? Then you can tell me what the Susan Bartlett you don't talk to was doing here yesterday morning.

• DCI Tom Barnaby : If Simon Bartlett left Bernadette Sullivan's when he said he did...

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : Well, she's not likely to lie. I mean, she's a barrister, isn't she?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : [chuckling]  I can see, Troy, that despite your recent experiences at Causton Crown Court you still have a touching faith in the legal profession.

  Sergeant Gavin Troy : You think she is lying?

  DCI Tom Barnaby : I think all sorts of people are lying, Troy.

• Simon Bartlett : I just drove up there. James wasn't there. I turned round and came home. I knew that I was under suspicion for Susan's death. I was afraid that if I said I'd been at Abbey Farm you'd think...

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Why? Why did you go there?

  Simon Bartlett : I wanted to talk to him...

  DCI Tom Barnaby : If the police don't get you, I will. You do remember saying that, don't you?

  Simon Bartlett : That was... I didn't know what I was saying. I, I didn't mean it.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : All right. So you came home. You were never at Miss Sullivan's at all.

  Simon Bartlett : No.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : Why would she lie about it?

  Simon Bartlett : I thought... I believed it was to protect me. Now I'm not so sure.

  DCI Tom Barnaby : What do you mean?

  Simon Bartlett : Well, she wasn't just giving me an alibi, she was giving herself one.