Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, David Bamber, Jolyon Coy, David Gant, John Hollingworth, Cara Horgan, Dennis Lill, Cherie Lunghi, Saskia Reeves, Adrian Scarborough, Cat Simmons, Ramon Tikaram, Michael Wildman.

There is always a deep meaning to art that might not be first gleaned upon by the layman or the average discerning follower of artistic fashion, just as there is always a hidden motive and significance to murder. Both schools of interpretation look deeply and find sense where they must, both offer value and worth to human understanding and yet murder never imitates art but art is playful in its appreciation of the blackest of all deeds.

In Midsomer Murders’ A Dying Art the scene is set for murder to spring from its eternal mother, that of the need for revenge, and find its way to making a stroll through a garden in which sculpture carves out another corpse and adds a monument to the recently disposed.

Art is to die for at the end of the day but as the bodies start to stack up it is clear that the motive for the murders is perhaps as not as cut and dried as the viewer is led to believe and other emotions make their presence known, such as jealousy and rage, it is the pity of revenge which digs two graves.

The episode was one of those delightful pits into which the armchair detective would not necessarily mind falling into as the twist and turns of the situation make for entertaining viewing. This is helped with almost wonderful sadistic intent with the placing of the ever excellent David Bamber as Daniel Fargo into the cast list. An actor worth his weight in gold when it comes to playing the villainous and badly behaved, Mr. Bamber gives a masterly portrayal of the scheming and duplicitous and is aided by the appearance of the likes of Denis Lill, Cherie Lunghi, Adrian Scarborough, the superb Ramon Tikaram and Saskia Reeves in delivering the charm required to make the role meaty and substantial.

Sometimes you need to take a step backwards to see the whole picture, to the modern Detective it is perhaps a dying art but as Detective Inspector Barnaby shows, it is still a talent that takes wits and ability to fathom. A very good episode in which the series as a whole can depend upon!

Ian D. Hall