Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Jonathan Aris, Julia Sawalha, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Srafano Braschi, Adam Gillett, Ralf Little, Gabrielle Lloyd, Edward MacLiam, Pippa Nixon, Ruth Sheen, Malcolm Sinclair, Kim Vithana.

Brothers at war over the truth, a village facing a type of unprecedented, a kind of spiritual extinction and turmoil as three different factions start a fight over the remains of a woman long since dead and the pilgrimage, faith and act of monetary devotion that criss-crosses them all; it is just another case for D.I. Barnaby as the Saints and Sinners flock together in Midsomer Murders.

There is a troubling aspect whenever you bring mass faith into any television detective programme, it allows the dispassionate viewer the chance to bring their own presumed prejudices to the deducting table and no matter how carefully presented, it seeks to undermine one view or another. Whilst the casting of the two brothers was exemplary, Adam Gillett and Malcolm Sinclair each playing their relative roles as sceptic and man of the cloth with understated passion, the positions in which they took over the ancient relic in the hands of the church and its usurper found in the archaeological gig, was arguably veering on a devotion that confounded the actual ethos of the long running detective programme.

The whole point of the detective programme is to leave the viewer guessing for as long as possible, it doesn’t just add enjoyment to the show but it challenges all aspects of the viewer’s deductive reasoning and possible discriminations; all should be equal under the eyes of the law and the guilty found out by their actions and not by who they represent in society.

Saints and Sinners arguably misses that fundamental point in procedure and lets the canny and more discerning viewer realise just who the murderer is far too early, not so much deductive reasoning but easy observation in the face of all the facts. It is this type of glaring irresponsibility to the programme’s rich heritage that leads some media outlets to decry the position of the show in the schedules and it is worrying when those arguments come about.

In a series full of angelic saints, there always has to be a sinner to balance the overall effect, it is though such a shame when it comes along. Not the finest of episodes in the series, nor over the years that Midsomer Murders has been going but what it does do is remind the viewer just how good other episodes have been.

Ian D. Hall