Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Callum Blake, Simon Callow, Colin Michael Carmichael, Robert Daws, James Fleet, Rosie Holden, Matthew Jacobs Morgan, Caroline Langrishe, Cyril Nri, Maggie O’ Neill, Joseph Prowen, Flora Spencer-Longhurst.

You can be scarred for life by the sword as it maims you, cuts into your skin and draws blood, but it is death by the bow that leaves you cold and frightened, the artist’s revenge and thoughts of cold bloodied murder always more palpable as the strings are drawn and the fire in the cold stare is highlighted across the bridge and the arm, drawing back till something snaps and the music becomes a requiem.

It is unusual to have such passion of the music world become the backdrop to death in Midsomer Murders but then when you weave a tale which includes The Curse of the Ninth, the theory of composers dying after they have completed their ninth piece of work, then the long running detective programme is there to give new meaning to a note of murder. It is murder, regardless of the time between the opening sequence and the crescendo of the piece, whether the conductor flashes the baton to the point of extravagance or the subtle tinges of death dressed in a bow tie and tails catches the imagination.

If there is an issue to be found within the story line, it is the shame of making Sarah Barnaby an author without showing the hard work and rejection that goes into being a novelist; it is this almost sentimental need for a happy ending for the main characters that sometimes makes the programme, undeniably one of the greats of British Detective television, a little grating. However, the need for comfort is such that often in the middle of a elegy or lament in a symphony, that calls for a radiant minute within the sentence.

With exquisite performances by Maggie O’ Neill, Simon Callow and Cyril Nri, The Curse of The Ninth is an intriguing investigation, one of deceit and shallow humanity, the chase for recognition in a world perhaps tempered by the fact that appreciation does not come easy or all that often; it certainly doesn’t come with gratitude or forgiveness.

Death by bow is always the hardest way to die, full of love, but with so much hate and energy attached, no so much a curse but a bitter blow.

Ian D. Hall