Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Bill Bailey, Ruby Bentall, Will Brown, Nicholas Burns, Ben Caplan, Nicholas Farrell, Eloise Joseph, Jemma Redgrave, Elana Saurel, Ellen Thomas, Joshua Williams, Heather Wright.

There was a time when teachers would look upon their pupil’s reading habits and consciously judge them accordingly, no matter how interested in the source material, the children’s ability to report on what they had read and the lessons learned from the text, the snobbery and direct condescension placed at the student’s desk as they admitted to reading comic books whilst their peers and friends got praise for having spent their weekend with their noses pretending to have insight into the world of ‘serious’ literature was short sighted and demeaning.

Now the Graphic Novel is to be seen, quite rightly, as an instrument in which the imagination can flourish just as equally as sitting down to read some of the great books of our time, it is also industry, money exchanges hands at ridiculous prices for a limited edition or rarity; as well as being a breeding ground for the mind, it is also enough to kill for.

Midsomer Murders Drawing Dead is to be seen as an achievement in bringing the series back to a place in which the story is fitting to the eccentricity of the British psyche when confronted with a tale of revenge, deceit and murder and the showcasing of the power of how a comic viewed as a mirror to truth, as reflection of the grotesqueness of the soul, is a huge factor in the success of this particular episode.

Jemma Redgrave doesn’t get the recognition that she deserves for her acting prowess, too long perhaps in the shadow of other members of her illustrious family but one who catches the eye critically as she gives a sense of perfect misdirection in her characters, the sense of fire and injustice raging inside of her to the point where the audience understands the decisions she has made on screen and no matter the criminal intent, or even softness in her approach, they empathise with her completely. It is in this dramatic turn that she excels as Dr. Juno Starling, an open-heart concealing a secret, one that brings out the best in both Neil Dudgeon’s D.C.I. John Barnaby and the programme as a whole.

With a delightful appearance by Bill Bailey as graphic book artist Darwin Chipping and Annette Badland searing her place into the pathologist’s chair with tremendous vigour and intensity, Drawing Dead is amongst the very best of episodes in the long running series’ history, an illustration of when given the right circumstances, nobody does murder better.

Ian D. Hall