Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Rosalie Craig, Katy Brand, Roger Barclay, Clare Holman, Joanna Page, Eleanor Bron, Thomas Dominique, Rohan Need, Karl Collins, Ami Okumura Jones, Tom Anderson.
Midsomer Murders rarely disappoints, staple enough television fare sometimes, at other moments gripping the fascination of the armchair detective to the point of novel surprise and yet for all the time the long running detective serial has been on British television, it has rarely thrown up a character such as Fleur Perkins, and as Annette Badland’s time as the new pathologist continues, so too does Fleur Perkins become a person of absolute interest.
In The Miniature Murders Annette Badland’s character is taken out of the seeming comfort of her profession and instead is given more time to interact with the residents of the county of Midsomer, and by doing so, livening up the lives of the Barnaby’s and D.S. Winter. It is to this subtle change in the dynamic of the show that brings the episode into a territory of intriguing mystery, one driven by the novel rather than the procedural, and in world placed in the microcosm of miniature dolls’ houses, or envy, of deep resentment and revenge in mind.
Written by Helen Jenkins, The Miniature Murders arguably hits a deserved high in terms of the often-misjudged reasons why people kill. Usually the idea of gain is enough to bring out the murderous side to anyone’s dark deeds, but we forget as we trample through hearsay and rumour that there are many different ways in which gain can be presented, and away from monetary and social advance, perhaps the most noble, if such a word can be used in the spirit of murder, is that of peace of mind, of allowing the past to become just that, past.
Murder it may be, but as with the French system of judgement where someone can be guilty of the crime of passion, so we should perhaps understand that not every motive for murder is made out greed or the desire to seek retribution but instead it can be seen in some cases as placing our soul into the care of society by exorcising the demons to which have driven someone over the edge.
Alongside Annette Badland’s increasing importance to the show, Katy Brand as the children’s entertainer Jemima Starling, Joanna Page as Holly Ackroyd, Eleanor Bron’s portrayal of a woman falling apart at the seams as the doll house maker, and the ever-impressive Clare Holman as Fiona Beauvosin, all rose to the occasion and gave such masterclasses of the oppressed finding ways to fight back against a system that has dealt them cruelly.
A gratifying episode which opened up more than was arguably expected, murders on a small scale, not done for gain, but for peace of mind, a journey into a different kind of investigation which is readily welcomed.
Ian D. Hall