The recent comments on my Midsomer Murders entry (from 2008) made me want to go seek out the information about Inspector Tom Barnaby leaving the county of Midsomer. Yikes! I’ve been able to get used to the different sergeants who work for Tom, but Tom is leaving?!? (And taking Joyce and Cully with him?!?)

Midsomer Murders is (of course) still playing in Great Britain, and, unfortunately we have to make due with being a little behind on the goings-on in Midsomer… a definite case of better late than never! But here’s the scoop:

Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) will be visited by his cousin John Barnaby during the first episode in England’s season 13. Actually, this has probably already happened…

The good news is that John Barnaby will be played by Neil Dudgeon. For those of you who remember the Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (with Diana Rigg), you will no doubt remember George Moody, Mrs. Bradley’s chauffeur (or was he more?!?) Yep, that was Neil Dudgeon. (I loved that series, and I loved the chemistry between Rigg and Dudgeon.)

End of Season 12 (2009-2010):

Small Mercies
The Creeper
The Great and the Good

Season 13 (2010-2011):

The Sword of Guillaume (Tom’s cousin John Barnaby is introduced.)
The Made-to-Measure Murders
Blood on the Saddle
The Silent Land
Master Class
The Noble Art
Not in My Back Yard
Fit for Murder    (Tom Barnaby leaves.)

Season 14 (2011-2012):

Death in the Slow Lane (John Barnaby arrives.)
Dark Secrets
Echoes of the Dead
The Oblong Murders
The Sleeper under the Hill
The Stag

I have enumerated the seasons with the numbers from England. It sure would be a whole lot easier if Amazon would use the same numbers for their seasons as they do across the pond, wouldn’t it?

I love this British television police procedural/mystery series! The series follows Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Sergeant/Inspector Peter Pascoe (or as Andy might say, “Paul”!) as they solve crimes in Yorkshire.

Warren Clarke plays Andy to perfection. He is an overweight, brash, uncouth man, who occasionally scratches himself in public. (No, not on his elbow!) Dalziel is one super, duper copper. He always gets his man… but doesn’t always get his woman!

Dalziel’s underling, Pascoe, is completely different. Colin Buchanan, besides being “Hollywood good looking,” seems to be everything Dalziel is not. Pascoe is a college graduate (which Dalziel enjoys using as a sort of put-down), married to a very independent, smart woman, and he is deliberate in his actions. (Dalziel seems to do first, think later.)

They are a perfect crime-solving team, but you wouldn’t expect to see them chumming around. There is a “deepness” in the characters. Even though Dalziel and Pascoe are as different as possible, and Ellie Pascoe (played wonderfully by Susannah Corbett) cannot abide “the Fat Man” (as she calls Dalziel), you can see that all of the characters respect each other professionally >>> to the point of Dalziel being Pascoe’s best man at his wedding. The interplay of the characters is interesting, quite believable, and very complicated.

The fourth character is Sergeant Wield, played by David Royle. His portrayal of a very sensitive man with a lot of secrets is endearing to watch. I look forward to every one of his scenes in the series.

The set locations make me wish I lived in England. Weekend travel must be such fun, with so many beautiful areas to visit. Since this is a British series (and not an American one) only one of the two leads is handsome, and the secondary characters are “normal” looking. (Bravo to normal-looking people on television shows!)

If you’re in the mood for a really good police procedural, with fleshed-out characters, great acting and direction, plenty of red herrings, smart dialogue, and a lot of dry humor >>> then you can’t go wrong with the Dalziel & Pascoe television series.

(The series is not for children.)

P.S.  The Dalziel & Pascoe television series is based on Reginald Hill‘s wonderful mystery book series, of which I am a fan.

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My daughter, husband, and I are huge fans of Doc Martin, a fabulously quirky and funny British television series. The series (not a mystery series) is set in the present day on a quaint, and beyond beautiful little coastal village. The only problem that we had in watching Doc Martin is that we had to wait between season one (2004), season two (2005/2006), three (2007), and four’s (2009) release dates! (And, we are now waiting for season five!!!)

Doc Martin (played faultlessly by Martin Clunes) is simply put… a  curmudgeon. I don’t want to give away too much, so I will just say that he is a brilliant surgeon who has given up his London practice to move to the aforementioned beautiful coastal village. He has done this to become the village general practitioner.

Doc Martin is not only eccentric/neurotic and impersonal – but he even hates dogs! (For those of you dog-lovers who are fans of Martin Clunes, you’ll be happy to know that he loves dogs so much, he hosted a series called Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs and he has authored the bestselling A Dog’s Life).

Caroline Catz costars as the absolutely delightful teacher/principal of the village elementary/primary school. Also, Stephanie Cole (from Waiting for God) plays Martin’s (yes, Martin is his first name >>> the villagers refuse to call him Dr. Ellingham!) often-times exacerbated aunt, his source of unconditional love during his youth. Also wonderful in their roles are: his receptionists (Elaine Denham & Pauline Lamb), the local police (Stewart Wright & John Marquez), the father and son plumbers (Ian McNeice & Joe Absolom), and the local pharmacist (Selina Cadell).

I highly recommend the Doc Martin series. The locale is gorgeous, the characters are three-dimensional, the plots are clever and absolutely never dull or slow-paced, and the acting is superb.

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