THERE are few things that go together better than intelligent crime drama and sleepy British villages. From Agatha Christie to Inspector Morse, there seems to be – especially in America – an unslakeable thirst for the genre, which is why so many Brits and Anglophiles will welcome Set 19 of the Midsomer Murders, which debut this month (Feb. 28th) in glorious high definition, courtesy of Acorn Media.
The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary British television mysteries. Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham the series stars John Nettles as the unflappable Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, with Jason Hughes as his earnest, efficient protégé, Detective Sergeant Ben Jones. Guest stars include James Wilby, Saskia Reeves, Janet Suzman, Kenneth Cranham, Tim McInnerny, David Rintoul and featuring Neil Dudgeon in his first appearance as DCI John Barnaby.
The four feature-length mysteries on the set are: The Made-to-Measure Murders, in which a widow is murdered on her way to confession; The Sword of Guillaume, in which Barnaby travels to Brighton to investigate a land deal; Blood on the Saddle, where a dispute over property lines turns a Wild West show into a crime scene, and The Silent Land, where a librarian obsessed with March Magna’s cemetery is found dead on top of a grave.
Midsomer Murders premiered in the UK in March 1997. Since then, nearly ninety feature-length episodes have aired with new episodes still in production. In the U.S. the series has been seen on A&E and The Biography Channel, however the episodes in Set 19 are the first part of Series 13 (2009-2010), which never broadcast in the U.S.
British Heritage magazine said of the series: “Superbly acted and filmed, and a great joy to watch”, while the San Francisco Chronicle enthused: “Great bloody fun”.
The set features four mysteries of approximately 100 minutes each, with SDH (subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired). The price is $59.99 for the Blu-ray 2-volume boxed set or $49.99 for the DVD 4-volume boxed set.
Acorn Media previously released Sets 1-18 with three to five mysteries per set ($39.99 to $59.99) as well as three collector’s sets (The Early Cases Collection, Barnaby’s Casebook, and Village Case Files).
Acorn has many, many other British titles in its collection (too numerous to mention), and also offers a full season of ten critically acclaimed, classic and contemporary British series to watch online for just $24.99 a year. Streaming now are seasons of the original Upstairs, Downstairs, Derek Jacobi in I, Claudius; Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders, among others. The first episode of each series is free. For more information, go to acornonline.com
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