As this episode opens a lone horseman enters a peaceful English village and hitches his horse to a bench before entering a cottage, a shot rings out before a woman runs into the street screaming 'murder!' This being Midsomer that isn't anything to be surprised about, what is surprising is that DCI Barnaby isn't on the case instead he as gone to the local Wild West show with his wife. There entertainment is curtailed however when somebody is shot in public. The victim was a woman who was having an affair with one of the participants in the show. He is briefly a suspect but when he too is slain it looks as though the motive for the crimes was a piece is disputed land which two men claim to own and a Gypsy wants to buy. In what follows Barnaby and his trust sidekick Sergeant Jones must find out which of the various suspects, and there are many of them, is guilty. As to why the first 'murder' wasn't investigated... you'll just have to watch and see.
This episode was pretty silly even by the standards of 'Midsomer Murders' that said the mystery was fun enough and there were almost as many murders as there were laugh out loud moments. The ending was one of the most ridiculous yet with the killer believing he really was in the wild west; we even saw the scene from his perspective where the farm was replaced by a frontier town and Barnaby's suit replaced with period costume! As always John Nettles was great as Barnaby as was Jason Hughes as his put upon sergeant. The guest stars who included Caroline Langrishe, Pip Torrens and Daniel Ryan were also pretty good. Overall if you want a decent mystery with plenty of laughs you should enjoy this but if you want a realistic portrayal of policing in modern Britain steer well clear.
This episode was pretty silly even by the standards of 'Midsomer Murders' that said the mystery was fun enough and there were almost as many murders as there were laugh out loud moments. The ending was one of the most ridiculous yet with the killer believing he really was in the wild west; we even saw the scene from his perspective where the farm was replaced by a frontier town and Barnaby's suit replaced with period costume! As always John Nettles was great as Barnaby as was Jason Hughes as his put upon sergeant. The guest stars who included Caroline Langrishe, Pip Torrens and Daniel Ryan were also pretty good. Overall if you want a decent mystery with plenty of laughs you should enjoy this but if you want a realistic portrayal of policing in modern Britain steer well clear.