User Reviews

The big reveal of how the victims are connected is quite complicated but well thought out and it's one of those episodes where you'll never guess the motives but it all makes perfect sense in the end. Like many Midsomer episodes it's got to do with the sins of previous generations that have a bearing on the present.

SPOILERS FOLLOW: I'm adding this because I'm always looking for a quick recap but can never find anything.

The killer is posh heir Grahame Tranter. His mother, Marcia, knew her husband was impotent so she had James Fitzroy, who was in love with her, murder him. James paid for an old man who had helped him bury the body to be cared for at a luxurious old-age home in return for his silence.

Marcia had an affair with an actor who looked a lot like her husband and he is Grahame's father. Marcia created the illusion that her husband had left her by getting the actor who looked like him to pose for a private eye's picture at a cafe in Antwerp so there would be a sighting of him.

The problem was that if anyone found out Grahame was illegitimate they would lose the estate and it would go to a cousin, Henry Carstairs. So when the actor turned up again, now as an old tramp living in the woods, and started blackmailing Grahame with naked pictures of Marcia, Grahame murdered him. When Grahame was rifling through the tramp's things in the woods to find the pictures Ben Gurdie - father of Billy the young troublemaker who was arrested for the tramp's murder by overeager detective Ron Pringle - stumbled upon Grahame and so had to be killed.

Grahame was madly in love with his indifferent wife, Kate, who was having an affair with layabout Dave Hedges and planning to leave Grahame and take their son along. Ron retired after arresting Billy and was eager to become part of the posh fox-hunting set so attended a party at the Tranters' estate. While looking for a bathroom he went into the garden where he witnessed Kate and Dave in flagrante. Because Grahame couldn't bear that Ron had seen Kate like that he also had to go.

Midsomer Murders: Death of a Stranger is set in the Midsomer village of Upper Marshwood & stars on the morning of a fox hunt, as the horses & hounds race through Black Thorn Wood in pursuit of their prey an old tramp (Peter Bayliss) is brutally beaten to death. DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) is enjoying a holiday in France with his family when he hears the news, soon to retire Inspector Ron Pringle (James Bolam) is given the case in Barnaby's absence & arrests a local poacher named Billy Gurdie (Tom Smith) as his fingerprints were found on the weapon. It seems like a open & shut case but when Barnaby & Sgt. Troy (Daniel Casey) both return from holiday they think otherwise when Billy's father Ben (Fred Ridgeway) is found murdered in the same wood, Barnaby suspects the two killing are connected & are far from coincidence but who would want to kill an old tramp who has no obvious connection to anyone?

Episode 1 from season 3 this Midsomer Murders mystery was directed by Peter Cregeen & was a fine way to kick off the third season of this usually very good series. The script by Douglas Livingstone is one of those stories which kick off with a murder rather than twenty odd minutes of exposition & scene setting, this obviously helps to draw you into the mystery straight away. There is also another murder soon after & the body count gets even higher before the end which is usually my favourite part of any Mdsomer Murders episode where all is revealed & the pieces of puzzle fall into place & are explained. The climax in Death of a Stranger has that nice dark sinister edge to it that I enjoy so much. Since these early Midsomer Murders were pretty complex at times you do need to have been paying attention & I can see why the exposition heavy dialogue might test peoples patience. Personally I think these show's are gripping, intriguing, very well thought out & have great twists in them. Death of a Stranger has strong character's & plenty of red herrings as usual although the real identity of he tramp isn't revealed until near the end so it's almost impossible to try & figure out who did it as we, the audience that is, are never given any potential motives to work with.

This is the one in which the story revolves around the contentious issue of fox hunting although it never tries to say anything moralistic about it, it's just used as a throughly English countryside tradition to provide a backdrop to the story. Of course this episode couldn't really be made these days as Tony Blair & his Government have made fox hunting for sport illegal. The hunt scenes were filmed in Thame Park in Oxfordshire & Cuddington in Bekshire was used for some of the village scenes if your interested. Death of a Stranger has a fairly high body count, there are a few dead bodies, a bit of blood, someone is found hanging & there's a bit of female bare breasted nudity as well. Looking at the cast I see the name Richard Johnson who has appeared in all sorts of things & since I'm a bit of a horror buff it wasn't unnoticed that he has gone from a horror classic like The Haunting (1963) to Italian gore films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), Island of Mutations (1979) & The Great Alligator (1979) to a stint on Midsomer Murders!

Death of a Stranger is another top murder mystery sure to keep all you armchair sleuth's on edge of your seat & a terrific way to open season 3, I liked it a lot & think it's well worth a watch for those with the patience.

"Midsomer Murders" was at its finest in the first nine seasons, I have said it numerous times. In that era mostly very good episodes were made (with the exceptions of "The Straw Woman", "The Electric Vendetta" and "Second Sight"). The third season of "Midsomer Murders" is solid in the long run with "Death of a Stranger" being a pretty good season opener. It's not a great entry to the series, but manages to be very good indeed.

Let's start with the good aspects first, shall we?

. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The direction by Peter Creegan is gorgeous and the music fits the scenery. Out of the mostly strong cast Diane Fletcher, Dominic Wafham and Jeanne Hepple do particularly well.

. The murder mystery is compelling, has nice humor and is never boring, with a lot of twists and turns. The characters are colorful and the ending (with Grahame turning out to be the killer) has nice horror-tones in it.

But...

. There were way too many revelations in the last half an hour of "Death of a Stranger" that it was hard to keep track of them. It would have been much better if the mystery was better structured.

Overall, pretty good, if not great.

8/10 HK.

"Death of a Stranger" has always been a favourite episode of mine. "Death of a Stranger" is compelling and interesting from start to finish, and the story from Douglas Livingstone and the direction from Peter Cregeen are both amazing. The story is dark, but not as dark as the series two opener, "Death's Shadow". "Death of a Stranger" was broadcast on New Years Eve in 1999, and what a way to end this year with this episode.

"Death of a Stranger" starts with the murder of an old tramp during a fox hunt in the village of Upper Marshwood. Barnaby enjoys a holiday in France with Joyce and Cully, while Superintendent Pringle steps in to cover the murder investigation during Barnaby's absence. Pringle arrests a young poacher boy named Billy Gurdie, after finding out that Billy Gurdie's fingerprints were found on the weapon. When Billy's father, Ben Gurdie, is found murdered as well, Tom Barnaby realises that the two murders are connected.

The Founders night party are being held shortly after. All seems well, but after a while, Pringle witnesses something at the summer house and is spooked. The next day at the fox hunt, Ron Pringle is murdered, and it appears that this horse has been tranquilized. Barnaby shows Troy the summer house and believes that Pringle was killed because the murderer knew he had seen "them". "Them" is found to be Kate Tranter, Grahame Tranter's wife and Dave Hedges, and Grahame could not bear knowing that someone else knew about his wife's infidelity. Grahame tries to stop Kate from leaving, but fails. In a last desperate attempt, he finds his shotgun and points it at Kate, their son Harry, and Dave. When Barnaby arrives, Grahame realises it is all over and that he has lost both his wife and son. He can't bear to live without them, and chooses to take suicide.

It all comes down to the killing of Simon Tranter and the tramp. The tramp. Who is revealed to be Michael Darrow and Grahame Tranter's dad, started a relationship with Marcia Tranter, which resulted in her pregnancy with Grahame. Her pregnancy put her in a difficult position hence to Simon being sterile. He knew that Grahame could not be his son, so Marcia persuaded James Fitzroy, another lover of hers, to kill Simon, and to make Michael disappear, so Marcia was able to pass their son Grahame off as Simon's son, so he could inherite the Tranter Estate. But Grahame knew that Kate was seeing someone else, and that the Estate did not matter at all, if he could not have Kate and Harry.

"Death of a Stranger" is a wonderful start to the third series. The first murder of the tramp, happens after ten minutes, and it is that amount of time that makes it most intriguing. We have seen other episodes, such as "Death's Shadow" where the murder of Richard Bayly happens after nearly 30 minutes. Considered that the first series of Midsomer Murders lasted for about 1 hour and 45 minutes per episodes, 30 minutes before a murder happens is a very long time, but "Death's Shadow" was so well written, with many interesting scenes before the first murder after 30 minutes, that it did not really matter at all.

"Death of a Stranger" is also that kind of episode where you need to pay full attention. I have watched "Death of a Stranger", and it took me a while before I did understand the connection between the tramp and Grahame Tranter, and that he indeed was Grahame's father. It took me a while before I really did understand that Simon Tranter had been killed by James Fitzroy just to hide the truth behind Marcia's pregnancy. I am also quite fond of the writer's decision to wait to reveal the tramp's true identity until the end of the episode. The real identity of the tramp was a huge surprise when it first was revealed, and that decision made me pay more attention to the story, as I wanted to find out who the tramp really was. With that being said, even though I have paid attention to this episode, I still neeeded to see this episode several times to get the full picture. A reason for that, is, as someone else already have written in their reviews on this episode, that during the last 30 minutes, too many secrets are revealed at the same time, and there is no wonder why I have felt so confused after watching this episode, and why I needed to see "Death of a Stranger" several times to get the full picture.

The Lee was once again chosen as one of the filming locations, and I love that place. From the supporting cast, Dominic Mafham is amazing as Grahame Tranter. Richard Johnson was well liked as James Fitzroy and James Bolam played Ron Pringle wonderfully. I also did like Sarah Winman as Kate Tranter, and Diane Fletcher and Jennifer Hillary were likeable too, as the characters of Marcia Tranter and Sarah Fitzroy.

"Death of a Stranger" is a wonderful start to the third series, and will always be one of my favourite Midsomer Murders episodes, alongside "The Killings at Badger's Drift", "Written in Blood" "Death's Shadow", "Strangler's Wood", "Dead Man's Eleven" and many more. 10/10 Hossy Christie.