I love watching Midsomer Murders. I have series 1 through 22. I'm waiting for 23 to come out in April.
I have one complaint. Throughout all 23 series it has astounded me that writers ignore a big part of the law.
Yes, I know this is a fictional story.
In this episode, Scarecrow Murders, Winter goes to Fergus Rooney's house to get a file. Fergus comes out of his study with the file and Winter says, "Can I look in there?" and just walks in. Winter sees a large, closed cabinet and just walks over and opens it to find many research binders, draws his erroneous conclusions from it.
Did Fergus not know about illegal searches or the cops needing a search warrant?
Great Britain's laws are a different from the US, but not that much.
Unless Fergus gives Winter permission, which he didn't, Winter can't just walk into his study and go through his closed cabinets. Anything that Winter finds is fruit of a poisonous tree and inadmissible in court. The lawyers or banisters can have it suppressed.
I know in GB the cops do not need an arrest warrant like here but unless they are chasing someone the police believe has committed a crime, or if there's a disturbance, or there are cries for help coming from within the premises then the police cannot enter.
Maybe this is a way the writers have to move the story forward. All I know is in approximately 140 episodes, I do not remember anyone asking if the cops had a warrant.
Like I said. I love the show. It took me time to like the character of DS Jamie Winter, he was a bit too arrogant in the beginning for me. He was nothing like DS Charlie Nelson who he had replaced.
But I've finally have gotten used to him.
The only pet peeve I have is the way that Barnaby & Winter can just walk in to a person's home and have a gander.