Midsomer Murders: Death of a Hollow Man starts as Agnes Gray (Denyse Alexander) is brutally murdered with a crow bar. Jump forward a week or so & her body is found in a pond, DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) & Sgt. Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) are on the case. Meanwhile in Causton a theatrical production of Amadeus is being staged by bad tempered elderly director Harold Winstanley (Bernard Hepton) with locals used as the cast & crew. One such local on the cast is Barnaby's wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) who has a small role, it's the opening night & Tom along with their daughter Cully (Laura Howard) are in the audience. Esslyn Carmichael (Nicholas Le Prevost) is the star & he is due to act out a suicide on stage by running a doctored straight razor across his throat, however someone switches the safe razor for a real one & Esslyn dies on stage from a self inflicted slit throat. Barnaby gets the case & since Esslyn was a cousin of Agnes he suspects a link & there are no shortage of suspects...
Episode 3 from season 1 this Midsmer Murders mystery was directed by Jeremy Silberton & is another classic episode when the show had an edge almost as sharp as the razor Esslyn uses to cut his own throat. The script by Caroline Graham based on her own novel of the same name serves up a typically absorbing & intriguing plot that is yet another dark & complex murder mystery with a mature tone, I must admit I loved the clever method used here when the murderer actually makes Esslyn kill himself with the razor blade on stage. I think it's a great idea & a great method for murder, I did feel the murder of Agnes was overlooked & almost ignored to some extent as it mostly concentrates on Esslyn. As usual the character's are very good, there are some nice red herrings & a good helping of suspects for armchair detectives to shift through. Things come together nicely at the end with a neat explanation & a suitably elaborate motive. My only real problem is the length as I think at almost 2 hours it can drag a little in places.
This episode was shot mostly in & around Buckinghamshire this looks nice enough even though there isn't much scenery on show. It's well made with good production values as this is a prime time series over here in the UK. There's nothing graphic in this episode apart from a bit of bad language as both murders are tastefully done. The acting is strong in this episode with everyone doing a fine job.
Death of a Hollow Man is a great Midsomer Murders mystery, it has just about everything you want from an episode except maybe the traditional English countryside setting which the show is famous for. Well worth a watch for mystery fans.
Episode 3 from season 1 this Midsmer Murders mystery was directed by Jeremy Silberton & is another classic episode when the show had an edge almost as sharp as the razor Esslyn uses to cut his own throat. The script by Caroline Graham based on her own novel of the same name serves up a typically absorbing & intriguing plot that is yet another dark & complex murder mystery with a mature tone, I must admit I loved the clever method used here when the murderer actually makes Esslyn kill himself with the razor blade on stage. I think it's a great idea & a great method for murder, I did feel the murder of Agnes was overlooked & almost ignored to some extent as it mostly concentrates on Esslyn. As usual the character's are very good, there are some nice red herrings & a good helping of suspects for armchair detectives to shift through. Things come together nicely at the end with a neat explanation & a suitably elaborate motive. My only real problem is the length as I think at almost 2 hours it can drag a little in places.
This episode was shot mostly in & around Buckinghamshire this looks nice enough even though there isn't much scenery on show. It's well made with good production values as this is a prime time series over here in the UK. There's nothing graphic in this episode apart from a bit of bad language as both murders are tastefully done. The acting is strong in this episode with everyone doing a fine job.
Death of a Hollow Man is a great Midsomer Murders mystery, it has just about everything you want from an episode except maybe the traditional English countryside setting which the show is famous for. Well worth a watch for mystery fans.