I recently watched this episode repeated on the British digital channel ITV3. I would like to explain to reviewers "over the pond" what I think is a reasonable explanation for the various anomalies raised in the more critical reviews.
I think that this was an unmade storyline from the series "Pie In The Sky", which aired on TV in the UK over 10 years previous to when this episode was recorded. It would have been just credible in 1997 for George Cole's character to be up to his WW2 sabotage tricks - it was obviously nonsense in 2007.
The way Barnaby treats Jones is very similar to the way Insp. Henry Crabbe treats his various sergeants in "Pie In The Sky". The Barnabys' daughter Cully does not appear in this episode - Crabbe and his wife, Margaret, did not have children.
The whole characterisation of Tom Barnaby is markedly different from normal - in the pub "fight" scene, Barnaby displays a degree of middle-middle class food snobbery which you might expect from part-time restaurateur Henry Crabbe, less so from full-time copper Tom Barnaby. Richard Griffiths (RIP) played Henry Crabbe as a "crabby" character, but with a lightness of touch and a degree of sly humour which John Nettles did not bother to bring to this re-characterisation of Tom Barnaby.
Even the leaking kitchen roof scene echoes similar scenes of leaking pipes in the restaurant kitchen in "Pie In The Sky". I could go on, but if you have read this far you are probably having trouble staying awake.
By the way, the "combine-harvester" which some reviewers mention was actually a tractor pulling a straw-baler - it doesn't make any difference to the plot, of course.
I think that this was an unmade storyline from the series "Pie In The Sky", which aired on TV in the UK over 10 years previous to when this episode was recorded. It would have been just credible in 1997 for George Cole's character to be up to his WW2 sabotage tricks - it was obviously nonsense in 2007.
The way Barnaby treats Jones is very similar to the way Insp. Henry Crabbe treats his various sergeants in "Pie In The Sky". The Barnabys' daughter Cully does not appear in this episode - Crabbe and his wife, Margaret, did not have children.
The whole characterisation of Tom Barnaby is markedly different from normal - in the pub "fight" scene, Barnaby displays a degree of middle-middle class food snobbery which you might expect from part-time restaurateur Henry Crabbe, less so from full-time copper Tom Barnaby. Richard Griffiths (RIP) played Henry Crabbe as a "crabby" character, but with a lightness of touch and a degree of sly humour which John Nettles did not bother to bring to this re-characterisation of Tom Barnaby.
Even the leaking kitchen roof scene echoes similar scenes of leaking pipes in the restaurant kitchen in "Pie In The Sky". I could go on, but if you have read this far you are probably having trouble staying awake.
By the way, the "combine-harvester" which some reviewers mention was actually a tractor pulling a straw-baler - it doesn't make any difference to the plot, of course.