After a wonderful start of Midsomer Murders, with both "The Killings at Badger's Drift and "Written in Blood" being classic episodes, "Death of a Hollow Man" is a step down in quality. "Death of a Hollow Man is not a bad episode, it is just that "The Killings at Badger's Drift" and Written in Blood have a better script and story.
"Death of a Hollow Man" starts with the murder of Agnes Grey. She was about to light a candle in a dark room, when someone creeps up on her and smashes her head. Her body is then disposed in a lake.
The Causton playhouse is about to start their last rehearsals for their set up of the famous play "Amadeus" by Peter Schaffer. The actors come in one by one. Rosa Carmichael, Nicholas Bentley, Kitty Carmichael and Esslyn Carmichael, who once was married to Rosa. The director, Harold Winstanley loves what he do, and is clearly fond of the theatre. Esslyn is playing the lead role Salieri, but believes that Nicholas is masking him at every turn. Kitty says he does so, but Harold rejects the claims and says it is up to him to decide whether Nicholas is masking Esslyn or not. Joyce is also a part of the cast, and talks to Tom about it, as she looks forward to the play.
Esslyn is Agnes Grey's cousin and agrees to identity her body. He talks with her solicitor and are aware that he will not inherite anything from her, because she wanted her money to go to charity. What he does get, is an envelope from Agnes adressed to him, that was to be opened after her death. Barnaby wants to know which person Agnes was and Esslyn tells him that she did the same job for twenty five years before she took an early retirement. Agnes spoke excellent French and Italian, and her degree was art history.
Esslyn opens the envelope from Agnes. For someone, the content only means bad news, and Esslyn makes a phone call to the person in question, and says he never wants money, but something else that Esslyn knows the person is aware of. Esslyn gives a final deadline the next following Monday.
It turns out that Kitty is having a fling, which Esslyn knows nothing about, until Rosa spies on Kitty and calls to tell Esslyn about it. Esslyn wants to divorce Kitty instantly, even though she is pregnant. Esslyn reassures that the child will be provided for, but Kitty has to provide for herself.
During the second act of the play, Kitty and Esslyn are having a fight and she is angry with him. She slaps him, they struggle and he throws Kitty to the floor. In Salieri's last scene, Esslyn's character is about to commit suicide. Esslyn takes a razor and slits his throat as Joyce and David Smy watch. The suicide turns out to be quite real when Esslyn himself falls to the ground.
As the case closes, it is revealed that Harold is the murderer. He killed Agnes Grey because she wanted to come clean after their art theft. Esslyn found out, and tried to blackmail Harold about it. He was about to expose Harold, unless Esslyn got full control of the new theatre. Harold could not take any risk, and made sure that Esslyn was killed.
"Death of a Hollow Man" is not as interesting as the previous two episodes, and sometimes, the story feels a bit boring. It is a good episode and I really like the setting with Amadeus and a setup of a play, but for some reason, the first murder of Agnes Grey is completely forgotten during the episode, and then at the end, it all comes back and they need an explanation of why she was murdered.
From the supporting cast, Ed Waters, Debra Stephenson, Nicholas Le Prevost, Janine Dutvitski, Bernard Hepton and Sarah Badel are the fare strongest. Ed Waters is a joy to watch and his character Nicholas Bentley becomes Cully's boyfriend. Debra Stephenson and Nicholas Le Prevost plays Kitty and Esslyn, and does a good job, but I think Kitty is a bit more interesting than Esslyn, a character I feel is a bit too bland, and we never get to know him properly. Janine Dutvitski and Sarah Badel play colourful characters and we get to know their personality throughout the episode. Bernard Hepton is a wonderful actor and is credible in his interpretation of Harold Winstanley, even though I have to say that his character feels bland as well.
The solution feels a bit underwhelming and the murderer's identity is not that surprising. I feel that it could have been other characters in the story that could have had stronger motives for killing Agnes and Esslyn.
"Death of a Hollow Man" is a fine third episode of the first series of Midsomer Murders, but after an astonishing start with "The Killings at Badger's Drift" and "Written in Blood", "Death of a Hollow Man" is a step down in quality. 7/10 Hossy Christie.
"Death of a Hollow Man" starts with the murder of Agnes Grey. She was about to light a candle in a dark room, when someone creeps up on her and smashes her head. Her body is then disposed in a lake.
The Causton playhouse is about to start their last rehearsals for their set up of the famous play "Amadeus" by Peter Schaffer. The actors come in one by one. Rosa Carmichael, Nicholas Bentley, Kitty Carmichael and Esslyn Carmichael, who once was married to Rosa. The director, Harold Winstanley loves what he do, and is clearly fond of the theatre. Esslyn is playing the lead role Salieri, but believes that Nicholas is masking him at every turn. Kitty says he does so, but Harold rejects the claims and says it is up to him to decide whether Nicholas is masking Esslyn or not. Joyce is also a part of the cast, and talks to Tom about it, as she looks forward to the play.
Esslyn is Agnes Grey's cousin and agrees to identity her body. He talks with her solicitor and are aware that he will not inherite anything from her, because she wanted her money to go to charity. What he does get, is an envelope from Agnes adressed to him, that was to be opened after her death. Barnaby wants to know which person Agnes was and Esslyn tells him that she did the same job for twenty five years before she took an early retirement. Agnes spoke excellent French and Italian, and her degree was art history.
Esslyn opens the envelope from Agnes. For someone, the content only means bad news, and Esslyn makes a phone call to the person in question, and says he never wants money, but something else that Esslyn knows the person is aware of. Esslyn gives a final deadline the next following Monday.
It turns out that Kitty is having a fling, which Esslyn knows nothing about, until Rosa spies on Kitty and calls to tell Esslyn about it. Esslyn wants to divorce Kitty instantly, even though she is pregnant. Esslyn reassures that the child will be provided for, but Kitty has to provide for herself.
During the second act of the play, Kitty and Esslyn are having a fight and she is angry with him. She slaps him, they struggle and he throws Kitty to the floor. In Salieri's last scene, Esslyn's character is about to commit suicide. Esslyn takes a razor and slits his throat as Joyce and David Smy watch. The suicide turns out to be quite real when Esslyn himself falls to the ground.
As the case closes, it is revealed that Harold is the murderer. He killed Agnes Grey because she wanted to come clean after their art theft. Esslyn found out, and tried to blackmail Harold about it. He was about to expose Harold, unless Esslyn got full control of the new theatre. Harold could not take any risk, and made sure that Esslyn was killed.
"Death of a Hollow Man" is not as interesting as the previous two episodes, and sometimes, the story feels a bit boring. It is a good episode and I really like the setting with Amadeus and a setup of a play, but for some reason, the first murder of Agnes Grey is completely forgotten during the episode, and then at the end, it all comes back and they need an explanation of why she was murdered.
From the supporting cast, Ed Waters, Debra Stephenson, Nicholas Le Prevost, Janine Dutvitski, Bernard Hepton and Sarah Badel are the fare strongest. Ed Waters is a joy to watch and his character Nicholas Bentley becomes Cully's boyfriend. Debra Stephenson and Nicholas Le Prevost plays Kitty and Esslyn, and does a good job, but I think Kitty is a bit more interesting than Esslyn, a character I feel is a bit too bland, and we never get to know him properly. Janine Dutvitski and Sarah Badel play colourful characters and we get to know their personality throughout the episode. Bernard Hepton is a wonderful actor and is credible in his interpretation of Harold Winstanley, even though I have to say that his character feels bland as well.
The solution feels a bit underwhelming and the murderer's identity is not that surprising. I feel that it could have been other characters in the story that could have had stronger motives for killing Agnes and Esslyn.
"Death of a Hollow Man" is a fine third episode of the first series of Midsomer Murders, but after an astonishing start with "The Killings at Badger's Drift" and "Written in Blood", "Death of a Hollow Man" is a step down in quality. 7/10 Hossy Christie.