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The new Midsomer Murders with Neil Dudgeon Thread


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Old 31-03-2011, 09:35
bob up and down
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I really enjoyed last nights episode. Edward Fox was fab as the batty old bloke.
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:37
DeanDS
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Hmmmmm.

Two weeks of not enough different eccentric suspects.

Two weeks of not enough grizzly murders.

Two weeks of simple solutions. As soon as there had only been one body in the original crash, it had to be Haydn Gwynne who had survived, as there was no body else in the cast who it could be.

I hope this is just while we meet the new cast, and future episodes crank up the death count and the suspects.

.
I agree with this, quite easy to piece together, although in recent years this seems to have been the case. Some earlier episodes had so many potential suspects my head used to spin trying to keep up.

The pathologist feller never used to be quite so dim. What have they done to him?

As if he wouldn't have thought it odd to have someone ostensibly drowning in a canoe, while he was wearing a suit, with a dirty great whack to the back of the noggin.

ANd Jones had more sense when he was with John Nettles' Barnaby, too.

I suppose these two have been dumbed down so as NuBarnaby can be seen as being very clever indeed. But making the rest of them thickos is not the way to do it, I don't think.
Hopefully this won't last, changing the characters as you say, was not good for previous viewers

Thought it was better than last week but still very slow-paced and far too obvious. Totally agree that there just aren't enough suspects so far this series to make it captivating for the whole two hours.

Also, the ending was just a re-hash of last week's. When will the writers realise that "cliff-hanger" endings involving regular characters just aren't very exciting? Unless it's Spooks where they just don't care ).

Again, I know I'm not going to be popular, but I just can't take to the new Barnaby. It's not only his startling resemblance to a certain public school-educated mainstream politician either. He's just rather....dull. :yawn:
I'm finding him quite distant from the other characters, and hard to warm to as well. This may change once we become more familiar. I don't recall him being like this in the first episode he was in with Tom Barnaby either.

The humour has not been the subtle tongue in cheek humour we've been used to either. Jones on the balcony popping his head up was just terrible I thought. All that was missing was a sliding whistle noise every time his head popped up and down like a Meerkat on lookout.

Mrs Barnaby is quite nice tho...

Agree that it was a great performance by Edward Fox too.
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:40
JeffG1
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I was trying to recall where I had seen Jeff Rawle (Gerry Dawkins with a 'G') before. Then I remembered he was in Drop the Dead Donkey.

Edit: Oops! I didn't realise how much more had been posted before I replied, and that this has already been covered.
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:42
Porcupine
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I loved it last night. Last weeks show was boring (IMO), but this weeks show was a delight. I loved it, and i really, really want to be as eccentric as them when im older.
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:44
Pickpuss
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I loved it last night. Last weeks show was boring (IMO), but this weeks show was a delight. I loved it, and i really, really want to be as eccentric as them when im older.
Start hoarding newspapers now
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:47
Keyser Soze
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I like it. Neil is an excellent casting choice. Glad that they've made the new Barnaby and his wife very different from Tom and Joyce Barnaby, too.
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Old 31-03-2011, 09:59
JeffG1
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Caroline Lintott who has appeared as 4 different characters.
I wonder if she is related to Dr Chris Lintott (Sky at Night), since it's such an unusual name?
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:14
lilsaz
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I enjoyed it, enjoyable pap, as ever. If viewers are after an accurate police procedural drama then Midsomer just isn't for them. You have to suspend your disbelief big style for MM.

I particularly liked the line where Jones asked him how Barnaby knew that Mrs Barnaby was the "right" woman for him. Barnaby said something to the effect of "She told me!" in a rather droll manner. Cute. I can see Dudgeon becoming something of a housewives favourite.
Ha! Neil already is a 'favourite' at www.neil-dudgeon.net and has been for many years!
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:34
Pat13
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Very disappointed we saw so little of Sykes last night, he made the first week for me. I would prefer to see less of the wife and more of the dog!!
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:39
Killary45
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I like Neil Dudgeon and think that last night's episode was one of the better Midsomers, but is he perhaps just hamming it up a bit too much? It sometimes seems as if we can tell that his tongue is in his cheek.

I suppose he wants to contrast his role with that of the rather immobile John Nettles, but Dudgeon is a good enough actor to portray John Barnaby with a bit less "mugging" for the camera.
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:41
Inkblot
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It was much funnier than previously. We laughed out loud at some of the one-liners.
Tom Barnaby always struck me as a humourless character who took himself too seriously. For some reason he always chuckled when a particularly gruesome murder occurred, but not when something funny happened. The "new" Barnaby has a nice sense of humour, and the one-liners to go with it.
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:47
Lysandar
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I've forgotten now why Edward Fox committed the murders.
Why did he?
Shows how unimpressive this new Barnaby was for me.
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Old 31-03-2011, 10:54
JasonMason
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Ha! Neil already is a 'favourite' at www.neil-dudgeon.net and has been for many years!
Reading this thread lilsaz and your many favourable contributions regarding ND I had already figured that one out!!
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Old 31-03-2011, 11:03
derek500
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Missed it again!! Turned off series link on my Sky+HD box as it was recording all the afternoon repeats.
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Old 31-03-2011, 11:06
Inkblot
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I've forgotten now why Edward Fox committed the murders.
Why did he?
I'm just as confused about it. He and his wife saw their previously presumed dead pregnant daughter, now grown up and visiting their farm to treat the horses with her strange powers. They realised that her son (who also worked at the stables) must be product of the incestuous relationship between their daughter and their son, who really was dead. So when the social services man came to call Edward Fox realised that he too had worked out the relationship between the mother, her son, the old couple and their son.

But so what? That's where it all comes unstuck. Yes, he had to kill his wife because she knew that he had killed the social services man and she was going to tell Barnaby the whole story. But why did he have to kill the council guy in the first place?

There was a lot of talk about how he and his wife had overdone the illegal substances in the 1960s, so maybe he was just a casualty of the era whose brain had been fried.
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Old 31-03-2011, 11:17
soulboy77
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I like Neil Dudgeon and think that last night's episode was one of the better Midsomers, but is he perhaps just hamming it up a bit too much? It sometimes seems as if we can tell that his tongue is in his cheek.

I suppose he wants to contrast his role with that of the rather immobile John Nettles, but Dudgeon is a good enough actor to portray John Barnaby with a bit less "mugging" for the camera.
Have to agree with the 'hamming it up' comment. I'm not actually liking Neil Dudgeon's Barnaby so far in the series. His potrayal last night was bordering on the comedic. He's a policeman after all and murder is serious business. I know some of it is down to the script writing and they are trying to distiniguish John Barnaby from Tom Barnaby but he is coming across as looking not too clever and so is not believable as a detective of rank.
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:06
Verence
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But so what? That's where it all comes unstuck. Yes, he had to kill his wife because she knew that he had killed the social services man and she was going to tell Barnaby the whole story. But why did he have to kill the council guy in the first place?

There was a lot of talk about how he and his wife had overdone the illegal substances in the 1960s, so maybe he was just a casualty of the era whose brain had been fried.
My take on it was that Edward Fox realised that the social services guy was the type of person who couldn't be persuaded (or bribed) to keep his mouth shut about what he had found out and so he had to be killed
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:13
Charenton
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I found it strange that both Barnaby & Jones supposedly gave out their mobile phone numbers to people they had met just once previously. Gerry, with a G, Dawkins phoned Jones & Mary Bingham phoned Barnaby on their mobiles. Coincidently they both got bumped off soon afterwards. Serves them right.

If the police do give out phone numbers I would expect it to be a central phone number and not a personal one.

In the case of Dawkins/Jones, the only time they met, if I remember correctly, was when Dawkins went into the nick to complain he had been thrown in the pond by the "artists". I never saw Jones give his mobile number to him.

At the end I said to the wife, "Strange to see Andrew Foyle in Midsomer". "Which one was he" she said. As a fan of Foyle's War she must have lost concentration last night. Not too difficult. Must have been weird for him to learn he'd been having it away with his Aunt, lucky chap.
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:20
JELLIES0
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They re-use lots of actors - most episodes for the past two or three years have featured stars who've appeared before in different roles.
We saw Neil Dudgeon playing another character in an earlier episode of Midsomer about 3 weeks ago on one of the satellite channels.
I wasn't too keen on the first episode featuring Neil Dudgeon, but last nights was well up to standard IMHO.
It's a pity that Brian True- May has had to step down, another martyr to PC. I hope it doesn't affect the quality of future episodes.
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:31
Gill P
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You have to bear in mind that the "bitchy blonde" was only eight when her sister disappeared. She also thought she was dead. There was a big age difference too.
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:51
Killary45
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I've forgotten now why Edward Fox committed the murders.
Why did he?
Shows how unimpressive this new Barnaby was for me.
He was as mad as a box of frogs, so his motivation did not need to make sense, and since when did a Midsomer killer need a sensible motive for all the murders?
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Old 31-03-2011, 13:05
seawitch
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I rather enjoyed Josie (Nosey) Parker. I hope we see her in future episodes. She strikes me as having a high irritant factor - one of those characters you are always hoping will be bumped off.
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Old 31-03-2011, 13:24
Lysandar
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I'm just as confused about it. He and his wife saw their previously presumed dead pregnant daughter, now grown up and visiting their farm to treat the horses with her strange powers. They realised that her son (who also worked at the stables) must be product of the incestuous relationship between their daughter and their son, who really was dead. So when the social services man came to call Edward Fox realised that he too had worked out the relationship between the mother, her son, the old couple and their son.

But so what? That's where it all comes unstuck. Yes, he had to kill his wife because she knew that he had killed the social services man and she was going to tell Barnaby the whole story. But why did he have to kill the council guy in the first place?

There was a lot of talk about how he and his wife had overdone the illegal substances in the 1960s, so maybe he was just a casualty of the era whose brain had been fried.
Many thanks, inkblot.
But, as you say, why kill the social services man in the first
place?
Funny how most of this cast were all from that very funny sitcom about a newspaper.
Haydn Gwynne was excellent, as usual.
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Old 31-03-2011, 14:53
gerry d
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I don't know maybe if it's because i've only seen a few "Midsomer Murders" but i did enjoy last weeks episode & also last nights.I thought Neil Pearsons character last night was funny at times with the 1 liners.

As for Neil Dudgeon i like him in the role.
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Old 31-03-2011, 17:10
Joely B
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I think Neil Dudgeon looks extremely like DC and I think they're both gorgeous! Though I think Our Beloved Leader has the advantage.
I also thought there was just a hint of the Samantha about his wife, and wondered if perchance it had been done on purpose, slightly tongue in cheek.
I must say I like his style so far, though I wish Jones hadn't turned into a totally different character, if they wanted to do that, they would have been better to actually have a different character.
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