Midsomer Murders

Whilst the Upper Marshwood hunt assemble outside the village inn, a filthy tramp-like man leaves the shop and skulks into the wood. Soon after, he hears the sound of the hunt begin and the unforgettable noise of the horses and hounds in hot pursuit of the fox. Running for cover, towards the safety of his home-made shelter, he stumbles and falls into a pit - screaming. LIZA, isolated in the disused railway carriage which constitutes her home, moves deeper into the wood having heard the scream. She finds the pit and sees the tramp lying crumpled on the ground, clearly dead. She stares at him for a moment, then turns and walks away.

Barnaby's aunt, Alice Bly (Phyllis Calvert), has an addiction to detective stories, a deep admiration for her favourite nephew, and is recovering from an operation at the Lawnside Nursing Home. When a resident dies, Alice Bly picks up gossip which, mixed with the detective fiction with which she is passing the hours, makes her think that all is not as it should be at Lawnside.

The village of Midsomer Mallow is one of the villages hoping to win the title of the "Perfect English Village" competition. As the story unfolds, not everything is "perfect" as local thief Peter Drinkwater is stabbed with a pitchfork at an abandoned farm, he's using as a squat. Shortly after robbing a retired actor's home. Despite the villagers' best efforts to keep the murder quiet so as to not ruin their chances in the competition, several further deaths occur eventually bringing Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby back several decades to uncover the killer.

Cully's latest boyfriend, Nico, decides to shadow Troy in preparation for a TV role he recently got, but gets more hands-on experience than he expected when investigations into a slashed painting at a museum in Aspern Tallow, a 17th century portrait of Royalist Jonathan Lowrie, are overshadowed by the murder of his descendant, Marcus Lowrie. It isn't long before Barnaby and Troy, with Nico's assistance, find themselves dealing with mysterious, ghostly events, escaped criminals, and a museum trustee who has more to them than meets the eye.