Midsomer is known for its astronomical murder rate so perhaps it is appropriate that somebody should start bumping off a group of local astronomers. First to go is Jeremy Harper; struck on the head by a large meteorite during a total solar eclipse. It isn't long before out of this world theories are suggested by the locals; was he the victim of the 'curse of Moonstone Ridge' or did astrologer Mystic Mags really see is imminent demise when she wrote his star chart?! There are plenty of more earthly theories for Barnaby and Jones to explore though; was the killing something to do with a threat to the observatory's funding, was it a father protecting his daughter's honour or was it somehow connected to the death of a woman at a party many years before? This being Midsomer the death toll rises as the killer uses items stolen from the local museum and a pattern starts to appear. Away from the case Barnaby is encouraged by his wife to take up yoga and Mystic Mags makes a prediction about Jones' love life!
This was typical Midsomer Murders; as bonkers as the line up of guest characters and I'm sure fans of the series wouldn't have it any other way! There were a decent number of murders each using a different yet inventive method which fitted in with the astronomical theme. Likewise there were plenty of suspects to choose from with a similar array of motives. After the fuss last year when it emerged that one of the series creators had deliberately kept the cast 'white only' it was inevitable that non-white actors would be cast fairly soon and to be honest their presence did not make the show feel any less British and if it wasn't for the public fuss I doubt I'd have thought twice about them being there; both characters fitted into the story without it feeling like they had been shoehorned in for reasons of political correctness; of course it helped that Ace Bhatti and Soraya Radford did good jobs as father and daughter Harry and Gagan Dutta. The rest of the cast were pretty good too; most notably Maureen Lipman as Mystic Mags; a character it would have been easy to make too much of a caricature of a batty astrologer. It wasn't without flaws, at one point I'm sure I heard a character saying he was observing a transit of Venus on the night of one of the murders any astronomer would know they take place in day time! Still I watch this for a decent whodunit and a few laughs so the odd mistake doesn't matter.
This was typical Midsomer Murders; as bonkers as the line up of guest characters and I'm sure fans of the series wouldn't have it any other way! There were a decent number of murders each using a different yet inventive method which fitted in with the astronomical theme. Likewise there were plenty of suspects to choose from with a similar array of motives. After the fuss last year when it emerged that one of the series creators had deliberately kept the cast 'white only' it was inevitable that non-white actors would be cast fairly soon and to be honest their presence did not make the show feel any less British and if it wasn't for the public fuss I doubt I'd have thought twice about them being there; both characters fitted into the story without it feeling like they had been shoehorned in for reasons of political correctness; of course it helped that Ace Bhatti and Soraya Radford did good jobs as father and daughter Harry and Gagan Dutta. The rest of the cast were pretty good too; most notably Maureen Lipman as Mystic Mags; a character it would have been easy to make too much of a caricature of a batty astrologer. It wasn't without flaws, at one point I'm sure I heard a character saying he was observing a transit of Venus on the night of one of the murders any astronomer would know they take place in day time! Still I watch this for a decent whodunit and a few laughs so the odd mistake doesn't matter.