Wednesday 11 January 2017

MIDSOMER MURDERS - SERIES 19, EPISODE 3: LAST MAN OUT (ITV)

[Spoiler-Free] Cricket is a ground for murder as DCI Barnaby and DS Winter investigate the death of a star batsman.

The bottom line: The face should be familiar...

After the very good A Dying Art last year, scriptwriter Jeff Povey and director Matt Carter return to Midsomer Murders with the absolutely brilliant Last Man OutLeo Henderson, captain of the Lower Pampling Panthers, wins the latest match of the Midsomer C10 Slam cricket competition and leads his team to the tournament semi-final. But his triumph is short, because he's pummeled to death by cricket balls in the practice area.

« His alibi checks out, Jones.
- I'm Winter, sir. »

DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix) are about to interrogate the man who found the body: Jack Morris, the 12th player of the team. Except that Morris is actually Barnaby's old DS Ben Jones, working undercover to infiltrate a large-scale match fixing operation. John cannot reveal the truth to Jamie, who quickly puts "Jack Morris" on the suspect list! Another captain dies is killed, near a tree. The same tree where someone who went missing 20 years ago suddenly reappears.

« That's taking tree hugging a bit far, isn't it? »
 
Last Man Out is creative, ingenious and funny. It's a real pleasure to see the excellent Jason Hugues back as Ben Jones, former right-hand man of two DCI Barnaby. The reunion with John, the "duel" with Winter and Ben's confrontation with the match-fixer on the cricket ground are some of the great moments of this episode. John Bird and Susan Jameson are amongst the guest stars. Like Natasha Little, who also appeared this month in Death in Paradise, the tropical counterpart of Midsomer Murders (1).

Also starring Fiona Dolman as Sarah Barnaby and Manjinder Virk (Dr Kam Karimore). Produced by Bentley Productions (part of All3Media) for ITV. Exec produced by Jo Wright and produced by Ella Kelly. Music composed by Jim Parker

(1) Amusingly, Jason Hughes guest stars in an episode of Death in Paradise this year. 

http://midsomermurders.org/ 

See also:

http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2016/02/midsomer-murders-dying-art-itv.html

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