"Midsomer Murders"
Bantling Boy (2005)

Director:

Sarah Hellings

Writers:

Steve Trafford (screenplay)
Caroline Graham (characters)

TV Series:

"Midsomer Murders" (1997)

Original Air Date:

16 January 2005 (Season 8, Episode 4)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Barnaby and Scott enter the world of horse racing when the trainer of thoroughbred Bantling Boy is battered to death...

Plot Keywords:

Racetrack | Video Game | Joust | Wheelchair | Will

Cast

John Nettles	...	DCI Tom Barnaby
John Hopkins	...	Sergeant Dan Scott
Jane Wymark	...	Joyce Barnaby
Laura Howard	...	Cully Barnaby
Barry Jackson	...	Dr Bullard
Caroline Blakiston	...	Angela Hartley
Philip McGough	...	Geoffrey (as Phillip McGough in opening credits)
Simon Kunz	...	Bruce Hartley
Anna Wilson-Jones	...	Marianna Hartley
Barnaby Kay	...	Dr Osgood
Charlie Condou	...	Jake Foley
Julia Ford	...	Joanna Craxton
Shane Attwooll	...	Ray Craxton (as Shane Attwool)
Thomas Grant	...	Peter Craxton
Geoffrey Freshwater	...	Sam Tate

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:12 (VHS/DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Dorney Court, Dorney, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Bentley Productions

Quotes:

Sergeant Dan Scott: Trevor Machin? Lives in a wheelchair - has got breath like a badger.

Movie Connections:

References The Terminator (1984)

"You won't find the right answers by asking the wrong man." I liked this one.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Midsomer Murders: Bantling Boy starts as DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) his wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) & daughter Cully (Laura Howard) take time out to spend a day at the Causton Race Course where the runners & riders are preparing to battle it out in the Gold Cup. The horses take their stalls & the race is run, locally born & trained horse Bantling Boy beats the favourite to win the Cup. Owned by a Midsomer village syndicate of Bruce Hartley (Simon Kunz), the wheelchair bound Trevor Machin (Richard O'Callaghan), local nurse Joanna Craxton (Julia Ford) & local doctor Osgood (Barnaby Kay) a wealthy businessman named Sam Tate (Geoffrey Freshwater) offers them £500,000 to sell Bantling Boy, the syndicate is split down the middle & unless all are in agreement Bantling Boy cannot be sold. Then that night Bruce who was opposed to the sale is found dead with his head bashed in, Barnaby & Sgt. Dan Scott (John Hopkins) are on the case. Was it a simple matter of money or was the reason behind the murder more sinister...

Episode 4 from season 8 this Midsomer Murders story was directed by Sarah Hellings & I have to admit I rather liked Bantling Boy a fair amount. The script by Steve Trafford has a intriguing central premise of a syndicate who each own a stake in a horse being killed off one-by-one in a murder mystery with plenty of twists & turns which are certainly improbable sure but Midsomer Murders has never really gone for realism has it? I'm willing to bet no-one is going to guess the twist ending here, I like the Midsomer Murders episodes where the eventual motives behind the killings are over-the-top & flamboyant & that's certainly the case here with Bantling Boy. As far as I'm concerned the odder, the stranger, surprising & more bizarre the motive the better! There are some good red-herrings to keep you guessing & the finger of suspicion falls on several character's who could have done it & have a motive so I really do think this one will leave most of you guessing until the end. Barnaby's daughter Cully has a larger than normal in this, there's a steady stream of murders & a well thought out if far fetched plot to become absorbed in. As usual the dialogue is exposition heavy & if you don't pay attention or miss any of it than the ending won't work as well as it should & you'll probably get left behind. There's even a nice deadpan line at the end when Barnaby has a dig at people for considering murder as entertainment!

The production values are of the highest order as usual & certainly better than most stuff made for British TV at the moment, Dorney Court in Dorney in Berkshire was used as Bantling Hall & also appeared in Strangler's Wood (1999) as 'The Fox & Goose Hotel', Gommes Forge & the surrounding cottages in Loosley Row in Buckinghamshire was used as a location while the Causton Race Course was in reality Windsor Race Course in Berkshire. The makers even managed to include a local fund raising medieval jousting reenactment complete with period costumes & the music is great as always. There are four murders in Bantling Boy, while none are particularly graphic there's a bit of blood, the murders take place at night & they are staged in a nice spooky sort of way. The acting is top notch & everyone gives a good performance including a creepy little kid.

Bantling Boy is one of those Midsomer Murders mysteries that I am fond of, the sort where's plenty of dead bodies & a crazy out-of-nowhere motive behind them that you'd never guess. Surely Bantling Boy is one of the better episodes from the eighth season?