The Electric Vendetta (2 Sep. 2001)

The body of a criminal is found in a crop circle, the locals blame Extra-Terrestrail activity for the death. Barnaby is not convinced by the theories. A second criminal is found dead in similar circumstances.

Director:

Peter Smith

Writers:

Caroline Graham (characters), Terry Hodgkinson (screenplay)

Stars:

John Nettles, Daniel Casey, Jane Wymark

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
John Nettles	...	DCI Tom Barnaby
Daniel Casey	...	Sgt. Gavin Troy
Jane Wymark	...	Joyce Barnaby
Patrick Baladi	...	Steve Ramsey
Daisy Bates	...	Lucy Ramsey
Michael Bertenshaw	...	Michael Rycroft
Graham Bill	...	Driver
Jonie Broom	...	Dave Hedges
Kenneth Colley	...	Lloyd Kirby
Amy Darcy	...	Young Isabel
Alison Fiske	...	Beatrice Chatwyn
Donald Gee	...	Reverend Ellis
Nigel Harrison	...	Dave Ripert
Ursula Howells	...	Lady Isabel Aubrey
Merelina Kendall	...	Miss Alice Leonard

Storyline

While the some of the residents of Midsomer Parva have a particular interest in the appearance of crop circles, the police have a definite interest when the bodies of naked men start appearing in them. Local UFOlogist Lloyd Kirby preaches that extra-terrestrials are at work, but Barnaby looks to more earthly explanations. The first victim, Ronnie Stokes, was a criminal with several serious convictions for assault while the second, Eddie Field, was a local burglar who had only just been released from prison and who may have committed another burglary the night of his death. Both men were electrocuted and were killed elsewhere, with their bodies moved to the crop circles. When a third man is electrocuted, Barnaby must learn of a complex series of events and inter-relationships, some from 40 years previously when two men loved the same woman, to solve the crimes.

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Plot Keywords:

crop circle | midsomer | electrocution | murder | ufo | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 September 2001 (UK)

Filming Locations:

Stanton St. John, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

A&E Television Networks, Bentley Productions, Chrysalis Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 99 min (DVD)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The elderly Peter, Marquis of Ross, is played by Laurence Penry-Jones. His son Peter Penry-Jones plays the marquis as a young man, forty years earlier in flashback.

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Goofs

Barnaby holds a golf club with a rubber handle to the electrified items and an arc results. If the handle was rubber then no current would flow and no arc would be generated.

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Quotes

Dave Hedges: [standing over dead body on autopsy table] You're right. He was electrocuted.
DCI Tom Barnaby: Whatever happened to good old-fashioned shooting?
Sgt. Gavin Troy: [sarcastically] Maybe this is the new green way to zap your victims - no blood, no guts, just fried brains.

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Crazy Credits

Eagle Comic reproduced by kind permission of Dan Dare Corporation Ltd.

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Connections

References Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

User Reviews

The worst Midsomer Murders episode ever? Maybe.

Midsomer Murders: The Electric Vendetta is set in Midsomer Parva where Sir Harry Chatwyn (John Woodvine) owns a farm, one day while out shooting partridge's he finds the dead body of hardened London criminal Ronald Stokes in a crop circle in one of his wheat fields. DCI Tom Barnaby & Sgt. Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) are on the case, Stokes was found naked with a tuft of hair shaven off the back of his head & two small puncture wounds at the base of his spine which according to local Ufologist Lloyd Kirby (Kenneth Colley) points to extra terrestrial activity. The autopsy reveals Stokes died from being electrocuted but why place the body in a crop circle & why make it look like alien abduction? Then that night another body turns up in a crop circle bearing all the marks of extra terrestrial activity, that of Eddie Fields a local petty criminal. What's the connection? Is there one? Are these deaths the result of aliens or are the culprits closer to home? Barnaby has to figure it out & get to truth...

Episode 3 from season 4 this Midsomer Murders mystery was directed by Peter Smith & one has to say that for my money The Electric Vendetta is probably the worst Midsomer Murders episode to date that I have seen, from the pure brilliance of the previous episode Destroying Angel (2001) to the mess that is this The Electric Vendetta it's a huge contrast. The script by Terry Hodgkinson goes into The X-Files (1993 - 2002) territory basing a lot of it's plot around crop circles & starts off quite brightly with Barnaby having to solve some deaths that point to alien activity, the two bodies found in the crop circles with identical marks having both been electrocuted is a nice hook & to be fair to it the episode only really falls apart towards the end when the body of Lloyd Kirby is found. For a start why did the killer place Kirby in a crop circle? They were going to fly to Amsterdam the next day so why draw attention to yourself? Just hide the body where no-one will find it for at least a day or two & by the time it is found they would have been in Amsterdam living off some tasty profits from stolen gear. It just didn't sit well with me at all & the body wasn't marked like the previous two anyway so what were they trying to achieve exactly? Then there's the infamous production goof in which the body of Eddie Fields is never explained other than he was electrocuted trying to steal electricity for a run down foundry from power cables which is fine but it's never explained who put the body in the crop circle, who made the marks or even how they knew what marks to make on his body & he is completely forgotten about. John Neetles has said in interviews that the explanation was lost in an editing mistake which is doesn't really cut it for me. You can't have a multiple murder mystery & leave one of the death's unsolved especially in such bizarre circumstances. Did no-one actually not watch The Electric Vendetta before it was aired & pick up on this glaring error? Also the endings a bit rubbish, did Troy catch Sally Boulter? What was she charged with? Did she admit it or not? It's a shame because otherwise it's a pretty good episode for the first 70 odd minutes with the usual absorbing plot & I liked how different people were responsible for each of the death's.

During The Electric Vendetta Barnaby & Troy break into a house to search it but can't leave because it's all wired up with electricity, I'm not being funny but that's an illegal search & constitutes breaking & entering. If the owner of the house had made a fuss Barnaby & Troy would have almost certainly lost their jobs because technically they broke the law & you can't have the police breaking the law can you. As usual this looks the business, the real life village of Stanton St. John in Oxfordshire was used as the location of Midsomer Parva. There are four death's in The Electric Vendetta with none being particularly graphic & only one going unexplained. This episode also sees some horrible CGI computer effects as Steve is electrocuted & there's a nice Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1979) homage with lots of floating bright white lights in the sky which turn out to be a combine harvester! The acting is strong as always & Amanda Mealing who plays Sally Boulter is as nice to look at as the picturesque scenery.

The Electric Vendetta is maybe my least favourite Midsomer Murders episode because of a really poor ending which doesn't offer as much closure as it should & a body which is never adequately explained & considering this is meant to be a murder mystery surely that's unforgivable. Having said that The Electric Vendetta is three & a half seasons into Midsomer Murders & so far it's been the only really bad episode which isn't bad going at all.