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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Midsomer Murders: Death in Chorus starts in Midsomer Worthy where Joyce Barnaby (Jane Wymark) & Dr George Bullard (Barry Jackson) are both enthusiastic members of the local choir run by the obsessive Reverend Lawrence Barker (Peter Capaldi) who strives for perfection in his attempts to win the annual Four Choir's contest with a rival village Aston Wherry. If bum notes weren't bad enough the lead tenor & local artist Connor Simpson (Patrick Drury) faints mid choir practise & then is found brutally beaten to death at his home later on that night. DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) & DC Ben Jones (Jason Hughes) are on the case & since Barnaby's wife Joyce is a member of the choir he has a head start & some inside information. The case goes nowhere fast but then out of the blue local photographer & bird watcher Sam Judd (John Cording) is also found brutally murdered, with more questions than answers Barnaby has his work cut out to catch a killer...Episode 7 from season 9 this Midsomer Murders mystery was actually the 50th episode of the series to be made & was directed by Sarah Hellings & is a decent enough entry in the series although it's not the worst episode ever it's hardly the best either, I certainly think fans of the show will like it anyway. The murder plot here in Death in Chorus is pretty good, it's not a classic murder plot or one of the more memorable ones but it works well enough with forgery, gambling debts, conspiracies, affairs, threats & choir practise taking center stage. There really isn't much to say about Death in Chorus, fans of the show will know what to expect & won't be disappointed although it's never explained why Sam Judd was going to hand those photo's over to Carolyn or the significance of the killer sending Connor the pig's heart but everything works well enough. There's a few red herrings & some sub-plots to keep one interested that do come together quite nicely. The killers identity isn't too obvious & I doubt most would figure it out although they don't get much screen time before they are revealed so we, the audience, are never really given a chance of working it out. Death in Chorus reveals that DC Jones is in fact a superb tenor & both Joyce & Bullard sing together in a local choir, for those interested in series continuity & the like Death in Chrous is the first & only time in Midsomer Murders that Bullard's wife Kath is seen.The production values are top notch as usual, there are two murders in Death in Chorus with neither being particularly graphic although a pig's heart is seen. The real life location used for the Church where choir practise takes place was in Denham in Buckinghamshire & is in fact the same location later used in Blood Wedding (2008) from season eleven where Barnaby's daughter Cully gets married. The acting is pretty good from all involved as usual.Death in Chorus is a fine example of a great murder mystery telly show, it's not up there with the show's best episodes but it's not too far behind & Midsomer Murders fans should like all the same.
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