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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Midsomer Murders: Secret and Spies is set in the small village of Midsomer Parva where retired spy Sir Malcolm Frazer (Benjamin Whitrow) owns stately home Allenby House & rents it out to the Government as a safe-house for VIPs. The traditional annual cricket match between Allenby House & local Midsomer Parva villagers is fast approaching the latest VIP guest cold war spy Geoffrey Larkin (Clive Wood) volunteers to play but all is not well as tensions rise between various people. The day of the cricket match arrives & Allenby House wins but the celebrations are cut short when Larkin is found dead with his throat ripped out. Local sheep farmer Seth Comfort (Clive Russell) thinks it's the Beast of Midsomer while DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) believes in a more human culprit, however Barnaby is taken off the case by MI6 who take complete control forcing Barnaby to hand in his resignation...Episode 2 from season 12 this Midsomer Murders mystery was directed by Renny Rye & I actually thought Secret and Spies was a fairly mediocre episode that could have been great but isn't. Secret and Spies is one of those Midsomer Murders episode that takes an absolute age to get going, it's not until the thirty fifth minute when Larkin is killed & up to that point it's all scene setting & exposition which is fine but I started to feel like the episode was going round in circles & could have easily been condensed down into fifteen or twenty minutes. Then there's the potential Secret and Spies had which is never really delivered, the fact that MI6 take Barnaby off the case & he resigns could have been a terrific thing to explore & play with but it's all resolved within five minutes as MI6 come begging for Barnaby's help when someone else is murdered so we can chalk that off as a missed opportunity. The plot about British spies who worked in Berlin is alright but a little dull, there are the usual affairs & revenge motives which are hardly groundbreaking. All in all Secret and Spies isn't a terrible episode but it's not that great either, it's a little slow & uneventful & not enough is made of it's stronger aspects. That awful WPC Stephens character makes an appearance here & actually gets promoted to detective.As usual this looks very nice, there are two murders neither of which are graphic although there is a bit of blood & a couple of dead sheep are seen with slashed throats. The location used for Allenby House in Secret and Spies is the same one used in Strangler's Wood (1999) as a hotel & in Bantling Boy (2005). The acting is good from an impressive cast including Clive Russell, Clive Wood, Anna Massey, Alice Krige & Peter Davison.Secret and Spies is an average Midsomer Murders episode that is alright but nothing amazing. This feels more like a time waster than a classic.
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