MARKET FOR MURDER
First Broadcast: June 16, 2002
| The
women of Midsomer Market often get together for their Reading Club. They
are: Marjorie Empson, head of the group and recently widowed by the
death of her husband Gerald; Lady Lavinia Chetwood, married to Lord
James Chetwood, who lives in Chetwood House even though they can no
longer afford to mend the leaking roof; Sandra Bradshaw, wife of the
local GP, who helps more than others in the group; Ginny Sharp, recently
divorced and the glamour girl of the village and Tamsin Proctor, wife of
a horrid stockbroker named Selwyn. What the villagers don't know,
however, is that the Reading Club is a facade for the true Investment
Club that the women meet up to discuss. Barnaby and Troy are called to the village by Selwyn, whose car was burnt down purposely the night before. Selwyn was in the car but narrowly missed the explosion. But something far more sinister occurs that evening. Marjorie Empson is battered to death with her own walking stick when her cottage is robbed of her family silver. Barnaby and Troy take charge of an investigation into the death, and are immediately called to Ginny's elegant house, where all the women of the 'Reading' Club have decided to come clean about what the club actually does after the death of Marjorie. |
| Later
on in the day, Lord James Chetwood finds Marjorie's silver outside
Ginny's cottage - while actually watching her sunbathe in her back
garden - and is also unpleased when Selwyn turns up. It appears they are
having an affair. Barnaby doesn't think someone would be stupid enough to throw a vital piece of evidence over their garden wall, until a witness states that they saw Ginny in the lane at night. Barnaby and Troy go back to see Ginny to discover the truth. |
| Ginny
decides to give in. She tells Barnaby that she had received a package
containing a bathrobe from The Feathers Hotel. This is the hotel where
she and Selwyn meet up - and a odd question from Marjorie had led Ginny
to wonder if she was being spied on by the woman. Angry, she stormed
over to Marjorie's cottage and asked if she was being spied on. The talk
turned to row and Marjorie began swinging her stick madly around at
Ginny and the room, which probably caused the room to look like it was
robbed. Then she left after being thrown out, but she promises Marjorie
was alright when she left her. So who came back, battered Marjorie to
death, and took her family silver to fake a break-in? Ginny finds herself the next victim in the night when she is attacked in her pool with an ashtray. Who is killing off the members of the Reading Club in turn, or is it one of the remaining women themselves?
|
|
DCI
Tom Barnaby |
John
Nettles |
|
DS
Gavin Troy |
Daniel
Casey |
|
Joyce
Barnaby |
Jane
Wymark |
|
Dr.
George Bullard |
Barry
Jackson |
|
Marjorie
Empson |
Barbara
Leigh-Hunt |
|
Lady
Lavinia Chetwood |
Angela
Thorne |
|
Lord
James Chetwood |
Anton
Rodgers |
|
Sandra
Bradshaw |
Gerda
Stevenson |
|
Dr.
Rupert Bradshaw |
Christopher
Ravenscroft |
|
Ginny
Sharp |
Serena
Gordon |
|
Tamsin
Proctor |
Caroline
Harker |
|
Selwyn
Proctor |
Rupert
Vansittart |
|
Harry
Painter |
Jesse
Birdsall |
|
Vera
Hopkins |
Dilys
Laye |
|
Police
Technician |
Jay
Smith |
|
Solo
Voice |
Catherine
Bott |
|
Barman |
Eamon
Geoghegan |
|
--- |
--- |
|
Screenplay |
Andrew
Payne |
|
Director |
Sarah
Hellings |
|
Producer |
Brian
True-May |