MIDSOMER RHAPSODY
First Broadcast: October 2, 2005
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Retired music teacher Arthur Leggott finds himself sneeking out of the Cedars Nursing Home once more during the night to go back to his cottage. But when he does eventually get there, his skull ends up being cracked by an intruder with a torch. Arthur was very well known for being the music teacher of the late Joan Alder, a famous composer, though most famed for her composition the ‘Midsomer Rhapsody’. Barnaby and Scott conclude that the killer may have been searching for the same thing as Arthur before the murder. Joan still has relatives in Badger’s Drift: her mother, Peggy Alder, about to be wedded to pianist Charlie Speight. Peggy has always seen Joan in a different light to her other daughter, Melody. Melody’s husband, Alan Thorpe, is partly the owner of the Joan Alder Society with Owen Swinscoe. Arthur left all his possessions to the society. |
| During an auction in the village, Barnaby and Scott take time to get to know some of the villagers. They discover Joan’s agent, Laura Crawford, also Joan’s former lover, and Harvey Crane who buys all of Arthur’s box files. During a small scan through all the paperwork, Crane discovers that there is some else’s handwriting on the Midsomer Rhapsody manuscript. Hoping this might be a focal point of interest, he sells it to Owen Swinscoe, until Barnaby and Scott intervene and take it as evidence. |
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The opening of the Joan Alder Living Museum stirs things up when Laura Crawford introduces Joan’s long lost daughter to the crowd, Sarah Douglas. This is most tragic for Peggy and Melody - but then troublemaker Joe Smeeton runs over Hedge outside. Over time, Hedge is discovered to be John Farrow who was thought to be dead when he used to be Joan’s partner. John is Sarah’s father - but Joan never saw him again when he mysteriously disappeared from Austrailia. John’s father, Noah, was angry about the decision he made to be with a woman like Joan and gave his dismissal. John sells a love note Joan sent to him to Owen Swinscoe to raise some money to take out his long-lost daughter. Living in a caravan in the middle of the woods, he is not ideally placed. Swinscoe identifies Joan’s handwriting from the love letter - but then realises it is different from the one on the manuscript. He soon realises it is a forgery, but it is too late to tell Barnaby anything about it when he is pushed off a bridge outside the pub. Barnaby and Scott must delve through the Alder family and recent village affairs to find the key to the door.
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DCI
Tom Barnaby |
John
Nettles |
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DS
Daniel Scott |
John
Hopkins |
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Joyce
Barnaby |
Jane
Wymark |
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Cully
Barnaby |
Laura
Howard |
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Dr.
George Bullard |
Barry
Jackson |
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Peggy
Alder |
June
Whitfield |
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Charlie
Speight |
Trevor
Peacock |
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Valerie
Smeeton |
Julia
Deakin |
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Joe
Smeeton |
Richard
Vanstone |
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Owen
Swinscoe |
Stephen
Boxer |
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Melody
Thorpe |
Belinda
Sinclair |
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Alan
Thorpe |
David
Lyon |
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Arthur
Leggot |
Nicholas
Amer |
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Noah
Farrow |
Frank
Middlemass |
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John
Farrow |
David
Burke |
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Laura
Crawford |
Claire
Higgins |
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Michael
Maybury |
Oliver
Cotton |
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Sarah
Douglas |
Kate
Fleetwood |
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Harvey
Crane |
Christopher
Benjamin |
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Auctioneer |
Malcolm
Raeburn |
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Screenplay |
Richard
Cameron |
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Director |
Richard
Holthouse |
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Producer |
Brian
True-May |
Page Links
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Badger's Drift - |
The Villagers |
| Episode Thoughts - | June Whitfield |
| Episode Thoughts - | Trevor Peacock |