THE AXEMAN COMETH
First Broadcast: February 2, 2007
Barnaby is impressed when blues guitarist Jack 'Axeman' McKinley rolls into Causton with his waiflike daughter Willow for a reunion of the band Hired Gun. Drummer Nicky Harding and alcoholic diva Mimi Clifton join him to play at the Midsomer Rocks Festival. The band is staying at the country pad of lead singer Gary Cooper - Badgers Hall.
The band is missing one member - Ginger Foxton, who disappeared 30 years ago after driving his car into a quarry. When Gary finds a dead sheep, a disembowelled pig and then a skinned rabbit, he becomes paranoid that someone is trying to stop the reunion and won't be consoled by his butler Hobson and PA Serena.
Gary's neighbours, Desmond Harcourt and his younger wife Finola, are angry that he wants to end the lease of their cottage, especially as they originally owned the manor house. Finola offers to give Gary elocution lessons - and sleep with him - if he'll let them stay on.
Barnaby is surprised to see another old face in town - DI Owen Jenkins, who headed the inquiry into Ginger's disappearance. But when Barnaby talks to Axeman, his hero humiliates him. Cully meets Hired Gun's manager, Simon Dixon, and the attraction is instant. But as the festival opens, tragedy strikes as Mimi drops dead on stage.
Barnaby suspects foul play when he finds a hole drilled in the stage. Could Mimi have been electrocuted by a live wire? Gary believes the killer meant to get him and tells Barnaby he is sure it's Ginger, back again.
Axeman apologies to Barnaby when he realises he is a detective and they have a quick jam session on the guitar. Then Axeman's motorbike bursts into flames after someone punctures the carburettor.
Jones discovers Gary has been borrowing money from a songwriting royalties fund set up for him and Ginger, while Nicky gets drunk on a night out with Axeman and Simon. While Simon meets up with Cully, Axeman puts Nicky in the limo, and goes to bed with Nicky's wife Jeannie. The next morning, the limo is in the swimming pool and Nicky is dead.
Jenkins is convinced he's solved the case from his retirement home, but could Gary be right about Ginger's involvement in the murders? Or could the band's groupies from the 60s hold the answer?
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DCI Tom Barnaby
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John Nettles
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| DS Ben
Jones
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Jason Hughes
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| Joyce
Barnaby
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Jane Wymark
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| Cully
Barnaby
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Laura Howard
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| Dr. George
Bullard
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Barry
Jackson
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| Axeman The one-time laughing, wild man of rock 'n' roll, Axeman was the leader guitarist with Hired Gun. Although now teetotal, he still works hard at his hardman image. | James
Cosmo
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| Willow Willow is 21 but sometimes appears more like a 12-year-old. Waiflike and disturbed, she is a constant companion to her father, who looks after her. | Fiona
Button
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| Nicky Harding Nicky is the chirpy but bitter drummer with Hired Gun who is now rather deaf. He drives a limo. | Michael
Angelis
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| Jeannie Harding In her 40s, Jeannie is Nicky's blousey wife. | Rachael
Davies
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| DI Owen Jenkins A retired Welsh detective inspector who worked with Barnaby many years ago. He is now living in the Cedar's Retirement Home in Midsomer. | Philip
Madoc
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| Gary Cooper In his 50s, Gary is the former lead singer of Hired Gun who now lives in style at Badgers Hall in Midsomer. He's rather effete, pretentious and asthmatic, and has become increasingly paranoid. | Phil
Davis
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| Desmond Harcourt Desmond now lives in the cottage outside the gates of Badgers Hall, but he was once lord of the manor before a financial crisis forced him to sell to Gary. He's bitter and unpleasant. | Rupert
Vansittart
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| Finola Harcourt Desmond's younger wife Finola is very attractive and sardonic. She enjoys seeing her husband humiliated but has her own ways of getting what she wants. | Tilly
Blackwood
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| Mimi Clifton A well-worn rock diva, Mimi is reliant on alcohol to get her through the day. | Suzi
Quatro
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| James Hobson Hobson is Gary's butler and manservant who attends to his master's every need. He is almost the gentleman's gentleman. | David
Horovitch
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| Simon Dixon Son of Hired Gun's original manager, Simon is following in his late father's footsteps and making his way as the band's new boss. | Sam Hazeldine
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| Serena Stanton Gary's PA, Serena is scheming and sexy. | Robin Weaver
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| Ingrid
Peterson
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Annie
Lambert
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| Cedric
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Bryan Matheson
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| Roadie
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Ford
Kenyon
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| Screenplay
by
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Michael
Aitkens
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| Directed
by
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Renny
Rye
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| Produced
by
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Brian True-May
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'The Axeman Cometh' was filmed in August and September of 2006, in locations such as Long Crendon, Bucks (Badger's Hall) and Chesham, Bucks (Twinwood Arena).
The episode was first broadcast on 02nd February 2007.
Cully meets her future husband in this episode, Simon Dixon, played by actor Sam Hazeldine (son of the late James Hazeldine who appeared in 'A Talent for Life'). Sam Hazeldine will now become one of the main cast in the series as the wedding between he and Cully shall be filmed in the summer of 2007, an episode of Series 11.
Other pages of interest are: Filming at Chesham, Bucks