- A new version of 'The Scarlet
Pimpernel' is being shot in Midsomer
- Magna, but the atmosphere off
the set rivals the battles of
- the film. Producer Jack
Braxton and director Nick Cheyney hate each
- other, manor house owners
Terence and Diane Charteris are broke and
- their marriage is on the
rocks, while there's a painful history between
- their daughter Leonie and Cheyney.
-
- DCI Barnaby and DS Jones get
interested in events when they
- tail known thief George Ince
to a meeting at the manor with Jed
- Norris, another ex-con. They
are amazed to discover Norris is employed
- there as a security guard.
-
- Meanwhile Joyce arrives with
a group of residents from The Cedars care
- home who have been drafted in
as cheap extras. Among them is Gwen
- Morrison, an old friend of
Cheyney's who now runs a charity shop with
- Leonie.
- Filming is disrupted when
Raymond Clandillon, a larger-than-life gay
- alcoholic actor arrives,
begging for a role. Cheyney casts him as an
- extra, much to the amusement
of Neville Hayward, the brother of
- Gwen's late husband Ted. At
one point, Raymond, Neville, Gwen and
- Ted were local actors known
as the Four Musketeers, but after Ted died,
- Neville's friendship with
Raymond soured.
-
- Leonie interrupts dinner at
Magna Manor to warn Cheyney to stay
- away from her son Josh. Diane
also threatens him, as does Danny,
- Leonie's partner. Cheyney
laughs it off but, later that night, Jed finds
- him beheaded by the
guillotine, a film prop.
-
- Braxton and Diane have alibis
after they admit spending the
- night together, while Danny
reveals that Josh is Cheyney's son,
- the result of a drunken
night. And according to Neville, Raymond
- blames Cheyney for ruining
his career, while Leonie suggests her
- father will stop at nothing
to make money from Magna Manor.
-
- With such a wide array of
suspects to choose from, Barnaby is
- sure young Josh is central to
the case. Then Bullard reveals
- Cheyney was drugged with
morphine before he was beheaded.
-
- As the complicated
relationships of the Four Musketeers start to
- emerge, there is another
beheading. But who is settling old scores
- and why?