The enduring English vision of Midsomer Murders still captivates the world

It’s a humid Tuesday afternoon and I’m strolling with my wife through Hanoi’s thick air. I am enveloped by smells and sights, some of which I’ve never seen before and some I’d happily not see again (captive turtles trying to wriggle free of their nets, for example). Through the haze, I hear a distant ‘Jamie! Jamie!’ You might notice, from the byline of this article, that is not my name. It is, however, a name I know; the name of a character I’ve played for a decade in ITV’s much-loved detective show, Midsomer Murders.

As the woman approached, I was hit by the glee in her face as she declared herself a massive fan of both the show and my character. I asked her where she was from and how she knew the show, before digesting a ten-bird-roast of an answer. She was Thai, but lived in Belgium with her Dutch husband, and she had found the show whilst living in Belgium, but her husband, who works a lot in Sweden, discovered it there. The fact she then bumped into me, a Brit in Vietnam, is one of the most international coincidences I’ve ever experienced and certainly speaks to the very unique nature of this TV behemoth.

I like to think of Midsomer Murders as an iceberg. The tip you see poking above the water is the origins of the show; its British creators and its home on ITV for 29 years and 26 seasons. It’s a well-loved show that happily draws in 3-4 million viewers whenever it airs on primetime even without much pre-warning — a show more associated with cups of tea with granny than champagne and the BAFTAs. However, its below-the-surface existence, unseen to most of its homeland, is its gargantuan international audience, something that no doubt keeps ITV and All3Media (the show’s creators) very well fed and watered. The show is the most internationally exported British TV show in the world in terms of territories – watched in more than 200, from deep Down Under in Australia and New Zealand up to Canada, across to Japan and taking in almost every European country in the middle. It is quietly one of British culture's most valuable assets.

But, as a (pretend) Detective Sergeant, it’s in my nature to ask why? Why is it so popular abroad? And how has it endured for nearly 30 years?

I believe, if I may, that its international appeal is due to three major factors. First, the perennial appeal of the ‘whodunnit’ and, secondly, those everlasting themes that go beyond lexicon: love, death, marriage, jealousy, plotting, family — the Greeks knew this, as did the Romans and even Shakespeare. They all knew that people could relate to these central tenets of humanity and the thing about Midsomer (yes, I just compared it to Shakespeare) is that it has all those themes laced through every single episode, framed by a simple whodunnit. These are the strongest and most universal ideas in storytelling.

Thirdly, and not to sound too Churchillian, the historic and nostalgic global idea of Britain, specifically rural Britain – the home of afternoon tea, red phone boxes, village greens, pretty churches — the Green and Pleasant land of Brunel, Elgar, Capability Brown and Just William. This whimsical ideal gives an audience permission to leave out deeper political or cultural differences and instead embrace a purer, simpler idea of somewhere. What’s also so appealing about that concept is that it’s both historic and current — this version of Britain still exists, allowing the show to avoid seeming like a pastiche, nor does it lean into Zeitgeist. We don’t reference current affairs or public figures, and we don’t do an annual Christmas special. I feel like over the years the writers and producers have somehow managed to make the show feel like it’s always new whilst remaining exactly the same – that’s not easy to do.

The great Neil Dudgeon, aka DCI Barnaby, and I were recently in Cannes celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the show and as ever were repeatedly asked the same question. It’s the never-ending query of the world’s press and fans alike: How has the show endured for more than 30 years?

I believe it’s about continuity – audiences crave new shows and new ideas of course, but there will always be a need for stability, a show you can sit down with and know what you’re going to get — the world is topsy-turvy enough as it is and sometimes people want a safe pair of hands to soothe them. Midsomer is that pair of hands. It’s no coincidence that during the Pandemic, shows such as Friends had a huge spike in viewership as people sought out comfort, and Midsomer was the same; international channels went through their content at such a rate that we prolonged our shoot rather than cut it short.

How do I know about all these international fans? The answer is simple: we meet them. And not on press tours in their home countries, but in the very villages and streets we film in. What is little known to the UK public is the quantity of foreign companies that now organise coach trips and holidays based around the filming locations of the show. I’ve met people from New Orleans, Nashville, New Zealand, Finland and Germany on the quaint streets of Dorchester-on-Thames, Hurley, Turville Heath and Beaconsfield. For the domestic tourist, there are also ‘Midsomer Tours’ in Marlow, Thame and Henley-on-Thames solely built around filming locations. These can be done on foot or even by bike and pubs have now been known to place a plaque on the door if they are a well-known location. Sadly, neither I, nor any of the team, have any financial affiliation to these tours.

What’s most wonderful for us and for the fans is when they actually come upon us filming an episode, because of course we don’t film in one place for a whole series, we are in a location for a matter of days before moving on, so the chances of actually seeing us filming are pretty miniscule. My first experience of this was in the idyllic Little Missenden (a village in which I’m pretty sure I’ve been in every house on the main street), and a Kiwi family stumbled upon us. When they said where they were from, I instantly asked what they were doing out here — assuming they were site seeing or visiting family before tacking on a little jaunt to see some Midsomer locations. But no, it was the opposite. They had tacked on trips to London, Oxford and seeing family around a purpose-built road trip taking in the quaint rural idylls of Midsomer. And I thought, actually if you want to tour a bucolic version of the British countryside, how do you do that? Google pretty villages and try and visit some? Seemingly by accident, the location managers of Midsomer Murders have created a ‘greatest hits of the English countryside’ within an hour or two of London. Plot them on a map and join the dots and you have yourself a ready-made road trip.

It’s the unique quirk of being an actor that you never know how a job is going to be or where it will take you. I have peers who have shot films they thought would win awards that never get released, as well as those who thought they’d take a punt on a new play and ended up at the Olivier Awards. When I got this job back in 2016 it was a 3-year contract in a show that was well loved and well respected and would be a great step on a nicely accelerating career. I assumed I’d be elsewhere before long. But as I begin my 8th season over 10 years, I look back at a job that has given me consistency and security — things that are the antithesis of a creative existence. That widespread international audience is inextricably linked to that consistency as I‘m aware a big part of our recommissioning is thanks to that wider following.

On a more personal level, I have also been fortunate enough to set up a side career as a travel and automotive journalist, owed, at least at its inception, to the appeal of the show that I’m in. So, as I sit here at the wonderful IKOS Olivia hotel in Greece, sipping on a delicious Negroni, I do so as a journalist reviewing the hotel, not just an actor on holiday. There are so many layers to my life that I never would’ve imagined gaining from an acting job.

Without wishing to sound like a 20-year-old Los Angeles barista, I’m full of gratitude for one Caroline Graham – the British woman who wrote the books on which the series is based. Unbeknownst to her, more than 30 years ago she created something that the whole world now enjoys - whether it’s known as Inspecteur Barnaby (FR), L’Ispettore Barnaby (ITA), Убийства в Мидсомере (RUS), Ubojstva u Midsomeru (CRO), Midsomerin murhat (FIN), or ミッドサマー殺人事件 (JAP).