Stage show takes Midsomer Murders back to where it all began
Midsomer Murders goes on stage for the first time ever by returning to the story with which it all started on TV all those years ago: The Killings at Badger's Drift.
It plays Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre from January 27-31 and the Theatre Royal Brighton from February 3-7, promising “eccentric villagers, shocking twists and an unforgettable reveal.”
When well-loved spinster Emily Simpson is found dead in the picturesque village of Badger’s Drift, her friend Lucy Bellringer refuses to accept it was an accident. DCI Tom Barnaby and Sergeant Gavin Troy are called in to investigate, uncovering a world of hidden passions, long-buried secrets and deadly rivalries…
Playing Lucy Bellringer plus three other roles is Julie Legrand who is delighted with the way the tour has started. Speaking during the show’s Christmas break, she said: “We have done five weeks. We are now letting pantomime take over and then we come back and we tour for another six months going all over the country, going everywhere.
“And joyfully what the first five weeks have told us is that it is absolutely loved by the audiences. From Malvern to Richmond to Sheffield to Eastbourne, the reaction has been one of delight throughout. I hadn't realised the international standing of Midsomer Murders. On our very first night in Richmond we had the Midsomer Murders Society come in and there were people flying in from all over the place, from Australia and America and Germany.”
As for the show itself: “We are doing the original novel which was the original TV episode. Caroline Graham wrote five or six Midsummer Murder novels, and the original producer wanted John Nettles who had just completed Bergerac and was at the RSC. He didn't think he wanted to do another detective series but when he read it, he knew he wanted to do it.”
And the great fun now for this first-ever stage adaptation is that Daniel Casey, who created the role of Sergeant Troy in the original on TV all those years ago, now returns to play the John Nettles role, Inspector Tom Barnaby.
“I had certainly watched it over the years but I've never been in it! But it is still going so maybe it is possible one day to do the double!”
As for its popularity, Julie says: “I think we are all fascinated by whodunits but it also combines a quintessential idea of Britishness which up to a point I just don't think we have anymore. Our episode was written in 87 and was filmed in 97 and it still has that hankering back to another age, the life of the village as it used to be in this country. It is another world. It is a much gentler world… up to a point and then they have all these ghastly murders!”
And again that harks back: “A lot of our current detective heroes are much more troubled souls but Barnaby is a much more centred person, a happily married family man and a kind man who is not a centre of trouble in himself. And there is also a level of comedy in Midsomer Murders which I think our writer has turned the dial up on.”
Part of the attraction is that there something inherently theatrical in the television series: “You have got this idyllic setting, and I do think that that lends itself to theatre when these awful things happen. Plus it is really great that we've got Daniel now, a glorious circle, the original Troy agreeing to be the first stage Barnaby.”
The challenge for Julie is that she's playing not one, not two, not three but four characters. As she says there's a whole other drama going on off stage with a series of quick changes which she has to do, ending up as the vicar who… well, that would be giving away far too much!