Death's Shadow

Infobox Television episode
Series=Midsomer Murders
Title=Death's Shadow
Season=2
Episode=1
Airdate=20 January, 1999
Writer=Anthony Horowitz
Director=Jeremy Silberston
Prev=Death in Disguise
Next=Strangler's Wood
Episode list = List of Midsomer Murders episodes

Death's Shadow is the first episode of the second season of "Midsomer Murders" and the sixth episode overall. It stars John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby and Daniel Casey as Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy.

ummary

An unpopular property developer Richard Bayly is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour, but then found dead in his home the next day, decapitated by an Indian sword. The development of a new residential home seems to be the reason, but after two more deaths, could the answer be lurking thirty years in the past...

Cast of Characters

Richard Bayly (Dominic Jephcott) - Property developer with major enemies in the village, as a result of his plans for renovating local landmark Tye House.

Ian Eastman (Nick Dunning) - Estate agent with a grudge against Bayly for turning down his offer on Tye House.

Brenda Eastman (Jessica Turner) - Ian's mousy wife.

Agnes Sampson (Vivian Pickles) - Retired headmistress, who once taught Richard. An eccentric, she ardently protested against the development of Tye House.

Claire Williams (Anna Cropper) - Retired postmistress and Agnes's sister.

Reginald Williams (Gordon Gostelow) - Retired postmaster and Claire's husband.

David Whitely (Christopher Villiers) - Builder hoping to buy Tye House from Bayly.

Simon Fletcher (Julian Wadham) - Theatre director and head of a drama class attended by Tom's daughter Cully Barnaby, providing her character with a potential love interest. He is haunted by dark, mysterious memories from his childhood.

Reverend Stephen Wentworth (Richard Briers) - The local vicar, whose jovial veneer hides a tortured soul. He has been left deeply unhappy by his demanding wife Angela's constant meddling in his career.

Angela Wentworth (Judy Parfitt) - Stephen's wife, who greatly resents her husband's lack of ambition and often shows her displeasure through cruel, sarcastic remarks.

Filming Locations

Death's Shadow was filmed from 29 July to 29 August 1998 in the following villages [cite web|url=http://www.midsomermurders.net/episodes_series2.php |title=Episode Guide, Series 2] :

# Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire
# Bledlow, Buckinghamshire
# Hyde Lane, Buckinghamshire
# The Lee, Buckinghamshire
# Rotherfield Peppard, Oxfordshire
# Thame, Oxfordshire
# Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Plot Conclusion

:"The following section contains plot details."

40 years before the present, Reverend Stephen Wentworth had an affair with teenage postal worker Jennifer Bryce, who bore a son by him, Felix. However, when he was 10, Felix was found hanging in the woods, and everybody believed it was suicide. Jennifer died of grief shortly afterwards, and nobody ever found out Stephen was the father; he and his wife Angela covered up the scandal to save his career. However, upon (mistakenly) hearing he might soon pass away from a brain tumour, Richard Bayly confessed to Stephen what really happened, not realising he was the boys father. 30 years before, Bayly, David Whitely, Simon Fletcher and Ian Eastman were schoolchildren who had their own secret club, The Sign of Four. Felix asked if he could join, so they put him through a series of trials to see if he was 'worthy', one of which involved standing on a chair in the woods, alone, with a noose around his neck, but the test backfired disastrously when the chair fell over and Felix hanged. The four children subsequently covered up their involvement, and had to lived with their guilt for decades. Furious, Stephen sought revenge against the men who 'murdered' his son, indirectly killing Jennifer Bryce, the only woman he ever loved. Upon being denounced by Barnaby, the vengeful vicar threw himself off the church tower while his wife Angela watched from below, horrified.

The first indication of his guilt comes during Stephen's memorial service for Bayly, when he claimed that 'he has paid the price, as we must all pay'. Barnaby reveals in the end that he thought it was a curious statement to make, but of course in the Reverend's mind Bayly really had paid the price. After he killed the property developer with his own Indian sword, Stephen climbed back into bed, turned the alarm clock back thirty-five minutes and woke up his wife, asking her the time so she would remember it, providing him with an alibi for the time of the murder. Finally, the vicar's "modus operandi" also had a distinctly Biblical feel, particularly Old Testament; the sword, the fire he killed Whitely with and the arrow he used on Fletcher during the village fate.

The Deaths

# Felix Bryce - hangs himself accidentally
# Richard Bayly - beheaded with sword
# David Whitely - burns to death in caravan
# Simon Fletcher - shot with arrow
# Rev. Steven Wentworth - jumps from church steeple

References

External links

* [http://www.midsomermurders.net/episodes_series2.php Episode Guide at Midsomer Murders.net]
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