Publisher's Synopsis
A collection of ten episodes of the long-running ITV crime series starring John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. In 'Dance With the Dead', young lovers Simon Bright (Edward Davenport) and Laura Sharp (Lizzy Watts) are kissing in the back seat of a Humber car in a disused aircraft hangar. The next morning, Simon Bright's body is discovered there by Frances Kirby (Felicity Dean) while out for her morning jog. There is no sign of Laura. Barnaby suspects that Simon may have been involved in a suicide pact; however, the evidence tells a different story. In 'The Animal Within', retired society photographer Rex Masters (Richard Johnson) disappears as his niece Faith Alexander (Lisa Eichhorn) arrives on a visit from America. Miles King (David Troughton), Rex's gardener, is shocked when he meets Faith, as Rex told everyone that Faith and her entire family had died in a plane crash a year before. The following morning, Rex's body is discovered in Crofter's Weir. Barnaby and Jones (Edward Davenport) delve into the village's past to uncover the truth. In 'King's Crystal', the village of Midsomer Magna is devastated by the closure of the King's Crystal glassware factory. The closure comes after the seemingly accidental death of co-owner Alan King (David Firth). The factory workers are left jobless and, with no financial security, begin to rail against accountant Peter Baxter (Ray Lonnen) and remaining co-owner Charles King (John Castle) about their redundancies. When Baxter's body is found in the water meadows, stabbed to death with a Masonic dagger, Jones suggests suicide, but pathologist Dr Bullard (Barry Jackson) and Barnaby suspect foul play. In 'The Axeman Cometh', a blues festival at Badger's Drift attracts Hired Gun, a band Barnaby used to follow. However, events take a deadly turn after the band members start dropping dead. In 'Death And Dust', Barnaby discovers that £30,000 is missing from the surgery accounts while investigating the hit and run death of a local doctor. Could it be that the dead doctor's partner was the real target? In 'Picture of Innocence', Barnaby himself is implicated in a murder when a photo of him in a passionate embrace with another woman is put on display - shortly before the woman's estranged husband is strangled. In 'Shot at Dawn', a 90-year-old feud comes to a head when the name of a soldier shot for cowardice after the Battle of the Somme appears on the war memorial at Midsomer Parva. Soon after, a retired colonel is shot dead, and Barnaby and Jones discover dangerous secrets connecting two families. In 'They Seek Him Here', a film about the French Revolution is being made in Midsomer. When people start losing their heads in the guillotine, it turns out to be more than just a special effect... In 'Death in a Chocolate Box', Barnaby meets up with an ex-colleague who now helps run a halfway house for reformed offenders - but the reunion is cut short when his friend's body is discovered the next morning. Finally, in 'Blood Wedding', the Maid of Honour at a society wedding is found brutally murdered. With his own daughter's wedding to plan, Barnaby starts feeling the heat when, a few days later, yet another guest at the wedding is found dead.
