Dead Letters is the second episode of the ninth series of the popular ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders and originally aired on 26th February 2006.
Synopsis
It is the first day of Oak Apple Week in Midsomer Barton when Marion Slade, a loner suffering from depression is found drowned. It looks like suicide, driven by grief for her dead daughter, a former carnival queen. DCI Barnaby and DC Jones investigate, but was it suicide or murder? During the investigation, Barnaby is astonished by the appearance of two villagers who look like murder victims from his past. When another body is found, it appears the festivities have stirred up a cocktail of adultery, unrequited love, and revenge in the village.
Plot
Barnaby and Jones investigate the death of Marian Slade who is found face down in a stream just a short walk from the Midsomer Barton village fête. Oddly, Barnaby encounters a woman and her son who bear a striking resemblance to a pair who were murdered nine years earlier. They soon discover another body, that of Slade's neighbor, Mark Castle. Both victims had been sedated with the same drug, leading to the conclusion that they were killed by the same person. The motive for the crime is related to the death of Slade's daughter Bella many years before and an abortion that everyone has kept secret all these years.
Cast
- John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby
- Jason Hughes as DC Ben Jones
- Jane Wymark as Joyce Barnaby
- Barry Jackson as Dr. George Bullard
- Elizabeth Spriggs as Ursula Gooding
- David Bamber as John Starkey
- Claire Askam as Marion Slade
- Tom Bennett as Rob Pride
- Richard Cant as Alistair Gooding
- Jenny Jackson as Vicki
- Tom Georgeson as Ron Chalk
- Tracy Brabin as Ruth Chalk
- Simon Callow as Dr. Wellow
- Caroline Goodall as Grace Starkey
- Sophie Thompson as April Gooding
- Paul Ireland as Mark Castle
- Louise Breckon-Richards as Helen Castle
- Cally Hamilton as Sadie Castle
- Clemmie Hooton as Phoebe
- Alice Knight as Queen of Hearts
- Josef Lindsay as Robin Hood
- Sarah Pritchard as Bella
Galleries
Body Count
Prior to the Episode
Died from complications of having an abortion 8 years ago.
In the Episode
Drugged and then drowned in a stream.
Drugged and throat slashed with his own knife.
Stabbed numerous times.
Supporting Cast
Episode Images
Video
Midsomer Murders Series 9 Episode 2 - Dead Letters Preview
Notes
- Elizabeth Spriggs and Richard Cant who played in The Killings at Badger's Drift as Iris and Dennis Rainbird return to Midsomer Murders to play in this episode as Ursula and Alistair Gooding which are Iris's sister and Dennis's cousin respectively.
- It is revealed that Jones used to come to the Oak Apple Week fête when he was a kid.
- In both this episode and in The Killings at Badger's Drift, another tie is that the person already dead at the beginning of each was called Bella.
- Near the end of the episode, a novel by Jezebel Tripp, a character who appeared in the series 7 episode Sins of Commission, is shown in the Midsomer Barton Library where Alistair Gooding works.
The following actors and actresses who appeared in this episode have appeared in other episodes
- Richard Cant - The Killings at Badger's Drift
- Elizabeth Spriggs - The Killings at Badger's Drift
- Josef Lindsay - Secrets and Spies
- David Bamber - The Black Book and A Dying Art
- Simon Callow - The Curse of the Ninth
- Caroline Goodall - The Killings of Copenhagen