Midsomer Murders Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Garden of Death is the first episode of the fourth series of the popular ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders and was first aired 10th September 2000.

Synopsis[]

Barnaby and Troy investigate the murder of Fliss Inkpen-Thomas in the village of Midsomer Deverell. Her mother Elspeth owns the local manor house and is very much disliked in the village for her plans to close a memorial garden on the Manor grounds and open a tea room. There is a neighbour who already dislikes the trouble tourists cause; the daughter of the architect who designed the garden some years previously; the manor's gardener with whom both mother and daughter had been having an affair; and a second daughter, Hilary, whom Fliss tormented at every opportunity. When a second member of the Inkpen family is murdered, Barnaby believes the murders have a far different motive.

Plot[]

5 years ago.... creepy music and a wheelbarrow being pushed. A body dumped in a grave.

Present day: Daniel Bolt and Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas are making out in the garden. Her daughter, Felicity (Fliss) Inkpen-Thomas, sees them and is disgusted. "Oh for god's sake," she exclaims..

"Morning Mrs. Inkpen. I hear more changes are afoot at the family at the family seat," says Charles King from his car. She ignores him..."Odious little upstart," says Naomi Inkpen.

Rodney Widger is cleaning his golf club in his house when there is honking outside his house. Cars are crowding the lane outside of the Inkpen Manor Gardens entrance. DCI Tom Barnaby and his wife, Joyce Barnaby, enter the gardens. "The Inkpens have been here since the Reformation," says Joyce. "But not long enough to organize a decent car park, have they?" says Barnaby. "Naomi had to sell 25 years ago. Her husband died, left her penniless. A stockbroker called Gerald Bennett bought the place. They're back of course, now, the Inkpens." says Joyce. "How do you know all this?" Desmond Cox who delivers their organic meat.

Back at Inkpen Manor, Fliss comes in and Elspeth shows her a rose.. "Daniel just gave me this," she says to Fliss. "Apparently you were making some kind of point? About ageing mothers? Well, you know what they say, dear - the old varieties smell the sweetest." Her other daughter, Hilary Inkpen walks in with pamphlets. "Take those to the ticket office, Hilary, we're nearly out," says Elspeth.

Joyce remarks about some flowers in the Inkpen garden, "I haven't seen them before, are they hard to propagate?" Daniel Bolt approaches her. "No, not really, just softwood cuttings from non-flowering shoots. Do you live locally? ..... I'll be doing some of these next week, I could drop you over a few if you like."

Rodney Widger loads his shotgun and starts shooting tourists car tires. One car is parked in front of his house where there is a No Parking sign. Barnaby hears the shooting and goes after him.

Naomi Inkpen tells Elspeth , "I have had enough! If you must fornicate at least have the dignity not to fight like a pair of polecats over the trousers concerned. And as for the garden..." "My garden," says Elspeth . "My garden and my gardener." Naomi replies, "Then face the consequences of your money-grubbing actions."

Jane Bennett arrives home. "Hello, Dad," she calls out.

Desmond is delivering groceries. He tells her about the memorial garden. Elspeth wants to put a tearoom there so they are digging it up. "But she can't," says Jane. "It'll break Dad's heart." He gives her a flyer about the to discuss the issue that evening.

Over at Daniel Bolt's gardening shed, he tastes some liquid in a jar. Two teenagers come by to get some.

Jane stares sadly at the Memorial Garden.

At Inkpen Manor, Hilary asks what is going on between Elspeth and Fliss. Elspeth says, "Pay no attention to your sister, dear. Whatever she says. She's just a bad tempered little madam. I sometimes wish I'd given her up for adoption rather than you." Villagers come to the door. "Oh dear," says Elspeth, "rustics approaching." Desmond tells her not to forget the meeting- village hall at 7:30. "There's really nowhere else I'd rather be, Desmond," replies Elspeth . "I'm just delighted to be the cause of so much excitement. Whoever said the English village was dead?"

At Deverall Manor, Augustus Deverell greets his son, Bishop Richard Deverell. He is unhappy that Richard comes to visit without a driver or chaplain. Augustus plans to go to the meeting at the village hall. The villagers have turned to him. "Nice to be a Deverell where a Deverell should be - central to events."

At Inkpen Manor, Fliss is speaking to Hilary. "Did you know it was your anniversary today? Two years since you walked into our lives here? Into the bosom of your long lost family...Are you still glad you did? All that time and effort in tracing us. Have we been what you'd hoped for?" Hilary has no complaints. "I do understand, Fliss. How it must have been for you when I turned up." Fliss,"You think I'm jealous? Resentful? Do you think I hate you? I don't hate you, I pity you," says Fliss.

Barnaby and Joyce show up at the Village Hall. In the woods, the teens get drunk on the alcohol. At the Village Meeting, villagers enter.

Hilary asks Fliss why she pities her. Because we have different fathers.

Mrs. Inkpen asks Augustus Deverall to move so she can sit with her daughter. He tells her to sit somewhere else. Susan says there are still seats in the back. Naomi says she has not sat "further back" in her life.

Fliss finds a letter in the house.

The vicar's wife Susan Millard calls the meeting to order. Jane Bennett speaks first. "Jane Bennett. Daughter of Gerald Bennett, who created the memorial garden. To dig up that beautiful place, which gives pleasure and sense of community to so many and replace it with a commercial teashop is an act of unspeakable vandalism." The crowd cheers. "And I should just like to ask Mrs Inkpen-Thomas by what right she takes back and destroys what was freely given to this village by my father." The villagers clap.

Elspeth replies, "Miss Bennett asks by what right? Well, the simple answer is the right of ownership. When her father sold Inkpen Manor back to the Inkpens five years ago there were no caveats, no exclusions. Legally the memorial garden is our property. All Mr. Bennett did apart from create it was grant right of access to the villagers. All we are doing is withdrawing the right." Widger walks out in a huff. "And frankly what we Inkpens choose to do in that respect is the business of nobody in this hall tonight. If the village really wants a NAF memorial garden, let them build it somewhere else," says Elspeth. The villagers boo. Jane Bennett runs out.

Back at the Inkpens, Fliss says "I bet you can't wait to turn this into a teashop, being on Mummy's side in everything." Hilary-"Was your father particularly nice then, Fliss? Is that what you meant? I know mine's a mystery but yours, Mum's husband?" "Nice? Good God, no. He ran off and left us aeons ago. Way before we pitched up here. It's an Inkpen tradition, choosing lousy men. Of course, you'll probably end up with Prince Charming," replies Fliss. Hilary says, "But he must have provided. I mean, how could you afford to keep - All this? To regain our heritage?" Fliss smirks, "Riches to rags to riches again? It's a fairy story, darling. We've been so remiss with your education, Hilary." Fliss shows her the letter. "Would you like to know what I really meant?"

Susan calls for order. Sergeant Gavin Troy walks in and joins Barnaby. At the Village Meeting, two drunk teens come in and collapse on the table at the front.

Fliss teases Hilary with the letter. Hilary doesn't want to see it. She runs off crying.

The meeting breaks up. Daniel and Elspeth speak outside. He tells her she didn't have to antagonize the whole village like she did. He walks away. She yells at him. Maybe he's just keeping his options open. There must be someone in the village you haven't slept with.

Fliss is at the garden kicking the ground. She crumbles the letter into a ball. "So much dirt," she says. Ominous music... She gets hit over the head with a shovel.

In the morning, Susan's dog Crispin finds Fliss' dead body lying in the dirt of the memorial garden.

At home, Joyce is looking at flower pictures in a book. Barnaby answers the phone.

Barnaby arrives at the crime scene. Police find a tiny scrap of paper. They interview Susan and she reports the conversation she overhead between Bolt & Elspeth . "Where are you going?" "Back to the garden. I'm a gardener, remember?"

"Did you follow him?" asks Barnaby. "Follow him?" Elspeth "Do you know for certain that he went straight to the garden? There and then?" asks Barnaby. "I do not follow men." Elspeth .

Troy interviews Bolt. He went home after the meeting. Barnaby asks Elspeth if she and Fliss were on good terms. "Who says otherwise? She was a dear and beautiful daughter. She was her mother's child and I loved her more than I loved anyone else in this whole horrible world," sobs Elspeth .

Hilary says that Fliss enjoyed tormenting her. Fliss didn't work. She tried modeling and acting without any luck. So she just hung around the home, bored out of her skull. "Did she torment anyone else?" asks Barnaby. "Mum, Daniel, Rodney Widger," says Hilary.

The police find a shovel in a pond.

At Inkpen Manor, "I'm Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. Your grand-daughter has been murdered. So you'll understand that we have to make certain enquiries. May I just ask you, when did you last see Fliss? Before you went to the village hall or afterwards?" says Barnaby.

"I find your manner and your insinuations extremely offensive," says Naomi.

"And I have to say that I'm not entirely overwhelmed by the courtesy of your reply," replies Barnaby.

"Do you really imagine I am not devastated by my grand-daughter's death? Endangered species such as ours do not reduce their numbers from within. Have you not the wit to look elsewhere? When there is a madman with a shotgun just across the lane, and a young woman with an unhealthy emotional attachment to her father half a mile up it?" snaps Naomi.

Troy says the madman with the shotgun is Widger. Who is the girl? They speak to Desmond. He went for a pint over at the pub with Charles King. He says there won't be many at the funeral.

They go to interview Jane Bennett. She is also a suspect since she made an impassioned speech at the meeting. "And I have nothing but contempt for the whole Inkpen clan, but why should I kill Fliss? Elspeth's the one destroying Dad's garden. .. That garden was my father's life for 20 years. It was him who made it what it is today, not the Inkpens. Now he's just too ill and tired to fight. I have to be his champion. And I will be," says Jane.

Troy speaks to Mr. Bennett. He used to be neighbors with Rodney Widger. He says that is an intemperate man who flies off at the handle. His wife used to goad Rodney deliberately. She could be quite wicked sometimes. He was probably relieved when Cynthia left. She was reported as a missing person. Jane is angry that Troy put her father through all that again. Bennett says that Rodney's solution with pests was to kill them.

Rodney claims he came straight home because he needed the loo. The Vicar's wife won't unlock the bathrooms at the Village Hall. They ask him about Cynthia, but her runs to the bathroom.

Naomi Inkpen yells at her daughter Elspeth . "Oh, will you stop blubbering! She brought it on herself. You've both brought everything on yourselves. Cavorting with Daniel, insulting Widger, raising two fingers to the entire village when you're not raising your skirts, that is! Is this how our 500 years are to end? Like an episode in some sordid television soap opera? You've about as much noblesse oblige as a fishwife in a brоthеl." Elspeth says she's leaving.

Richard Deverell comes by to express his sympathy and meets Hilary. Naomi interrupts their meeting.

Elspeth goes to the church and asks Susan for a room for the night.

A woman knocks on Barnaby car window with the two delinquent teens. Troy then interviews Daniel who says he gave the boys "Pumpey. A subtle blend of apple and potato with a tincture of garlic" He came straight home after the meeting. He was worried that he might have killed the boys- that the Pumpey had put them into a coma or packed up their livers. "Don't leave the village," says Barnaby. "And stay off the pumpey."

Troy says he can't understand what women see in Daniel Bolt. He's got dirt under his fingernails.

They go back to Inkpen Manor and are told that Elspeth is at the vicarage "for tea and sympathy." They go on to check alibis- Charles King. "If you're looking for a crime passionnel, you're sniffing up entirely the wrong trouser leg."

Desmond comes by the vicarage and Susan asks him to bring a jar of Pesto sauce.

At the police station, Troy says Cynthia Bennett simply got in a taxi and left. She was dropped at a hotel in Causton. She is still officially a missing person. Barnaby says that the lab report shows that the scrapings from beneath the victim's fingernails match the scrap of paper found at the scene, suggesting it was torn from her grasp.

Daniel Bolt watches Rodney Widger skulking in the dark. Hilary is scared when Naomi comes in from feeding the horse. Jane looks in on her sleeping father. Susan tries to get Elspeth to eat something. Rodney arrives at Charles King's house. Elspeth is shown to her room upstairs by Susan. She asks to have a bath. Then Susan goes to the church. King tells Rodney there is nothing to worry about. Elspeth enjoys her bath.

Someone sneaks in the vicarage. They go to the kitchen and dump a jar of Pesto into a dish. They take the dish upstairs to Elspeth's room.

Elspeth goes to her room and sees the Pesto. She has a bite. "Ugh". She sets the dish on the floor. "All yours, Crispin." She then starts to have pain and gasps and coughs. Someone holds the door shut as Elspeth tries to get out. She collapses on the floor. Someone pushes more Pesto down her throat as she dies. They lock the door and leave through the window.

In the morning, Troy goes by to talk to Mr. Bennett. He wants more information about his wife, Cynthia.

Barnaby asks Daniel if he has seen Elspeth. Daniel says she is still at the vicarage. Mr. Bennett tells Troy that he hadn't realized his wife had left until he found all her clothes had gone. She completely removed herself from his life.

Susan runs into Barnaby. She says she can't rouse Elspeth. Barnaby breaks down Elspeth's door. He finds Elspeth dead.

Naomi Inkpen says to Barnaby, "Must my feelings be trampled on instantly? I have now lost a daughter as well as a granddaughter within 24 hours." She denies that Elspeth killed herself. She was theatrical and you have no audience once you're dead."

Hilary comes by and Naomi sends her away. Barnaby says suicide can't be ruled out. "If you're looking for a common denominator, they'd both been entangled with Daniel Bolt." Naomi says she thought Elspeth's money-making schemes shameful. But she made Inkpen Manor over to Elspeth some time ago to avoid inheritance tax. Troy says that now Hilary inherits. Although there may not be much to inherit.

Daniel Bolt claims he was in the woods at night watching Rodger Widger's place waiting for a badger. He watches with night glasses. He doesn't want Rodney to find out as he would kill them. He did see Rodney. Rodney claims that he was in all evening and all night. His wife, Marie, says no he wasn't.

Barnaby goes to interview Augustus Deverell. He had been expecting a visit long before. He says suicide must be ruled out. An Inkpen would not more do away with themselves than would a Deverell. Richard Deverell walks in and is introduced to Barnaby. He knew Elspeth from childhood and finds it hard to believe she could be murdered over the memorial garden.

Daniel Bolt is in the garden and flirting with Hilary. She runs away from him.

Troy tackles Rodney Widger. He says he went to visit Charles King last night. They didn't give a full account about Cynthia 5 years ago. She was a "friendly lady. We'd had our ups and downs, mostly over noise. She liked a lot of noisy modern music, did Cynthia. But she certainly knew how to get round a chap. Especially in the last couple of years they lived there. She got a bit bored, you see. Like I said, she was a... ..she was a very friendly lady. She invited Charles and me to meet her at the Deverell Arms Hotel in Causton. She'd booked a room. They don't take a lot of notice there. She arrived by taxi and we spent the afternoon and evening together." They dropped Cynthia off at home and then went for a nightcap at King's. The next day Cynthia was reported missing. King confirms Rodney's account.

Barnaby talks to Dr. Bullard at the lab. "The lab found traces of olive oil and herbs on the bedroom key" says Barnaby. So Elspeth's death wasn't suicide. "Pesto sauce to hide the taste, which is apparently foul," says Bullard.

Barnaby talks to Susan Millard. He says Elspeth swallowed a toxic substance prepared in Susan's kitchen. Susan says she doesn't have a kitchen full of poisons. There was no one in the church to confirm that Susan was there. She didn't lock the doors of the vicarage. "Wouldn't the dog react to an intruder," says Barnaby. "Crispin has a very positive attitude to all humanity," replies Susan.

At the Barnaby home, Joyce is digging up the lawn. Barnaby arrives and asks her if she has any photos of aconite. Barnaby finds the plant at Inkpen Manor. Naomi says, "One doesn't need monkshood in the house when one has plenty of roses." Barnaby thinks that the murderer force fed Elspeth and then locked the bedroom door and climbed out the window.

Troy says that a stone in the memorial garden was placed there one week after Cynthia Bennett died. "This stone laid 18th June 1996 by Gerald Bennett." Cynthia Bennett disappeared on the 11th. Just a week before. Sir, if you had been very indiscreet, if you regarded the woman you'd been playing away with as a tart and cared more for your social standing than her life, and had murdered her, then what better place to bury her?" says Troy.

Daniel asks Hilary if she would like to go for a walk with him. Jane Bennett watches as officials dig in the memorial garden and find a skeleton. Troy confronts Rodney. He thinks Rodney killed Cynthia.

Naomi tells Richard the police are digging in the garden. She appreciates his visit. Richard says he will be leaving at the weekend. His latest pilgrimage to Rome.

Barnaby confronts Troy. What the hell are you playing at? Widger denied killing Cynthia, but there is still Charles. What about Gerald Bennett?

At the Bennett home, Jane looks in on her sleeping father. She prepares a cup of tea in the kitchen and starts crying.

Richard is on his way out when he meets Hilary again.

Barnaby and Troy walk into the Bennett home. They notice something dripping from the ceiling that looks like blood. They find Gerald Bennett in bed covered up. He is dead.

Daniel is in the garden talking to the flowers while watching Hilary reading.

Barnaby tells Troy to go find Jane Bennett.

Richard comes in to talk to his father. He has been to the bank in Causton. Augustus just wants to talk to him about becoming cardinal. It's the only thing Augustus stays alive for. He asks Richard if he has seen Hilary.

Barnaby and Troy interview Jane Bennett. Jane knew about her mother's carrying on- "She took such pleasure in Dad not realizing. The smirking and sniggering, the making fun behind his back. I just...couldn't take any more. So I waited for her to come back from Causton and strangled her with a pair of tights. She was drunk, and I'm...quite strong. I'd already planned what to do with her. I rather liked the idea that when the memorial garden was finished, people would walk all over her like she'd walked all over Dad. So then I cleared her things and hid them in my car and took them to the dump next day. I knew Widger and King wouldn't come forward when we reported her missing... The downside was that Dad actually did miss her. His health was already deteriorating anyway and the manor just suddenly seemed just too big. The cottage was right for him, though. He's been happy there."

Until the Inkpens started digging up the memorial garden?

"If he'd discovered what my mother was really like... ...it would have broken his heart. He didn't have much time left, anyway. Better to finish it gently without the truth. He was such an innocent. I couldn't bear him to lose that right at the end," says Jane. "But it's still murder, Miss Bennett. And you have to understand that, given your very clear reason for not wanting the memorial garden dug up, you are now prime suspect for the deaths of Felicity Inkpen and her mother," says Barnaby.

"What I have done, I have done for my father. I am not a homicidal maniac. I hated my mother. Not the Inkpens," says Jane. Augustus Deverell referred to the Inkpens as merciless bloodsuckers.

Barnaby receives information from the solicitor. There is no money, but the house is left jointly to Fliss and Hilary ...and Daniel Bolt, the gardener.

Daniel is flirting with Hilary again in the Inkpen Manor kitchen. "I do understand why you keep shying away from me, Hilary. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking this man made love to my sister and my mother and now they're both dead. But, if you're honest, don't you agree there's something about death that makes you want to reaffirm life? You shouldn't deny that instinct. Nature doesn't. Nature does just what it likes. Because nature knows what's best. Instinctively," says Daniel.

At Deverell Manor, Barnaby are looking for Augustus. Richard says he just found out that Hilary is his illegitimate child. And his father has gone to Inkpen Manor to deliver his latest tribute to Naomi Inkpen. She must have cash. Richard says,"She must have real money in her hands and it must be placed there by him. The price is humiliation as well as money... The price of what? Her forbearance. Until I am elected Cardinal. Rome? The Vatican? You know my father funded the Inkpens' repurchase of their "rightful family home". It may seem a small enough indiscretion in the modern world to have fathered a child, but my father is convinced otherwise and convinced that the Vatican would share his view. He's right. And he is desperate that I should succeed this time. If you need proof, read the letter. "My dear Augustus, an ecclesiastical bird has told me that Richard, your Richard, has high hopes of at last fulfilling the Deverell dream. We Inkpens will hear nothing said against him. Provided of course, that you honour your obligations to your friends. In which respect with the recent arrival of Hilary in our midst, we are now in possession of what might be described as the walking DNA proof. Yours in anticipation."

Augustus is driving to Inkpen Manor. He parks and walks in.

We then see someone loading up a shotgun.

Barnaby calls Troy and tells him to stop Augustus.

Barnaby arrives at Inkpen Manor. Troy meets him there. They go to Hilary's bedroom and see pictures on the wall. There is a gunshot. Hilary has shot Augustus in the arm.

Hilary confronts Naomi. "A bit of "DNA proof", as it says in the letter? And I was stupid enough to think I was wanted here. Not loved, I never hoped for that, not from you anyway... But I wasn't even wanted, was I? Was I? Not even by Mum. Not wanted for myself. Just used... Just turned to advantage. Yes, look away. What did the three of you do? Get it out and gloat over it once a week? Why else keep a copy in the house? Fliss laughed so much when she told me, when she read that out. Dead little bitch now. She opened my eyes so I opened her head. But she's the only one of you I've killed in anger. I took pleasure over Mum. I stuffed her bloody garden right down her throat. And I'm going to make a mess of you. Because you don't like mess. Everything must be just so, mustn't it. On the outside. Well I don't want you going to hell looking tidy!" Barnaby and Troy get the gun away from Hilary.

Richard Deverell goes to visit his daughter in jail.

Troy visits Susan Millard and says they won't be needing her kitchen utensils anymore. Susan says it is troubling to her conscious that some crimes seem justified, like Cynthia Bennett's. The vicar walks in carrying a tray. Troy is relieved to meet the vicar.

At the Barnaby home, Tom finds Joyce in the kitchen. Daniel is bringing in plants for her. "Bear in mind the White Bedder is vigorous and very erect, so make sure you put it where you want it, otherwise it's likely to, um, overshadow lesser plants," says Daniel.

Daniel leaves. Joyce says she was going to offer him a drink. Barnaby says he thinks Daniel has some propagating to do elsewhere.

Cast[]

Galleries[]

Body Count[]

Prior to the Episode

In the Episode

Supporting Cast[]

Episode Images[]

Arrests[]

Notes[]

The following actors and actresses who appeared in this episode have also appeared in the following episodes:

Trivia[]

The Trials and Tribulations of DS Gavin Troy:

  • Troy can't understand what women see in Daniel Bolt. He's got dirt under his fingernails.
  • Troy notes that a stone in the memorial garden was placed there a week before Cynthia Bennett disappeared. Very insightful of DS Troy!
  • Troy mistakenly goes to confront Widger before next of kin has been notified.

Quotes[]


Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas: Whoever said the english village was dead?




[at a meeting in the village hall] Naomi Inkpen: If you were a *gentleman* you'd move to allow my daughter and I to sit together.
Augustus Deverell: If you were a *lady* I shouldn't hesitate.
Susan Millard: There *are* still some seats further back, Mrs Inkpen.
Naomi Inkpen: Further back? I have not sat "further back" in my entire life.




Naomi Inkpen: I find your manner and your insinuations extremely offensive.
DCI Tom Barnaby: [after a pause in which he measures his reaction] And I have to say, I'm not entirely overwhelmed by the courtesy of your reply.



Goofs[]

  • Hilary mentions Fliss read her the letter about her family tree while laughing. The earlier scene in question plainly shows Fliss doesn't read the letter openly. She instead opens it and tries to make Hilary read it, but Hilary turns away and tearfully runs off out of heartbreak and fearful denial.
  • When Mrs. Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas is gagging on bad pesto pasta and tries to open the bedroom door, there is no key in the lock. When her murderer shuts the door, there is a key in the lock that the murderer turns to lock the door.

Video[]

Midsomer_Murders_Series_4_Episode_1_-_Garden_of_Death_Preview

Midsomer Murders Series 4 Episode 1 - Garden of Death Preview



Jump to:  Synopsis

Advertisement