Janet Pennyman is a character appearing in the episode Things That Go Bump in the Night of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Janet was the wife and assistant of Fletcher's Cross undertaker Patrick Pennyman, their marriage loveless throughout. Janet was privy to Patrick's thefts of heirlooms from their deceased clients for brokerage, but to also make her own money, she offered information of the decedents to Rosetta Price, a local fraudulent medium who would use the information in her seances. One client was David Key, whose wife Rosemary Key attended the seance and died shortly thereafter from the shock. Their daughter Elizabeth Key was both heartbroken and aware the family brooch was missing, she was investigating the mortuary.
In addition, Janet turned to salacious married church choir director Ronald Burgess to have an affair with him. They planned for Patrick to be killed so they'd be together and keep the profits of the thefts and cons Janet would be in charge of. They had sex in the prayer chambers of the parlor, and Patrick was shocked to see his naked wife under a bedsheet. Ronald was equally nude behind him and cracked a candlestick over his head, knocking him unconscious. Ronald cut Patrick's wrists with a box cutter to stage his murder as a suicide. Pouring drinks to celebrate, the two discussed Janet's ruse of cooking supper, then "checking on" Patrick, only to walk back to the dead man and then run outside bellowing unholy fright. The faked conniption worked, as bystanders rushed to her side and the police were called, most of the village falling for the whole thing.
But Elizabeth was still asking questions, so Janet and Ronald planned her murder too. Ronald knocked her out with a brick and then cut her wrists in the same fashion, likely no longer caring about the posing being used to stage a "suicide" and just hoping to throw off the police. But John Whittle saw the two of them making out in the undertaker's vehicle, threatening Janet he'd go to the police if she didn't sexually gratify him. Lying she'd make a rendezvous at the village's railway, she called local crystal shop owner Thomas Marr on a payphone near her home to lure him to the site so he'd have a flimsy alibi. James Griss, the rail worker, was a former colleague of Patrick with a quarrelsome relationship with the funeral home, so he'd be left as another suspect. When John approached Janet at the site, Ronald snuck up behind him and killed him with a blow to his head using a metalwork hammer for the train tracks. John was slashed and staged accordingly afterward.
However, Janet's call was given up by Thomas, but she insisted to be left alone to continue to grieve. The plans fell apart when, while the investigators were still present, Ronald arrived with champagne and flowers, nearly kissing Janet. Ronald was confronted at the church and, lied to that Janet gave him up, he admitted in anguish their crimes and how he enjoyed their time together so. Janet was confronted later on about the parlor's activities as well as her own, which added motive for the murders. When she was also lied to that Roger confessed first on his own accord, worded as him taking the blame, she confessed as well and admitted her delighted from the look on Patrick's face when he realized the affair. The pair were then rightly arrested off-screen.
Victims[]
All of the following was primarily committed by Ronald Burgess with Janet's complicity and abetting
- Patrick Pennyman - Hit on the back of the head with a big candlestick and then had his wrists slit with a box cutter.
- Elizabeth Key - Hit on the back of the head with a brick and then had her wrists slit with a box cutter.
- John Whittle - Lured to the train tracks and killed by a blow on the back of the head with a hammer used to check the railway. His body was then moved further along by the track and had his wrists slit with a box cutter.