User Reviews

3 murders and 2 murderers in this one. The killer of the first man was fairly obvious within the first few minutes of the show (or maybe I just made a lucky guess?). The next 2 deaths were harder to explain until Tom revealed it all for us in the last 10 minutes. Not too interesting though.

First thing I noticed was Daisy from Keeping Up Appearances (Judy Cornwell playing the colorful character of May Cuttle). I was hoping she would've been the murderer for a twist ending but twasn't so.

More running gags about Joyce's bad cooking and Troy's awful driving (this element flew by me the first time I watched or I'd forgotten it by the time Troy made his cameo in Blood Wedding season 11, haha).

More scenes of Cully getting along sweetly with her father, and the nice scenes of Tom discussing his case with the family another familiar charming comfort to the series. Other charming details included the rain clouds, thunderstorm, church bells, horseback riders, beekeepers, twittering birds, and the usual lovely array of English country homes and gardens, including the grand castle-like manor of the lodge.

The bleak side included the new age claptrap theme, a drunken drugged out mother, a callous money bags father, ex-cons, liars, and a sexual scene with squeals and moans with the couple in bed (luckily they're covered up with sheets and blankets, only their shoulders exposed), oh and of course the ghastly aspect of murder as revenge and greed!

Lovely balance of dark and light, good and evil !

Midsomer Murders: Death and Disguise starts as DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) & Sgt. Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) are called into investigate the death of William Carter (Robert Pickavance) at The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse, a huge stately home owned by Ian Cragie (Michael Feast) & occupied by the strange members of his religious cult. Carter's death looks like an open and shut case, a clear accident where he fell down some stairs & broke his neck. However when cult leader Craigie is stabbed & killed it quickly becomes a double homicide for Barnaby, there are plenty of suspects & motives which Barnaby has to wade through to find the truth & bring a killer to justice...

Episode 5 from season 1 this Midsomer Murder mystery was directed by Baz Taylor & although Death and Disguise was the final story from season 1 it's as good as any of them. The script by Douglas Watkinson has all the usual lies, red herrings, suspects, multiple murder, accidents, dark secrets, eccentric character's & a complex plot that I have come to expect from this show. Generally speaking Midsomer Murders episodes can be a little slow at times but they are very absorbing, intriguing & very entertaining. You need to concentrate 100% of the time while watching most Midsomer Murders as when the complex murder plot is finally revealed unless you've been watching & listening all the way through it won't make much sense & Death and Disguise is such a case in point. Any armchair sleuth who enjoys a good murder mystery will probably love this series & quite rightly so as it's quality with strong character's, good plots, the earlier shows definitely had a dark edge to them & the balance between letting the viewer have some clues to keep you interested but not enough so as to make the story too predictable has always been very good. Persoanlly I'm a big fan of the show & my only real problem with them are the length of the episodes & the fact they have little re-watch value as once you know the killer or killers identity there's not much point in watching it again.

This one looks very nice & it's set in a gorgeous stately home in the English countryside, the location used was actually Nether Winchendon House in Buckinghamshire so now you know. As usual the production values are high & it's well made in some beautiful locations. The acting is good from all involved.

Death in Disguise is a good way to round off season 1 but the season as a whole was excellent anyway, in my humble opinion this is classic Midsomer Murders that is a must for any amateur detectives out there.

A bit of a change with this one, set in a refuge with some rather unusual characters

The pace lacks a bit, its less of a mystery than other episodes in the earlier series

It's very notable how Barnaby works out and confirms the cause of the first death but it not being revealed to us the viewer, this makes up for the lack of pace somewhat as it maintains our interest.

No standout performances, we don't see as many well known actors in this one.

This is an excellent series but this particular episode is not worth your effort. It concerns a lame cult in a big house. With a bunch of loonies running around contacting the dead I guess, A feral boy running around who doesn't speak. Barnaby is not all that involved in most of the action. And I don't really even think the actors know what their lines mean. The murders when they do come are ridiculous. Nobody really seems to have a clue about anything. I know I don't. Every now and then they threw in his wife and daughter just for some form of sanity in this episode. Very disappointed that such a quality series would put up a Miss like this.

Ian Craigie and William Carter are the founders of a new-age commune named "The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse. William Carter wants to get out, but Ian begs him to stay. The altercation continues in the house, and William Carter dies when he falls down he stairs. When Barnaby, Troy and Bullard arrive at the lodge, Bullard informs barnaby that Bill Carter broke his neck in the fall, and says he had apparantly been drinking. A young boy named Christopher Wainwright arrives at the lodge and Trixie Channing, one of the members of the commune makes Christopher aware of the recently murder.

The following night, there is a thunderstorm, and one of the youngest members of the commune, Tim Riley seems to have gone missing. The members goes out looking for him, when a cannonball falls down from the roof. Suddenly they see Tim in one of the windows and it turns out he was hiding there because he is scared of the sound of thunder.

One of the members of the Commune, Suhami, who later turns out to be the daughter of Guy Gamelin is about to celebrate her birthday at the lodge. Her father is giving her £3million. She thanks her dad, and gives the money to Craigie. Guy gets furious, and does not want his daughter to waste £3million on Craigie and the lodge. Later that evening, May Cuttle is having one of her regressions, and when the lights are turned on again, Craigie is found dead.

Guy Gamelin is later found murdered and the case closes. It turns out that Christopher Wainwright was lying about his identity and that he is indeed Andrew Carter, William Carter's nephew. Andrew wanted to come to the lodge to help his uncle and reason with Craigie to persuade him to buy William out of the lodge. Andrew Carter murdered Ian Craigie as revenge for his uncle's death, and he nearly killed Tim Riley as well, because Tim knew that it was Andrew who killed Craigie, after watching him pointing his finger at Andrew just moments before he died. Tim had recently begun to talk again, and Andrew was afraid that Tim could be able to tell them the whole truth. It is brought to light that Tim pushed William down the stairs, in an attempt to protect Ian Craigie and take his side.

"Death in Disguise" is a fine ending to the first series of Midsomer Murders. The story is good from start to finish, and unlike "Faithful unto Death", the first murder in "Death in Disguise" happens after just two and a half minutes. This story is also a bit darker than "Death of a Hollow Man" and "Faithful unto Death" and I really do like the episode where scenes are being filmed in the evening or late at night, like the thunderstorm scene in this episode. It fills your mind with more excitement, something you never get in the same way when a scene is fillmed in broad daylight.

From the supporting cast, Charles Kay, Daniel Hart, Judy Cornwell and Stephen Moyer leave the best impression and their characters get the story going by showing different sides about their personalities. Michael Feast and Nigel Anderson do a well done job as well, but I would have wanted to see different sides about these two characters, that could have surprised me a bit more.

The Nether Winchendon house, the filming location for the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse, is stunning to look at. Both the house and the gardens suits the episode very well and this location is my favourite from this episode.

"Death in Disguise" is a good ending to the first series of Midsomer Murders, but the story takes a little bit of time before things move on. It is clearly positive that the first murder happens during the first three minutes, but it lacks more intriguing scenes that would have added something new to the story. 8/10 Hossy Christie.