Midsomer Murders

The Killings at Badgers Drift was transmitted to an audience of 14 million in March 1997. Badger's Drift is the name of the village where the story is set and the characters involved are two octogenarian spinsters, Emily Simpson and Lucy Bellringer (played by Renee Ascherson and Rosalie Crutchley) who have been lifelong friends with a shared interest in rare orchids.

Set in the village of Midsomer Worthy. Gerald Hadleigh (Robert Swann) is chairman of a local writers' circle. A slightly mysterious man, a widower thought to be a civil servant in early retirement, he is the unrequiting love of local antique dealer and amateur novelist, Laura Hutton (Jane Booker).

Barnaby is painting scenery for the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society's production of AMADEUS, in which Joyce has a non-speaking role - as Salieri's cook. The director, Harold Winstanley (Bernard Hepton), has an inflated idea of his talent and pours money into the production in the vain belief that it will kick-start a West End career.

The wife of a wealthy local businessman disappears and Barnaby finds a complex web of financial and romantic entanglements - and of course, more dead bodies.

Ian Craigie, The Master, believes that what he had entered into as a con has now become worthwhile and when, after ten years, Carter demands the half share on which they had originally agreed, he is found dead at the bottom of the stairs.