Ring Out Your Dead

This is your typical Midsomer Murders episode of the time, the early 2000s where we saw the best, it's totally changed now.

Very summery episode, stunning houses and gardens, great to see Hugh Bonneville and Gwen Taylor, brilliant performances.

The conclusion is extremely silly but it wouldn't be Midsomer Murders without this. The usual over the top characters but strangely, this episode presents some rather more down to earth ones as well. Strange that we don't see Dr Bullard in this one, he isn't called in for any of the deaths.

As usual, Joyce Barnaby getting involved and causing a nuisance, most entertaining.

This doesn't rank in the top 10 by any means but worth a watch.

This is an interesting episode. As is often the case, there is a piece of weird history that lies just beneath the surface. It has to do with the ringing of church bells in a competitive way. I had no idea it was a competition. But this is England, and, of course, I don't know what sort of ancient "sports" they involve themselves in. It turns out that there is an angry faction, including and old man, a deacon, who resent the fact that the church is used for something "secular." But again, there is that history. The show begins with a man who is murdered and dropped into a well (these well seem to be a natural place to put bodies). There is a subplot with Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), who has designs on the old man's money. It is a neat episode because of the subject matter.

Ring out your dead is without a shadow of a doubt worthy of the tag 'classic episode,' it's funny, it's well written, it has some huge, interesting characters, plus it ends in some style.

The sun story of the bell ringers is great, it's attention to detail like that, that made the earlier episodes so much better. After a dramatic opener, it's a mix of funny, dark and shocking. The music throughout is simply brilliant, melodic, and so in keeping.

Some fabulous characters, Fogden, Maisie, the glorious femme fatale, and of course the wing commander. Great acting too, loved Gemma Jones and Graham Crowden in particular.

A creepy, eerie Vive throughout, it's original, clever and witty. 9/10

I too noticed the time on the clock as always being 6.25. It was mentioned in the goofs. What is the reason for it? Maybe too, like other titles there could have been an explanation of the murder and how it was done at the end. It was an interesting episode and I have a feeling that the writer tends to portray quite a few women as murderers, or should I say, murderesses. I find it absolutely bizarre that a person could murder innocent bell-ringers just because her ancestor was murdered by 'bell-ringers' who are unrelated to the present ones. The judgmental old man was super. As was the character of Peter, who was only interested in winning at all costs. He was thoroughly insensitive to the deaths around him. Super film all round!

A very well-written script. Previous reviewers seem surprised that there is a competitive element to bell-ringing (though often the "competition" is with the past, as witness the plaques on the wall of the ringing chambers), and indeed that not all those who ring are members of the host church congregation.

As a former churchwarden it may be helpful to explain that many pearl of bells are of 8 or 10 bells. There would be very few churches who could muster a sufficiency of ringers from their own congregation, so it is quite normal to offer membership of the tower to bell-ringers from other parishes and to those who are not regular church-goers. There are of course some, such as the Chairman of the Parochial Church Council (not incidentally a deacon), Reggie, who would rather have no bells at all, but they are a in a minority.

The one thing that does not ring true is the idea that the bells could be sold simply by asking the bishop to agree. As a matter of church law, the sale of church bells and almost everything else in a church requires an order, called a faculty, from a church court. These are not lightly granted and in a case such as this the likelihood that the court would allow the sale of the bells is negligible. Reggie would probably have known this, but the others might not.

Many church clocks show the same time constantly. They are complex and expensive. There are very few clock-makers in England who are able to service the turret clocks in all the churches, town halls etc throughout the country, so delay is inevitable. They are also expensive to maintain, and the expense is not likely to sit high on the church's priority list if the roof is leaking. It used to be the custom to set the hands manually to 12 noon if the clock was not working, but that is seldom done these days.

Finally I was advised that if I was going into the church on a weekday to do something in the vestry, or somewhere else out of sight of the door, to lock the door behind me. At one time parish churches were commonly left open all day and all night. It is however a sad fact of our current times that if you do you soon find all the candlesticks missing, so the church insurers insist on keeping the church locked except during the times of services unless there is someone stationed in the church to watch the door.

A very good and accurate episode.