Ring Out Your Dead

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

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.

Another episode with a church and church people being used in a negative way in Midsomer Murders.

Church bell ringers start being murdered in this town one at a time. The head man of the ringers is obsessed with practicing and winning an award. That is his only goal in life.

It is said that this church Reverend was killed years ago by bell ringers. His body is found in a well. The cause is said is that he wanted the ringers to attend the church. This seems so bogus. I never heard of heads of churches allowing non-members of a church to go into the church tower to ring the church bells and enter a contest but this is how the story went.

Nobody seems to know why these killings take place. A theme but not the cause of deaths is a rich woman is like the town prostitute. She has sex with younger men and it is just a game with her, she broke up a marriage in the village and the wife caught her husband in their bed. She threw her husband's clothes out the window which was funny, even his pants. This loser woman also made a play for Sgt Troy and he looks like he gives in to her advances. I was disappointed in Troy.

A red headed male bell ringer is with a woman that is like his mother is walking near the church the bells start ringing when they are not supposed to ring. The woman wants to go see who is up there and the the young male said he is afraid of heights something like that. This makes no sense, he has to go up to the tower to practice ringing the bells when they are scheduled to practice.

The plot of killing all the bell ringers is interesting but stupid. The killer in the end does not seem physically competent to commit all these murders. It is a good mystery but a fantasy.

Love it! What a fantastic episode. Not the best episode of the show, but certainly an interesting and unique one. You can really tell the actors are giving it their absolute all. Certainly an interesting storyline, not too gruesome and gripping you at some points. I really enjoyed the character of Reggie Barton, played fabulously by the incredible Graham Crowden. Like I said the actors all did a sensational job, and the plot with the bell ringing really is a well thought one, and obviously a well scripted one. In all I enjoyed the episode, not too many faults or boring bits, even if there were any, they'd be well covered up by the good acting. Interesting ending, and all round pretty good episode.

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.