Ring Out Your Dead

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.

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!

For many Americans, the past time of ringing church bells, much less, cut throat competition in it will seem a little screwball, and indeed, there are moments of burst out laughing in this episode.

There are also scenes of scariness, walk in the dark while something ominous pursues you, like bits from an old 1960's Hammer horror film. And even a few moments of real human pain and tragedy.

And in a sometime tradition of this series, the motive for the murders is totally off the wall wackiness with the murderer the last person you'd ever suspect.

Anyway, the scenery of a series that seems at times to come from House And Country Magazine is pleasant to look at.

All in all, a pleasant way to past an evening in front of the telly.

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.