User reviews

A vicar is killed just before a wedding is set to take place, further weddings are hit by grief, when murders occur at two venues. McDonald is keen to speak to a photographer who attended two of the events.

I think the show is gaining in confidence, this third series has been more assured, and dare I say it more professionally made, I long for news about series four.

Very good, intriguing and fun, I loved the outcome, unexpected, McDonald's dream added a bit of confusion, but it was very well thought out.

We see a little more development in the McDonald and Dodds dynamic, they're not exactly lovely dubby with eachother, and we see Claire Skinner play a bigger part.

Some quality talent here, the likes of Richard Harrington and Jason Hughes, both were excellent, but I'd argue the star of the show was Victoria Hamilton, who took over somewhat.

8/10.

This show will probably always defeat some viewers, daytime TV is like that, though the review who needed the plot explained may need a greater degree of help?

This last episode of the series had a pretty good plot (compared to some), with 3 murders on the same day, all at weddings in Bath, with the culprit trying to conceal one targeted murder in what apparently was a maniac serial killer's work (this plot device isn't uncommon -- Midsomer must have had it dozens of times?). This one mixed in an unusual twist, a jet-lagged detective having flashbacks of a dream in which the main suspect had a leading role? Bizarre.

But the story flowed along for the best part of 2 hours, police running around in circles until they started to work out what the key facts were.

And it was helped by a strong cast, for the genre, with a former Midsomer detective having a key role (and what seemed his new hair?!), and Victoria Hamilton (famous for having been Victoria and the Queen Mother!) providing a mysterious presence at the weddings, and getting up close and personal to Dodds ("have you got time for sex"?).

When you settled down and reviewed what happened, there were just too many coincidences, but that's hardly uncommon in detective fiction, Agatha Christie had loads, and after all, this isn't Shakespeare.

A good recovery after what I consider it was a really poor episode in the last one. This one was written much better, with a more realistic and believable plot. A fairly good mystery. I'm not sure how solvable it was. I don't think they gave a lot of clues that would allow you to solve it.

I solved it down to the who and the why just because I've seen a lot of mysteries and this one is somewhat of a repeat of some of the ones I've seen in the past. It does follow some cliché if you've watched a lot of mystery movies. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation.

I can't remember all of them, even though I've seen them all, but I think this is probably the best and most complex mystery that they've written. If they did them all like this, this show would be popular and its future would be very bright.

I like these characters. A little different from some murder mystery series. He needs her to push him as much as she needs him to advance her 2 year plan. Both characters are influencing each other's weaknesses in a positive way. First they bonded over both facing unjust treatment for different reasons, but accept each other. I look forward to season 5.

This episode was a little different and very interesting. I couldn't not figure out how it all would come together. Dodds questions Mcdonald to get to the bottom of a dream that McDonald had in order to solve the murder. McDonald makes a big decision. Dodds makes a personal connection. The Chief makes a Confession.

Just when you though the show had gone as bad as it can, they bring in a top supporting crew to make you believe in the credibility show once more.

Former tv detectives and Welsh men Jason Hughes (Midsomer Murders) and Richard Harrington (Hinterland) appear here to bring some strength to the show and, quite unnecessarily really, Bill Bailey does a voice over as a local radio presenter.

Claire Skinner has a bigger role this series. Previously, Claire and her predecessor seemed to just turn up in the opening and closing scenes. Perhaps, her recent performance in Coma with Jason Watkins lead to an expansion of her character or maybe the show is running out of things for the main characters.

They even seem to quite like each other these days.

After watching episode 2 of season 4, I'd almost gone off M&D, sadly. It was probably one of the worst-written eps of the series: melodramatic, unbelievable, choppy, poor character development, etc. But glad I came back to watch this one, which is much better, but still suffers from too much "story," a particular quirk of this show that when handled expertly can be effective and even really compelling (see, final episode of season 3, which is still my fav of the series). On the other end of the spectrum, too much story can often get in the way of properly fleshing out characters, which is what we find in "Wedding Fever." Some, in fact, feel as though they've been inserted pointlessly (e.g., the pregnant bridesmaid character in the first wedding, MIL in second wedding, pretty much all the side characters in the Indian wedding, etc.). We barely know anything about Jason Hughes' character until the last 10 minutes, and conversely, too much time is devoted to Victoria Hamilton's character (though I did enjoy her acting). And the final denouement felt a little silly. I'm rooting for another season b/c I've warmed to the Macdonald and Dodds partnership, love the tone of the show, and adore the beautiful Bath setting, but hope the writers can get a better handle on story and character development in future.

I feel for the actress. She has a poisoned chalice of a character in McDonald; Paranoid, arrogant, defensive She's so shallow. Maybe that's credit to the actress for making her so unlikable. It doesn't help the series. Dodds could solve these crimes on his own. The writers can mould it so his dithering, like Columbo, always has an end game. They could really give his character some interesting background. McDonald's character is sadly so one dimensional. She sneers and frowns at everyone. Plus the idea that she's a DCI? Maybe on paper, she did well in her exams. But a decent copper? This was a good , solid episode. Dodds should get a background episode as we were teased early doors why he was a sergeant only. Bill Bailey was a good cameo. Those DS's also need more film time. Great charisma!

There's a lot to love about this episode, but something makes me feel really uncomfortable too. On the face of it, this edition has it all -the cunning mystery is complex and original, McDonald's story is clever (albeit a bit predictable), there's hints of romance and of course the complementing cross-generational interaction that is the essence of the entire run. But ... it the writing feels a bit too convoluted and arrogant even. The Olive staffs' interactions are as good as usual, but this is not the strongest finale and feels a bit flat, don't know why. Maybe there are too many guest characters. But overall an enjoyable fourth season.

Jason Hughes of Midsomer Murders was in this episode. I did not even recognize him, as he plays an older paunchy man. Time flies! I recall him when he was the young assistant to the original Barnaby!

On 16 January 2025, ITV announced that it had cancelled the series and no Season 5 episodes would be made. I have to say this episode was a great example of why it was canceled. None of it made any sense.

The episode's villain is being hunted down by Greek mafia because he owes them money. McDonald had dreams about this Greek mafia enforcer because she saw him on a plane after she did not respond to the marriage proposal from her boyfriend. That is just bizarre.

Dodds who is just weird and creepy in every episode since season three is determined to track the killer down using McDonald's dream. The actual dream interrogation shows nothing that has to do with dream hypnosis or any other technique. Dodds just asks her about her dream. Really lame stuff.

Eventually we get that the killer killed wedding guests at three weddings so that nobody would suspect him of killing his sister. He resented her because he took the blame for her DUI 21 years earlier. What a terrible motivation. Just horrible writing.

The only upside to this episode was Claire Skinner was in it for several scenes. Tala Gouveia spent four seasons scowling and being unpleasant, and I will avoid anything with her in the future. Jason Watkins manages to be creepy in every scene. He is just bizarre acting. Makes my skin crawl to watch him stuttering and lisping his lines.

Yeah - nah. What on earth was that all about?

Everybody was getting married, and you can't have a decent wedding without a murder, now can you?

And it was all solved by a dream McDonald had before anyone got killed. But then it wasn't.

I like a murder mystery to keep me guessing, and this one did at least manage that. But it flashed repeatedly and in dizzying fashion from one murder story to another, and back again, and against a background like that characters only manage to be wafer-thin. It was almost as bad as Midsomer Murders, but hey, one of the central characters was played by the actor who was the DS in that - well fancy!

The star of the show was without doubt Bill Bailey, doing the voice-only part of the radio DJ. If only we could have listed to him for the full two hours!

I'll give it five. Isn't that what Janice Nicholls used to say on that DJ show in the 60s? "Oi'll give it foive!"

What was that all about? I found myself wondering what exactly had happened in McDonald and Dodds - Wedding Fever, and why, with seemingly nowhere to go to get a simplified account of all the various connections between the elements of the plot. I was just left with the disappointment of thinking that it had been two wasted hours of my life which I would never get back, even though the main characters in this series are very engaging.

Could there not be a space somewhere online for a full explanation of the whole storyline of plots like this one (after they have been aired) so that simple souls like me could finally understand all the nuances?

By the end my wife exclaimed. You're telling me all this happened in one day!

No wonder Lotty Wood is getting married in church so early in the morning. It is the priest who never makes it at the altar. Her father Lenny is accused of stabbing the priest Mitchell Morrison to death. The padre was also a close family friend.

It should be an open and shut case for DS Dodds, temporary in charge. DCI McDonald catching up with some sleep after a nightmare plane journey from Dubai. She ended up in Greece and then had nightmares about being at a wedding where there was strange man with a snake tattoo.

By the time McDonald makes it to the murder investigation. There has been another murder at another wedding in Bath. One where Chief Super Ormond was attending. Here the bride was poisoned to death.

Wait, there is more. At a third wedding, the original best man, who fell out with the groom. Turns up to the wedding but is shot dead.

It seems there is a serial killer at loose in Bath. Making sure the bride and groom have a miserable day. Some of the original suspects at these weddings are unhappy to be treated as suspects. They have time to band together to arrange a whingeathon to complain about the police.

By this time Dodds and McDonald are sure there is no serial killer at large. This was coldly calculated.

In fact so calculated. That the killer managed to move about in one day to murder some random people. To deflect suspicion that one victim was the actual target.

In doing so they managed to poison themselves, evade the police as they were a suspect. Shoot dead some guy who arrived late at the third wedding.

Never mind the dream McDonald had. What were the chances that some of the suspects were on her plane.

At one point I thought this was interesting but it all fell apart. It was still light when they arrested the culprit. This was lousy garbage.