REVIEW: Midsomer Murders: The Killings at Badger’s Drift – Theatre Royal, Glasgow

The success and popularity of Midsomer Murders cannot be understated. Beginning life in book form in 1987, it premiered on British TV in 1997, opening with Caroline Graham’s first book The Killings at Badgers Drift, the story that here, kicks off Midsomer’s new stage incarnation.

With 144 episodes in the can over 29 years, fan expectations are high as evidenced by the round of applause as the theme tune starts to play. Designer David Woodhead has managed to realise the multiple locations, evoking the cosy and benign but deadly feel of the original: there are cottages and manor houses, woods and country gardens inventively created.

The story, as you would expect, takes many a twist and turn along these picture perfect country lanes. Emily Simpson, the finder of a rare orchid is discovered dead, and while the local doctor declares her death due to natural causes, her friend Lucy is disturbed enough that she seeks the help of the Causton police. In step the beloved duo of Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy (to rapturous applause).

Original series star Daniel Casey ably steps out of the shoes of Sergeant Troy and into those of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. The chemistry, created over six years on screen, that Casey had with John Nettles, the original Barnaby,  is recreated here with James Bradwell as the loyal but dim Troy. Julie Legrand’s Lucy Bellringer is a pitch-perfect  delight as a Miss Marple-like interfering but sharp-as-a-tack old biddy. She, like the rest of the cast are a triumph, doubling and tripling up as the vast set of suspects expected in a Midsomer murder. The cross-gender casting provides some of the biggest laughs of the evening as realisation from the audience finally dawns.

Writer and director Guy Unsworth has kept the cosy crime feel of the original but to his credit he is acutely aware of the show’s reputation: the astonishingly high body count and eye-popping shenanigans of the tiny county’s residents, and while he heaps on the humour, he keeps the story a true whodunnit for crime fans.

This is an inventively designed, cleverly written, well acted, hugely entertaining tribute to the original that will delight and enthral fans new and old alike.

Runs until February 2026| Image: Manuel Harlan