Midsomer Murders: The Complete Series One and Two [DVD]

I remember watching Midsomer Murders many years ago in the late 1990's/early 2000's and immediately fell in love with it. Seeing England's charming countryside on TV and watching everyday village life being played out with quirky characters and dark undertones drew me in very quickly and I was hooked. I live in Berkshire too and I know they filmed the show quite near. The haunting melodies that were played to accompany the series were perfect well done to Jim Parker. I stopped watching the show when John Nettles left ( there is only one DCI Barnaby for me), but realised ITV3 were re-running the early episodes this last Christmas so thought I would take a look purely for nostalgic reasons. I can't believe how much they have edited the show, I know I haven't watched the show for a while, but there seemed to be parts missing. It may have been edited to fit the programme to the allotted time, but the pilot episode The Kilings at Badgers Drift there were scenes that I just knew had been cut. I took the plunge and decided to purchase a couple of the complete series DVD's as the programme was an old favourite of mine and I sat and watched the pilot again. It seems about 13 minutes had been cut from the ITV3 showing and this was due to some of the violence and also scenes involving DCI Barnaby's 1st sidekick DS Troy and his choice of the English language which in this day and age is not seen as being very politically correct. It is a shame though when such a fantastic programme has to be edited for fear of offending people. This of course may not have been the reason for the editing but TV companies are now under so much pressure to not show offensive material I cannot think why else certain scenes would have been removed. Lovely scenes between Barnaby and his daughter Cully were edited too. Such a shame we cannot watch our old TV shows now the way they were supposed to be shown, my advice is to buy the DVDs. I have started to buy the complete series of Midsomer Murders on DVD and will enjoy them all over again. No subtitles at all on these complete Acorn Media sets which in this day and age is a bit surprising so beware of that. Sound quality is very good though for an older programme and there are some special features too which are good for the price. I have noticed the prices for each season do vary not sure why??? I say don't rely on the mainstream TV channels now to watch your favourite programmes the PC brigade seem to be taking over everything and deciding what people should be watching and not letting people make their own choices. If the characters and their personalities in MM are based on Caroline Graham's books then do people find her offensive too? I might give Neil Dudgeon a try and see what the show is like now, but the older Midsomer years are of high quality with great story telling and great characters so not sure if it is still the same now. There is no other county like Midsomer!!! Sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy.

Delivered in time and in good condition, as described.

My mum loved watching them !

Surely one of the best murder mystery series ever produced. It has everything, several murders for those of us wholike that sort of thing, beautiful English countryside, traditional English life and villages, and above all humour. Theinteractions between Barnaby and his various sergeants are quite wonderful, full of understated English wit and charm.Barnaby himself is a wise and human character, the ordinary country meat-and-two-veg civilised, tolerant Englishman,nobly resisting his wife's & daughter's efforts to educate & modernise him. Don't miss this series, - and then do go and visit,as my wife & I did, some of the places shown. And then buy the other 15 or so sets off Amazon! The villages & market townsare quite as lovely as on film;, and have the advantage that you can TASTE the beer in the Midsomer (actually Oxon, Bucks &Berks) pubs instead of having to just watch with envy! One then sits in the comfortable seats & thinks about ghosts. Whatcould be more homely than that? "Midsomer Murders" is such a work of art and humour that I feel humble in reviewing it - perhapsBarnaby should review ME - I'm sure he'd get me dead right!

I have watched all of the episodes and enjoyed them all. It was like a walk down memory lane.

Midsomer Murders was a nice change for television at the tea-time hour. I always watched it, I jumped at the chance to own all the cases on DVD.Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy work in the idyllic picturesque village of Midsomer, where they find that beneaf the tranquil surface of village life exists a disturbing and cunning propensity for murder.This set contains the entire first and second series of Barnaby's first investigations, spanning nine cases. Each case is feature length (like a movie) with lots of twist and turns to keep you entertained every step of the way.Midsomer might be targeted at older people, but I enjoy it and I'm not that old! In each case, there is a murder for which the killer will be revealed in its conclusion. The fun of it lies in guessing who the killer actually is, like all crime drama's. But I wouldn't call this a crime drama, it is way too light hearted for that. It is a murder mystery show more like, with a slightly lower budget. It is not realistic, with the amount of murders in one village (The first half would be dead and the other half would be in prison), but that's all apart of its uniqueness. It is still a joy to watch and is genuinely funny, especially Barnaby's mannerisms. It's a fun series, not serious though. It is light, tea-time viewing. Still a great buy. The earlier Midsomer's are the best, so this would be an excellent place to start your collection. My favourite cases include: "The Killing's At Badgers Drift", "Written In Blood", "Stranglers Wood" and "Death's Shadow."

Great dvds

I bought this for my wife's birthday recently, having had little experience myself of MM, and it turned out be a present we were both able to enjoy. The acting is polished, as is the dialogue, and the storylines are surprisingly "gritty" yet without the need for any gratuitous violence or bad language. An observant viewer will enjoy the fact that virtually everything you see has some relevance, although you are often arguing until the very end over what was a red herring and what was a real clue.It may be that MM is suddenly going to enjoy a resurgent popularity given the recent publicity surrounding certain aspects of the production, and that would definitely be a good thing. If you're new to it, the beginning is definitely the best place to start!