Midsomer Murders’ Neil Dudgeon lists his show highlights after a decade in role

A decade ago, actor Neil Dudgeon made his first appearance as DCI John Barnaby in the gentle TV crime drama Midsomer Murders.

He took over from John Nettles, who had played his character’s cousin DCI Tom Barnaby for 13 years.

Neil, 60, knew it was a risk asking fans to take a new detective to their hearts.

But it is one that has paid off as, a decade on, he is still busy solving bizarre murders such as death by chocolate or a wheel of cheese.

To celebrate his 10th anniversary as Barnaby, Neil talks us through his Midsomer highlights…

Tune in to ITV at 8pm tomorrow.

Big shoes to fill

John Nettles had played DCI Tom Barnaby for 13 years when he decided to call it a day – and his replacement Neil, who was cast as Tom’s cousin DCI John Barnaby, was determined to win fans over.

He explains: “I did think it would be a bit embarrassing if John had been doing this wonderful show for 13 years and then after my one episode it got cancelled!

“It was very nice when it got recommissioned. You can only do your best and hope people like it.

“I was always a great fan of Midsomer. I did an episode in series four, playing a gardener who was a suspect. So I had experience.”

DCI’S dog

Sykes was DCI Barnaby’s first dog, a terrier who retired in 2016 and died in 2019.

Sykes was his real name.

Barnaby and wife Sarah then welcomed a new rescue pooch Paddy into their home and Neil says that Barnaby’s dog is the real star of Midsomer.

He reveals: “One of the most common things shouted at me in the street is ‘Where’s your dog?’.

“Ever since I came into the show I’ve always joked that they didn’t replace John Nettles with me, they replaced him with a dog. People love the dog – and the dog has always been the star of the show.”

Global fame

The programme has been shown in 200 countries, creating fans everywhere from Scandinavia to Australia – so Neil is recognised in the strangest of places.

He says: “Just about anywhere I have been in the past 10 years, someone has come up to me to tell me how much they love the show.

“I met this lovely Italian lady who didn’t speak any English in a museum in Florence, shouting and gesticulating – and the only word I could pick out was ‘Barnaby’.

“Her English friend told me that she was writing a dissertation on crime in fiction and she was using Inspector Barnaby as an example.”

Co-stars

In the past 10 years DCI Barnaby has had three sergeants by his side.

Currently it is DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix). The others were DS Charlie Nelson (Gwilym Lee) and DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes).

Neil says: “Jason and I got on like a house on fire. When he left I thought ‘it won’t be the same’.

“Then we found Gwilym and he was great fun. He left and I thought ‘I can’t be lucky a third time’. Then Nick came along and we have a tremendous laugh.

“It’s important as we are together 12 hours a day, five days a week. I spend more time with Nick than with my family.”

The laughs on set

With all the peculiar and outlandish murders Barnaby has to solve, such as the case involving the death of a birdwatcher, which starred James Dreyfus and a mercifully tame swan, it is no wonder the actors sometimes struggle to keep their laughter under control.

Neil says: “We have to try to do it very seriously with a very straight face. There was one time when Jason Hughes was the sergeant and we came back from lunch.

“He started laughing, then that set me off and we both ended up absolutely hysterical. In the end the director said, ‘If you can’t control yourselves you will have to go out, off you go’. He had to order us out like a he was a schoolteacher dealing with a bunch of infants.”

The A-list guests

Some of the most famous faces in acting have appeared at Midsomer’s grisly murder scenes, from Olivia Colman and Orlando Bloom to Henry Cavill.

Neil says: “I am always thrilled with the older actors who come in who I knew from TV as a boy. People like Edward Fox and Derek Griffiths. Claire Bloom could hardly sit down without me asking what Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton were like.

“Having the opportunity to work with Claire, who could tell the most amazing stories about the greatest people in acting, was amazing. William Gaunt starred in The Champions when I was a kid. To be able to talk to him about that was fascinating.”

Stunning locations

Neil says: “The English countryside is just stunning and we are out in it in all weathers. I had never really filmed or lived in the country until I did Midsomer.

“But we have filmed everywhere from tiny cottages, where you keep banging your head on the beams, to huge great stately homes.

“We have filmed in a lot of grand houses and little thatched cottages. If it is out there in the countryside of southern England we will have pretty much filmed in something like it.

“Seeing all these places has been pretty fantastic.”

The weird murders

The show is famous for its tall tales of bizarre murders carried out in the most unlikely, sedate locations.

Neil says: “A woman who was shot with a confetti gun on her wedding day. Also Kelly Brook played a woman who was asphyxiated with her bodice on her wedding day.

“One of my personal favourites was a man who was smeared in truffle oil, tied to a tree and eaten alive by a wild boar. Then there was the man who fell off the battlements of his castle when he spotted a headless horseman in his courtyard.

“Then there was when the lovely Martine McCutcheon got battered over the head with a wheel of cheese.”

Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/midsomer-murders-neil-dudgeon-lists-23886925