A slow agonising death on Midsomer Murders

The first episode of Midsomer Murders with Neil Dudgeon in the lead role coincided with the departure of the series co-creator and producer.

True-May had been suspended (not suspended in quite the same way as the new DCI Barnaby at the climax of his first case but you know what I mean) when a row blew up over the lack of black faces on the show.

He was later reinstated but will leave the show at the end of the current production run.

In other words: a slow death giving him plenty of time to reflect on what happened.

It is, in its own way, just as cruel as some of the outlandish means of deaths in Midsomer Murders.

Goodbye, Mr True-May, nice show, shame that the last bastion of Englishness will have to continue without you.

Dudgeon's opening episode was part old, part new.

No black faces, nothing new there, and a slight tugging of the forelock to the wealthy and powerful, nothing new there.

But there was something...different.

This new Barnaby came across as slightly ruder than his departed cousin, played by John Nettles, with a less likeable personality.

A bit obnoxious, a bit unpleasant, and there are hints of a less than cordial relationship with sidekick Ben Jones.

The plot itself was way off the realism scale with a vintage car rally at a school for post totties and a disappointingly low death-count of three.