Returning: Midsomer Murders, Wire in the Blood

The ABC returns with a new series of UK crime dramas Midsomer Murders and Wire in the Blood soon. Impressively, Midsomer Murders only aired in the UK last month, while Wire in the Blood will screen just days after its UK premiere. The ABC gets into fasttracking too….?

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (pictured) returns in “Blood Wedding” at 8:30pm Sunday August 31 on ABC1. At a society wedding the maid of honour is stabbed to death at the reception.

Meanwhile, Wire in the Blood’s eight-week series, will comprise a new format of four two-part stories. Starring Robson Green, it returns 8:30pm Friday September 5th.

Press Release:
Wedding bells ring out in Midsomer at the start of a new series of ABC1’s top-rating drama, Midsomer Murders.

Proud father DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) is looking forward to walking his daughter Cully (Laura Howard) down the aisle at her marriage to fiancé Simon (Sam Hazeldine).

But when another wedding day in the picturesque countryside is shattered by the fatal stabbing of the bride’s maid of honour, Barnaby finds once again that murder and mayhem drag him away from his family.

As wife Joyce (Jane Wymark) despairs and Cully suffers last-minute nerves, can Barnaby discover the dark secrets haunting the upper crust Fitzroys and still make it to the church on time?

This episode, Blood Wedding, marks the beginning of a new series and new cases facing Barnaby and his sidekick DS Ben Jones (Jason Hughes).

Blood Wedding also features a special guest appearance by Daniel Casey as Barnaby’s former sidekick Gavin Troy.

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Wire in the Blood
In Unnatural Vices, the first episode in series six of this compelling drama series, clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill (Robson Green) is brought in by Inspector Alex Fielding (Simone Lahbib) to reveal the identity of a grisly serial murderer who is capturing, imprisoning, torturing and then eating his victims while they are still alive.

When a young Kurdish girl goes missing, and her father confesses to her murder, it seems like a cut and dried case. But as it becomes clear that her father falsely confessed to protect his daughter’s honour, Tony and Inspector Fielding are drawn into the dark world of sexual sadomasochism – the one element which seems to link several gruesome murder victims.

After visiting a local S&M club, where the Madam provides some useful information about her regular clients, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. All of the victims were loners in need of a shoulder to cry on, and the modus operandi of torture and death is consistent in each case.

So who is responsible? The local school teacher? The helpful psychiatrist? Or the husband of one of the victims who models shop mannequins and has a fascination with body parts?

Meanwhile, DC Collins’s girlfriend disappears and questions are being asked about his involvement – and why a leather whip Collins stole from the S&M brothel he’d been investigating was found in her apartment.

Tony’s psychological insights into the mind of a killer finally lead Inspector Fielding and the team to the murderer – as always, with a twist in the tale.

Classified: M * Strong violence, adult themes and sex scenes.