Midsummer Murders has been in the news recently due to the lack of racial diversity in the series; which has been running for 14 years and has not had any complaint in the whole time it has been aired until now.
The producer Brian True-May said this is a representation of a typical small English village in the country and that in these parts of England the racial diversity is lacking. In a lot of cases this is very true, many rural areas do not have people of a different culture living there, in some cases the citizens may have live there for their whole lives.
In the very first episode of Midsummer Murders it shows a quintessentially English village, filled with old ladies on traditional bikes, posh middle-aged men in motor cars, horseback riders and a farmer-y looking chap in a land rover.
All the citizens in ‘Badgers Drift’ seem quite elderly, eccentric and nosey which is a stereotypical of an English person when being portrayed in television, and the accents they are given reflect the Queens; which to some foreign folk think all English people sound like. The register is very formal, even to friends, and the words they use all pronounced very well.
The houses in which these characters live in are quaint little cottages and old fashioned farm buildings – it’s a very idyllic looking location where nothing could ever go wrong; in the case of some English villages this is very true. The little lanes are surrounded by greenery and hedgerows, and are not wide enough to fit a bike and a land rover down – this suggests a very small population of the village and that the roads perhaps do not get used very much. If it was a very busy area a main road would be added.
Apart from the houses in the area is a small looking village shop and not a lot else, there are plenty of picnic baskets however – one of which the old lady is carry around on her bicycle.
Villages in England are very behind on the times, the decor in the houses is very out dated and the lady in the house is still using a dial telephone (next to it is a cup of tea which further fits the stereotype of the English) and when in the woods she is using a very old fashioned film camera – though this episode was shot in 1997 so we can’t expect too much from the technology.
Natural lighting is used throughout which creates an tranquil environment, the sound is largely diegetic using natural sounds such as birds chirping, leafs rustling in the wind and the bike rolling along the road. The only non-diegetic sound is the music which is quite cheery and summery, then it changes to a more eerie sound with more suspense which hints that something is out of place and all is not well in the perfect community.
It was a huge hit and won many awards; including a Golden Globe.