" […] Viewers’ fascination with crime dramas is here to stay, according to top TV detective DCI Barnaby.

“Midsomer Murders is in a tradition of whodunits that goes way back. It seems the British public have an endless appetite for how other people kill and why they do it. There’s nothing else like it." “The first job I did was The Experts about forensics. Now there are whodunits, procedural cop shows and more exotic things like us. If you look at any given week, across the channels, terrestrial and satellite, you’ll find in excess of 100 shows that have to do with crime-solving.

“It’s terrific that Midsomer Murders is so popular, but I can’t travel anywhere in the world now without someone recognizing me. Critics are everywhere!” The first two films in the new series see DCI Barnaby investigating the deaths of a funeral director and a leading member of the Midsomer Rowing Club. “The body count is as high as ever, the suicide count is up but our clear up rate mercifully remains at 100 per cent. We’ve done over 40 episodes and we must be up to a couple of hundred murders. We’ve had people falling into ploughing machines, we’ve had pitchforks in backs – we haven’t had an ordinary murder for years!”

“Dead in the Water” was filmed at Henley Regatta and Kevin Maxwell’s home was among the locations used. Says John: “He was a splendid fellow with an extraordinarily capable wife. They were very kind and courteous to us. We go to some great locations but my ideal would be that Barnaby would be on the beach in Barbados or Antigua and solve the problem over the telephone!”

John starred as another TV detective, Bergerac, for nine years and he has also been a long-running player with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He recently appeared in the BBC’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and until recently starred in pantomime each Christmas. “We film Midsomer Murders for 10 months of the year now, so it’s impossible to have any serious plans outside the series, apart from survival.”

Born in Cornwall in 1943, Nettles was adopted at birth. Currently, the actor lives in a converted barn near Stratford upon Avon with his wife Cathy. He has a daughter, Emma, who is assistant registrar for Jersey, and a five-year-old grandson Nathan.