![]() "Then it's just gone on and on and there never seemed to be any reason to stop doing it.Real Rail Adventures: Swiss Winter Magic Duration: 0:56:45 ![]() "I've sort of repaid the faith of the people who cast me in it," muses Neil. Ten years in, he seems comfortable with the idea of steering the gentle whodunit into the next decade. Now he's known all around the world as crime-buster Barnaby, keeping order in the blood-soaked county of Midsomer. He explains he's been contemplating buying a pet for the past decade, but the difficulty is in knowing which breed and from whom to buy.īefore Midsomer, Neil was a jobbing actor who starred in reputable series like Common as Muck (1994-97), Messiah starring Ken Stott, and Life of Riley opposite Caroline Quentin. I'd quite like to get a dog but that's a very difficult thing to do." "I read and I write and I muck about with the kids. "The things I look forward to doing are the things I've looked forward to doing before, which are going down to the pub, cycling up the river to go to the football, and having a few beers when watching the football. You can take the boy out of Doncaster, but you can't take Doncaster out of the boy. I've got several buckets that I'm quite happy with," quips the actor, who has two teenagers with Peate, Greta and Joe. "I've never been much of a one for bucket lists. He scoffs genially when asked if it's focused his mind on achieving any "bucket list" experiences. “My wife is of the other school, where from about two minutes into a two-hour film she will be saying, 'It's the woman on the bicycle' and then of course the woman on the bicycle gets killed, so then, 'It's the man in the hat.' The more she comes up with reasons to justify her stab in the dark the more it spoils my enjoyment."Īlongside celebrating a decade in the role, Neil also reached another milestone in January - his 60th birthday. "I would happily sit and watch a whodunit, just enjoying it and knowing at the end they'll tell me who the murderer was. "Of all the episodes I've filmed I have managed to guess who the murderer was once," confesses Neil, adding that watching murder mysteries at home causes tension between him and his wife, radio producer Mary Peate. "My character was actually trying to seduce Joyce Barnaby, which is getting a bit weird." It's strange in that in his later incarnation as John Barnaby, Joyce was his cousin's wife. "I still get messages via Twitter of, 'Oh I just saw that Neil Dudgeon being a saucy gardener in an episode from years ago," he chuckles. Neil was once part of that parade, starring in an early episode of Midsomer - he played a randy gardener in 2000's The Garden of Death. "Half a century later, I'm working with him in Midsomer Murders, going, 'It's Derek Griffiths!' It's an unbelievable parade of great people." He was a hero of my childhood from PlaySchool and Play Away. As for this series, I must mention Derek Griffiths. ![]() "I couldn't believe I was working with my acting heroes. "My first two episodes of Midsomer were with David Warner and Edward Fox," he says. Neil, whose on-screen wife Sarah is played by Scottish actress Fiona Dolman, admits to being frequently starstruck. This series' guest stars include Griff Rhys Jones as a landed beekeeper and Cold Feet's John Thomson as a heart op patient. "I thought we had lost the plot with the 2016 episode about UFOs crashing in the woods, but the writing was so brilliant it all made sense and we had Alison Steadman in that episode."Īlongside high production values that make rural England look dappled in perpetual summer sunlight, famous guest stars have always showered stardust on Midsomer: Olivia Colman, Edward Fox, Claire Bloom, Orlando Bloom and dozens of others have appeared. "Martine McCutcheon killed by cheese, of course, and the guy who was covered in truffle oil and eaten alive by a wild boar were very inventive. "Some of the deaths have been marvellous," he snorts. Neil finds himself constantly tickled by the inventiveness of the writers. The deaths are often marvellously baroque in nature - in this series, a victim is stabbed by a bamboo stick used in the Japanese martial art Kendo, while another meets his maker after being swarmed over by bees. Quite simply, it couldn't be more Middle England.
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