Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Clive Mantle, Caroline Lee-Johnson, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Sarah Paul, Ian Bartholomew, Colin Salmon, Janie Duvitski, Cian Barry, Tristan Sturrock, Richard David-Caine, Jordan Ford Silver, Bettrys Jones, Jessica Whitehurst, Erin Mullen, Holly Willoughby.
In every English village there surely must be at least one person to whom the belief of the dark arts marks them out as strange within the tightly wrapped community. The interest shown at a young age in magic, in spells, the lure of the Tarot cards and all that it entails, can leave the collective gossiping, pointing the finger at the outsider, and marking them out as one to avoid.
Only when those who have been avoided find a way to come together under one roof, such as in a psychic fair do the masses suddenly find their interest piqued, as though it was orchestrated and attended by the same type of person who would have a couple of hundred years before hand attended with disguised glee and faked disgust the carnivals of the grotesque, the freak show.
The Witches of Angel’s Rise brings the Causton detective team headfirst into the world of the alternative occupation, the ones who are guided by a different light and explanation for the sights unseen by mortal eyes, as murder once more rears its ugly head in Midsomer county.
The sense of superstition, of the voices in the wind that make contact from another realm is given its own credence within the investigation, and for that the believer and admirer of the genre must feel some vindication that against the usual stereo typical writing that accuses the self-proclaimed modern witch and seer of the crime, the trope is used to drive the story rather than explain its ending.
Whilst the view of the craft is one that is tame in comparison, not least for its family friendly time setting in the schedule, it still offers an insight into the mindset of those who view the arts with suspicion, even dread. Quick to blame, the sense of wanting to fend off what is misunderstood, The Witches Of Angel’s Rise is a starting place of discrimination in a modern age, and yet one that still finds time to send Midsomer county scurrying to solve a murder of passion.
A fairly decent tale, one that despite its neat circumnavigation of the darker arts they were alluding to, still manages to keep Midsomer Murders fans deeply entrenched in their viewing.
Ian D. Hall