Cottage, Stocks Rd, Aldbury, Herts, UK - Midsomer Murders, Written in Blood (1998) - Movie Locations on Waymarking.com

The Midsomer Worthy Writers Circle invite a guest author, Max Jennings, to speak to them, despite objections by their leader, Gerald Hadleigh. The circle are a mixed bunch. Apart from the enigmatic Gerald Hadleigh, there are Honoria Lyddiard, who is writing a book on the Lyddiard family, her sister in law Amy Lyddiard, Laura Hutton, a local antiques dealer writing romantic fiction, Brian Clapper writing modernist plays, and his wife Sue Clapper writing children’s books.

Gerald Hadleigh asks Amy Lyddiard to prevent Jennings and himself from being alone together. Amy agrees, but is powerless to stop Jennings going back to Gerald Hadleigh at the end of the evening after everyone else has left, on the pretext that he has left his gloves. Hadleigh gives Jennings a drink and Jennings is later seen staggering to his car, apparently worse for alcohol. The next day Hadleigh is found battered to death in his bedroom, naked, and with his wardrobe emptied.

Suspicion turns to Jennings as being the murderer, however that idea becomes a dead end when Jenningshimself is found dead at his seaside house, poisoned. It becomes apparent that Hadleigh poisoned Jennings with a slow acting poison that allowed Jennings to manage to drive home before dying.

Laura Hutton tells DCI Barnaby that she saw a woman enter Hadleigh’s house with a key a day before the murder. This information, along with the fact that Hadleigh’s car had been stolen the previous day, but only reported several hours later, leads Barnaby to the conclusion that Hadleigh was a transvestite, and that the woman Laura Hutton saw was in fact Hadleigh in drag.

The next piece in the jigsaw comes when Laura Hutton tells Barnaby that Honoria Lyddiard had stolen a naval newspaper from her antiques shop the day before the murder. Eventually Barnaby find a copy of the newspaper in Hadleigh’s London flat. In the paper it becomes apparent that Ralph Lyddiard had a liaison with George Hadleigh in Turkey. Ralph Lyddiard was the brother of Honoria and husband of Amy Lyddiard. Honoria worshipped her brother and arranged his funeral, taking Amy inter her household.

It finally becomes apparent that Max Jennings had been Hadleigh’s psychiatrist before becoming an author. Further, Jennings had written a book about Hadleigh’s life and badged it as fiction. The animosity between them was explained, but who killed Hadliegh?Things come to a head when Barnaby tells Amy Lyddiard that Hadleigh has left her money to leave Honoria’s house. Whilst packing Amy finds a suitcase with Hadleigh’s clothes. Honoria attacks Amy, but falls to her death through a window in the process.

Movie or TV Show: Midsomer Murders - Written In Blood Year Released or First Aired: 1,998.00 IMDB Link: [Web Link]

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.