For some reason, all of the.
Hay mania.
Came. Midsummer mania.
Woo hoo!
Snow on the ground.
Jan, you know what time it is?
Brand new Midsummer Episode Time.
Book of the Dead.
Midsummer Maniacs is part of the Maniac.
Mystery Maniac.
Midsummer Maniacs is part of the Maniac Network.
How are we a network?
I guess so.
What other maniac shows could we have the beginning with them?
The Meet Me. Next.
I don't want to be announced.
At all to be on that show.
What else can we do? Vampire maniacs.
Look at this mirror.
Mighty Maniacs.
My, That did Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Recap Milk Maniac.
it's all about milk.
No, thank you.
Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV.
Each week we dig into an episode of the show,
including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love.
my God.
This episode took me so long
to get through because there's so much stuff in it.
Yeah, we're talking about season 24 Episode two of Midsomer Murders.
Book of the Dead.
It's the wrong title.
It's the wrong title, but okay.
It should just be called like Puzzle of Death or.
The. Seekers of Death.
Feel like your children obsess over a puzzle book
created by someone who lives in your house for numerous years.
So much so that they have a conspiracy.
But then they can probably. Listen to this.
Unless you think it'll just encourage them or you don't want. To.
Wow. This is this is the most bonkers episode
we have had in at least three or four seasons.
And it's bonkers in a way that Midsomer is really good at being.
It's not that there's there are wackadoo characters.
Yes, yes.
But the whole premise of it is so quintessentially Midsomer.
Gosh, yeah.
That there is a book that is filled with puzzles that lead to a treasure
that is worth a life changing amount and that we see
hardly ever full pages of it, but we see glimpses of it everywhere.
I think it's
the kind of thing that somebody who likes mysteries would be attracted to.
So it's a clever kind of plot device for Midsummer to use.
Yes, it it it appeals to the audience.
It does.
It'd be like
if they were having a murder mystery party, you know, we'd be into that.
Sometimes when they give the premise of the show away, you're like,
I wonder why they're doing that.
But this one, you're like, yeah, I get that.
Of course. Yeah.
Yeah.
Original Air Date is the 11th of December 20, 23.
Mere months ago. A month ago.
Directed by Gil Wilkinson and written written by Geoff Povey.
Remember, we're going to spoil this episode.
So if you have not seen Book of the Dead yet, please don't listen any further.
Step up when it's available to you.
Listen to our mini episode, which is spoiler free.
First, then watch it, then come back and listen to this.
We don't want to ruin it for you.
It's a brand new episode and you won't want to watch it.
No one who did it.
That being said, I know some of our listeners actually listen to it anyway.
Even if they haven't watched it.
No, the word just that funny.
I don't know about that.
Asked our children. I just think they know that.
For somebody who likes the show, it doesn't really ruin it for you.
You'll watch it anyway. So, you know, that's all good.
If that's what you want to do, that's fine.
But just don't turn around and go. But you said you did it.
We told you we were going to. Yep.
We're going to say who did it.
The other spoiler of this episode is we think
we talked about these things and that,
but we're on episode 190 now and I can't remember
everything we've talked about in that space of time.
We're having a bit of déja vu about a couple of topics,
so I'm not going to say I don't think we've talked about them.
I feel like we have, but I can't remember when and when.
But it it's fine.
We searched our notes and we could.
Do just fine. So anyway, it's a matter.
If well, it's two possibilities.
One, you remember that
and we didn't go into it nearly as much as we're going to go and do it today.
So there's that added bonus and if you don't remember,
well, it's new to you.
Neither do we hear you.
it's just another fun part of getting old.
Welcome to episode 190.
I just bought a lamp to sit next to the chair.
I sit in when we watch TV that has a five times magnifying
light on it so that I can see when I'm sewing, sitting there,
because I've been doing a lot of hand
sewing lately and I couldn't see the thread, the needle.
Well, in that room, the stars, the worst lighting.
It is very bad light.
Well, the. Whole house is the worst.
The the our house, the people who owned it before, a very nice people.
But they decided to light from the outside and not from the center.
Of any room. Of any. Room.
Yeah, it's all like down lights around the edge of the room
for a dramatic effect, but not for being able to see squat.
And you can't.
Just put a lamp in the middle of the room.
Like that.
You at least sit under the.
The ring of light?
Yes. In the living room, I sit in the darkness.
That is the middle. Of the room. Yeah.
So you can't see any?
No, I. I'm surprised you didn't use the remote.
I couldn't read a book.
No, definitely. Couldn't read a book.
But getting that lamp.
I'm in the zone of darkness.
It has a little bendy arm that I can bend over
so I can hold my sewing underneath a big magnifying glass.
And I just felt like, Hello, Mark.
Thank you for coming to visit me in the nursing home.
It's so nice of you.
Did you bring me any chocolates?
Yeah. I feel like an angel.
And Olive hates it with a red hot patch.
Passion.
my gosh.
Olive, as soon as I'm plugged in, she's, like.
So freezing.
All of it.
But what I don't understand.
It's offended her in some way.
So, you know, forgetting whether we've covered a topic in a past
episode is just another link in the chain of oldness.
Now I'm going to say something here
that we haven't talked about, but I noticed it on viewing.
Whenever there's something bad happen or about to happen or
or ominous, if you watch the episode again,
the traffic sign is in the background, It's really.
The farm.
Shop. No, no, no. The trash
contractor sign.
that's outside the church at the beginning.
they totally use that as a Here's our clue.
Hey, guess who did it. Yeah, this guy.
okay. We're.
We're going to get into this for the art direction team for this episode.
This may go down as their favorite episode.
It should, because it's great.
They do all sorts of crazy.
And they got to do so many fun things.
It's like whoever got to write designed the book itself
and do the illustrations for the pages must have had so much fun
because they got to
they got to create all those illustrations and put in all kinds of crazy objects.
Yeah, that should look like clues that are clues to nothing.
Nothing, nothing.
And they don't have to worry about whether they make sense or not.
It doesn't matter. It's so fun.
I would love to do that. Yes, absolutely.
And I've designed so many games myself that I know how hard it is.
It's impossible.
It's really difficult to create puzzles like that.
And the fact that they could create something that looks like that.
But actually it. Doesn't have to work.
My favorite is on the new page.
There's just an ice cream cones. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so we're in Mars. Maya.
Yeah. Where we've never been before. No.
We also have eight watch like a maniac.
Questions that we asked in the Mini.
Yep. Will will highlight where those are as we talk through the episode
and all the craziness.
And we are in the new cop shop now.
Top shop.
B b. So next.
So just just they've moved. Just.
But they make no note of it.
No at all.
They just moved.
Just in the cold opening.
Just in the cold opening alone.
We have the book cover. Yeah.
We have posters.
Yeah, we. Have the seeker t shirt.
Did you see the secret T-shirt and what it said?
Are you the Seeker? Are you that seeker? Yeah.
Well, one of the
ladies that comes to the book signing has that shirt on.
But she also has a bucket hat on. Yeah.
That has this non-attached bit that supposed to look like it's on the hat
but isn't that says I'm that seeker.
All. Of that before we even get a line of.
Dialog never mind Salena Caddell
OC who's been in midsummer twice before.
When is Selena going to die?
Because she is spectacular.
No, she's going to be a victim.
Yeah.
And her name is. Venetia, but she dies.
It just gets better all the time.
She dies in every episode she's in.
I think it's in her contract.
I think.
I think Selena won't agree to be on Midsummer unless she gets to be a victim.
She's absolutely fantastic.
Did you notice it right away?
I'm noticing things like this.
The guy comes up to Bertram to sign his book.
Bertram signs. And steals his pen. Steal.
He hands him his book and his pen to autograph the book?
Yeah.
And then, like, puts his hand out for his pen back,
and Bertram just puts it in his pocket and he's like, well.
And it's a nice pen. Yeah. It's not like a big.
No, it's like a like a clicky pen.
Yep. Pretty clicky. Pen.
Pretty quick there you go.
And Ludo is in the front row.
We had a watch like a maniac question that was related to Ludo.
Yeah, it was number three.
Why is Leto's name important?
This is quite the nerdy question.
This whole episode is about a big puzzle.
About a game.
Yes, Ludo.
Is the wild D'allergie is the study a.
Study of games. Games and puzzles? Yes.
So he's Ludo.
It's also my favorite character from Labyrinth.
Yes. The big guy with the ring in his nose. Yes.
Ludo?
Yes. The biggest Muppet.
Ever. Yeah. Very big.
This character, Ludo resembles that Ludo?
Not a single bit.
And they have nothing in common.
No, they. Have the same number of limbs. That's about it.
So. Yeah. So that was that One is Clue D'allergie.
It's the study, a study of games and puzzles.
And we thought that was a funny reference.
Okay, Sarah, you've written a book in which there's a puzzle.
No one has solved this puzzle for ten years.
Okay, we're going to do a new version of the book.
With a new page.
This is all from when we get to talking about masquerade
because it went through something similar, right?
You're going to have a newspaper person interview your author?
Yeah.
Would you not vet this person before that?
That who?
That's the reporter who's going to ask the questions.
What do you mean?
Like, would you not say ask these questions?
like, would you not set up some parameters for the interview? Yes.
Especially since being done in front of an audience.
Yeah. It's not just a one on one interview.
Yeah, you could, but it doesn't prevent her
from asking something that you didn't agree to.
Maybe people do it all the time, but.
We've both worked with publishers.
No publisher would ever agree to anything.
But they also don't know that there's anything to ask about.
That's true.
I love the publisher.
Characters are never seen or discussed.
I guess her. Name is Jane.
That's it.
She's Jane the publisher, and she's like, I'm out of here.
You're crying.
Goodbye, con man.
Look, there's a rooster on the church. Is that a. Clue?
No, no.
You see that child?
This episode, whole episode is like it messes with you.
Because you're in this mindset of a puzzle solver,
because everybody in the episode is solving puzzles.
But they don't mean it. It's. I.
I found myself going.
Exactly. Yeah. Well, how. Are they trained?
What does that mean, work, Nothing.
It means nothing, Sarah. Nothing. Nothing.
So the cover of the Seeker book has four puzzle pieces on it.
One is of a pirate. He's got a.
They had their little vignette from pages in the book.
One is of Stonehenge, one is a Golden Knight, and the other is a bus driver.
Did you notice I got the book out?
Yes, you did.
Sarah has a book.
As soon as I saw the book, I.
Was like, posit? Yeah.
The first time we watched the episode of my posit,
I think I have that book and I go looking around and it was
because our house is pitch black all the time and it was nighttime.
I couldn't find it then.
We live in the journal.
Because our library has one one bulb lamp.
For a room that is 20 by ten easy.
We're not trying to get a sponsorship.
From light bulbs.
I couldn't find it. But then I did find it.
And I have a book called Puzzle Craft that is about making puzzles
that looks amazingly like the front of this book, and it predates this episode.
So I.
Know.
It's a great book if you design puzzles, but if you don't, it's a nerd book.
But it looks just like it.
If we were to say, I don't know, interview the person who did the art direction
for this app, we would. Have to. Ask.
Them if they on that book.
It looks just like it's just like
a nerd.
Bill Okay, So at the event where
the reporter asked, So are you still a con?
Do you still beat your wife? That kind of leading question. Yeah.
And out to Bertram, we have the most amazing
crowd of civilians in the sea.
You've got the workshop.
Was that I.
Am. That speaker hat was excellent, but not nearly as excellent
as the pink haired lady. There is a lady.
She's about three rows from the back on the right.
Well, have a screenshot the.
Right hand side of the screen.
And she has a gorgeous mohawk.
Yeah. It's not just pink hair.
It's hot, hot, bright pink.
And most of her head is shaved except for a mohawk
that is gathered into a series of little ponytails of pink awesomeness.
She is. She's hardcore.
So fantastic.
And so not Midsummer. No.
And there she
is in the audience, happy as a clam.
Because usually when they do these crowd shots you want in the script
people, right?
Because you don't want anything drawing the attention away
from your actors or the story. Yeah.
And that is completely understandable.
But if there's somebody in that crowd who betrays that rule, we will find them.
We found them before.
And Pinky.
Pinky is that lady right on? Pinky.
You go, girl.
Absolutely fantastic.
She's she's at least 45, if not 50. Yes.
And working it.
Yeah. Yeah.
We'll share a picture of her If you guys.
Mister best extra of the episode.
We find out he's criminal.
And then we begin to see parts of pages.
The marked spots in x.
boy, do I spot X's in this book.
There's a page just lying on the ground that gets run over by a bike.
That has a double decker bus on it. Yes.
And then there are Eli.
And what is. This?
Danny and Danny?
Who are Danny Dunne?
She's, like, moving him out already.
You mean Madame. Blanc? Yes,
because.
Danny's played by Sally Lindsey, who is still right now
starring in the Madame Bloch Mysteries. Yes.
She just kind of did a gig here.
As soon as I saw her, I was like, Madame Blank.
And Eli is played by Sean Dooley.
Who is fantastic.
He's a great actor.
Yeah, he was also in left for dead in season 11, but he was also in Misfit.
Yeah, which is not a show for everybody.
I know we've talked about that before, but man, is it awesome.
Misfits is so good.
If you can handle a little bit of crude humor.
It is. Yeah.
They're both really good actors.
You'd sell your sister for a slice of cheese and you don't even like she.
Yeah, that's like
a mezzo.
It's okay.
Yeah.
So Bertram has been crashing with them for six months.
So. Okay.
And they're back in his butt.
He's been crashing with them for six months, but
he's had some time to decorate.
It tells you everything you need to know about how egotistical he is,
but he's been living there for six months, and we see a little sliver of his room
and he has two photos of himself up on the wall in this room.
One of them peering around the.
Walls like a little peekaboo picture of him.
So the work that went into this episode. Yes.
Just think about how to get those pictures to get them blown up.
Do you think that's one of John Paul Shaw's actor shots?
I think. Of him. Playing. Peekaboo.
I think that makes it simple.
But they still had to blow them up and put them in free.
Gifts.
And then hang them on the wall the right way.
Looks so. Much way into this episode.
But it it says so much about who Bertram is.
Yeah.
That he has made himself quite at home.
Yeah.
Basically, he's blackmailing them to even stay there.
Yeah.
Now let's talk about him staying there, okay?
Okay.
Because I know this is a giant bee buzzing around your boss.
So Ludo is there, son.
Okay. How old do you think Lulu?
I think he's like 18.
Yes, he's a very young adult.
Eli and Danny Trask and their son Ludo.
Yes. And Bertram has been staying with them for six months now.
Ludo is really, really, really into the Seeker.
So much so that he's got a secret shack.
He has a shack, he's got a conspiracy hut.
Okay? He's really, really, really, really into it.
In this show of conspiracy, hard, this is one of the best one.
Quite the secret shack.
Yeah, but then the author of that book comes to stay with you.
To live with you.
It's like sharing a bathroom with you. Yes.
Would you not pester him constantly?
Well, first of all, it would be like for Ludo,
it's like a rock star came to live with you.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Like, my dad knows this person. yeah.
my gosh.
I've been infatuated with this book, and now he's living with us.
Yeah, You would talk to him every second of every day that you could.
And we can only assume
that Ludo has done that in the past and has been told to stop.
You couldn't help. No, you couldn't.
It'd be like your favorite band is living in your house.
Yeah.
But then the problem arises
that I came into at this point, right?
Which is just imagine if Ludo won.
Yeah, if he found the treasure.
Okay, so this treasure hasn't been found for ten years.
We know that winter we talked about the Barnaby Summer.
Winter.
Yet we know that winter's obsessed with this book.
So much. So he lost a girlfriend? Yes. Okay.
You find out that the treasure has been found in the town
where the author lives by a shire road in the author's house.
Yeah. Your son would go ballistic.
Yeah. You would be like this is.
I think there would be lawsuits.
Yeah, because you.
Couldn't help but suspect that it was a fix.
Up. Well, okay, so let's talk about this.
There have been a number of these before.
The most famous of these being masquerade.
These being books or stories that were put out into the world
by authors that supposedly contained clues
to a big treasure that the author had hidden somewhere
in the world that you could find if you solve those puzzles.
That has happened in the real world.
Several times before.
The biggest and most well known being masquerade.
Yes. Which is a book that was written in
78 was published in 78.
This is one of those things we think we may have talked about before,
but we can't remember any. William Yes.
Now, 78, I was going to bookstores as much as I possibly could.
I was reading voraciously at this point in time.
So I absolutely remember this book.
I remember it being a big thing.
It was a bestseller.
I remember
it was a bit daunting, this book, so that I could go through the picture.
Clues to find the Golden Rabbit.
Yes, I remember. I would have been ten.
This is like.
Crack, ten year old. Right in my wheelhouse.
Right.
And this is the most well-known and the
I would say almost the best run of all these.
And it had lawsuits against it.
Yeah, it was not straightforward.
So the idea was that you're supposed to follow the clues
and then you would find this golden rabbit that was hidden somewhere in the world.
And that's why I didn't buy the book, because I was.
Like, I'll never be able to go in.
I'm ten and have no drive.
And my.
Daughter's. Birthday.
Glad.
Sorry, I don't even like driving to town.
So no, I will not be biking.
So did anybody ever find it? I don't. Remember.
It was a 18 karat gold
jewel encrusted pendant of a small hair.
That's not life changing that.
Yeah. Well, it might have been worth a grand.
That was in a small ceramic casket.
Are you kidding? This year.
Methinks the
writer of this episode may have heard about it. Yes.
So it was found by a person and then they published
The solution in 1982 is a book with all the solutions in it.
but there was some scandal over it.
But I'm glad they did that because that provides satisfaction
to all the people who were into it and didn't solve it.
Yeah, you.
Can finally get the answers to everything.
Would be so nice.
You can buy the book
with all the answers in it that do you know where the rabbit is now?
No, it's in the Vienna.
The Victorian. Albert. Yeah, it's.
It's a piece of art in the Victorian.
So where was it?
Do you know where she found it?
Like, was it buried or was it like in a lock box or.
That they found it in, out in that ceramic thing
using metal detectors somewhere in amp.
Phil Is that in England?
Yeah, I think so.
But you don't know where it was.
Yes, it's in.
But like if it was Bedfordshire it or.
Yeah, it was buried. Okay.
So it was in Bedfordshire.
I would not have found it.
No, I don't think you would have made it there. No.
But this is a rabbit hole really.
For anybody to buy it outside the UK would have been kind of crazy.
So this is and this is like.
This is ten year old Mark. This is.
I want to go to England.
Mark, this is I love everything British Mark This is I read versions like.
If I found it, it would change my life and get me out of this crap hole in my town.
Mark My little head must have exploded.
But have you heard about the Fenn treasure?
Well, let me ask you before we move on to that one, why did people sue?
Because they said that the person who found it knew him closely enough.
It was like three people removed from.
What's her name? Ludo? No.
Did he live with her? No.
And there was.
So they thought it was rigged? Yeah.
And they there was an idea.
There was just an excuse to get all this money to go to animal.
Right.
Okay, so.
Well, I hope they raised money for animal, right?
I hope. So. Yeah. Okay.
So tell me about the other one, Fen Treasure.
So this guy named Forest Fen.
He's a character. Is a dude already.
He's a freelance archeologist who basically just plunders
historical places and steals artifacts, especially Native American.
Artifacts.
He writes this poem.
This supposedly has this treasure of gold and jewels.
At the end of it, five people die looking for this thing.
Yeah, because they climb cliffs in the in the southwest
of the United States, like in the.
Well, what's the name of the big, big hole.
Jackson? No, no. The Grand Canyon.
I can think of it.
I don't know why.
The Grand Canyon, the big hole.
Like people like climbing walls of the Grand Canyon
because they think they know where it is tucked in a niche somewhere.
So then it comes out.
He said that somebody had found it.
He wasn't going to release the name and then he died.
Yeah.
And that's it. And we'll never know. No, no.
It's well known that it was
this guy from Texas.
But there are stories of people going on like Multi-week road trips together
who don't even know each other.
But they're all on the on the trail. Yeah.
And they get together, pile in a car, drive across the country,
go to all these places, find nothing, lose their jobs.
But I. Fall off cliffs, You know.
I found the bottom of this rabbit hole.
it's gold and rabbit.
From the bottom of this rabbit hole is a television
show from the 2002 season, which was entitled, I.
Think I know.
Is it called Push Nevada? Push Nevada.
well.
Is if you've never heard of this
after you're done listening to this episode, of course, give it a Google.
It's crazier than we can.
Say only seven of the 12 episodes aired.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
So this is a puzzle wrapped up in a poorly written mystery
show reminiscent of Twin Peaks, and they don't even air.
The whole show.
Created by Ben Affleck with the final clue being revealed on the Super.
Bowl. Yes,
it is.
So an American cock up of a good idea.
my gosh.
Produced by Ben and created by Ben.
They wanted people to be on the edge of their seats,
you know, eager to see the next episode talking about it.
It was in 2002.
So you had some Internet going on now.
And they they they wanted it.
I mean, it's lost before lost, right?
I mean, it was supposed to be a really big deal and it was too weird.
24 for Twin Peaks.
New Jersey resident Marc Nakamoto won the grand prize by calling
the appropriate number at the right time during Monday Night Football.
That's how you won? Yeah.
And what was the prize?
It was ten GS, I think.
$10,000. Yeah. What would he do?
I would like ten GS, but I don't think it was worth.
What?
There was 13 episodes originally planned.
my gosh.
And the character list is just weird with.
There's like sidekick stuff and mind control
and the whole town is in cahoots and FBI age.
I mean, it is bad.
Twin Peaks is the only way I can describe it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'll put a link to all this in the show notes.
Needless to say, the plot of this episode of midsummer
is original for midsummer, but based on some things that happened in real life,
inspired by things that happened in real life, this has happened.
And that's not even to talk
about all the alternate reality games that have happened, that have have people
traveling all over the world looking for clues and solving
puzzles and answering telephones and all kinds of other stuff
that have happened since then. Yeah.
So it's not an original idea.
Now. For this, but certainly Ludo should not be allowed to win
if there even were a real treasure at the end of this.
Especially when Bertram then shows him the missing.
Yeah, the new page gives him the clue.
Before Bertram is killed, he shows the new page, which includes
mermaid snake thing, an ice cream cone, a turtle.
Well, every illustration features Bertram, too.
Yes, Bertram in a Buddhist position in front of a stained glass window.
That's not a church. It's floating in the sky.
And basically says, I'm not a con man.
I'm not coming. Yeah.
So if you were going to design a game like this and hide a treasure,
where would you hide it?
I have the perfect spot. Where?
So if you have constant listeners would know.
I spent all of the summers growing up until I was 16.
A campsite.
This is why I never went on a summer vacation.
On a.
Lake because my parents said we drove 15 minutes away to a lake.
That's your summer vacation.
You get to sleep in this.
Tent trailer. Camper.
So this lake, which was
40,000 hectares, giant lake in the middle of the lake,
there is two islands, a big island and a little island.
And nobody lives on those island.
No one lives on those islands.
I actually swam to the big island once.
There must be public land a mile.
And a half from the shore.
And in that, of course, as you can
imagine, there are teenagers on this lake.
So there is like a campsite at the top
of this outcropping in on this island that has this cave
like indentation near it, that has a spot in it
that is behind that, which you could hide something about this big.
And no one would.
They can't see how big that is.
Like, it's about a space.
About like a foot. Square, like a liquor bottles. Yeah.
You could hide.
You could easily.
I found liquor bottles in that
spot.
That's where you would hide it. Yeah.
That's smart, because it's on public land, so people could definitely get there
if years back, Dr.
Pepper did a game where there was a promotion
where you could find these coins that were worth anywhere from like $10
to one was supposed to be worth $100,000.
And they had clues like latitude and longitude,
clues on the lids of soda pops and stuff.
And one of the places they hid one was in a national cemetery
in Washington, D.C., and people scaled the fence
to get to like Benjamin Franklin's grave or something crazy like that to find.
And so
because they broke the law to get to the coin, that was worth a lot of money.
It was worth like $20,000 or something.
Dr. Pepper voided it because they didn't want to reward them for breaking the law
to get it that convenient.
But people were upset.
About that too.
I think I would want to hide it,
hide the treasure somewhere where I could keep an eye on it.
Yeah.
So I would know that it's still there.
Like that.
But then it would be really easy to find because people would just stock me.
That island. And.
Then look where I went.
Really put a camera on that island and it's close enough to shore that you could.
Get y fights to get a.
Signal from it and stuff like that. Yeah.
And different eye on it. Yeah. Yeah.
You'd have to do something like that
otherwise somebody could have found it years ago.
Any camera that uploaded once a week. Yeah.
Something. Yeah.
You certainly couldn't hide it literally in the middle of nowhere
and not know for sure whether somebody had found it or not,
because they might keep keep quiet about it.
Right. Yeah.
You find that that jerk archeologist guy's treasure
and it was supposedly like a little box of, like, golden coins and gems.
Yeah. Which you can easily sell yourself.
You don't have to, like, go through him to get the fine from them.
So there'd be no reason for you
to say anything about finding it if you didn't want to know.
And he'd never know it.
There are so many problems with these and people keep doing them.
Yeah. So we've got the trask's, right?
We've got Eli, Danny and Ludo.
Bertrand lives with them.
Then we also have the butt.
The butts. Venetia, Bud and then her son.
Reverend Buck.
Sebastian said.
The rabbi.
The Rev Buck and. His wife Ava.
But and this is what I'm really trying to make.
Butts jokes. Come on. Their last names.
But wow, big like did that to the camera the whole time.
And Othello. Con.
we're going to get to Othello.
There's so much we have yet to.
And that says super villain name. Yes.
Othello Con is the super villain of the episode Who gets Away.
Is played by Ahmed Jolly, who I know is a stand up comedian.
Yeah,
the first time I saw him in the episode, I'm like, Where do you get all that hair?
Yeah, his head. Is a cueball.
Yeah, haven't we?
Have we seen him on Taskmaster? No, no, no.
But we've seen his stand up, by the way. Very funny.
By the way, one of our listeners suggested that we might watch Taskmaster this.
and that, that we, they sent a link to one of the episodes,
one of our favorites, the Gong Bong One. Yes.
And I just want to say thank you.
thanks. You're absolutely right. This is the kind of thing we like.
We love that. Show.
We love that show so much that we do Taskmaster at work.
Yes, we do.
I did it in school for a.
While during COVID. Yeah. Yeah.
When they were doing the at Home Taskmaster.
You were doing it at home with your students. Yeah. Yeah.
So right on, right on.
And then we have the miles. Yes.
Joel and Scarlet.
Well, don't forget Helena.
And her memorial quiz.
She wasn't
even into quizzes that we know of.
She died 25 years ago.
But now after. 24, I. Think.
Yes, 24 after 19 years.
Hey, let's. Have a quiz for mom.
Yeah, like 16 years.
Let's have a quiz for mom.
Because now we own this pub
and we can finally have the quiz that we always wanted to have for Mom.
For mom.
Bertram shows up and leaves
because he's going to go hide the treasure.
We are 8 minutes into the episode and I spend the next
40 minutes of my life dissecting
how this murder could not happen.
Okay, let's talk. About it first.
Let's talk about what Bertram is doing.
Yeah.
So the idea is he's going to go out and he's going to bury this golden angel.
In a ceramic box.
In a. Story.
Heard that. Before?
Yeah, in a giant.
Glass glass. Globe underground.
He's going to dig a hole and bury it
because people are suspicious that there actually is no treasure.
And he thinks by pretending to bury it and sharing
a picture, that he's able to prove there is a treasure.
Yes. Right.
So I'm not a con man.
There is a treasure to be found.
It can be solved.
Yes. Now, one of our watch like a maniac.
Questions was what would not fit in Bertram's backpack?
And the answer is that giant glass globe that is bigger than his backpack.
Yes, but. He supposedly took it with. Him.
I know for a fact that that globe would weigh at least £40.
Yeah, because it's heavy. Yeah.
The art direction in this, the production is great.
Except for that angel.
It's brass.
It's brass all day long, or it's.
I think it's designed to be either way, really crappy.
It's meant to look really crap.
I'm not buying that
because everybody who sees it, first person thinks it's valuable.
Yeah, that's the problem I have with it.
Right When Venecia gets her hands on it, she's like,
you know, this is
going to I'm going to sell this and it's going to change my life.
It's worth so. Much.
Jamie should look at it and go, This is a piece attached.
Even if it was solid gold, it wouldn't be enough money to change your life.
Maybe pay off your car.
Maybe if gold prices were good.
So Burton gets whammo in the head.
Yes. By the shovel.
And then after he's taken pictures and sent them to Ludo.
Ludo.
Never mind the fact that I would be a kind of weird
if my middle aged lodger who was blackmailing me
was sending pictures to my son at night on his phone.
Ludo is old enough that they don't know what he's getting on his phone.
Do you know who sent our kids pictures last night?
No, of course not. But still, they don't know.
And then Eli is a killer.
It's okay if he's not a good parent.
Okay. Okay. Give him a pass.
You may be the quote. Yes.
You want to indict him for being a bad parent?
He kills three people.
Okay? He's got problems.
So a Bertram gets where mode.
And then we see Bertram buried up to his neck.
Now. To not understand or grovel or pees or something.
Like that, it is hurt.
It is. Not. For sure.
If he's been teleported.
Yes. To the forest floor. Yes.
The glass globe is placed on his head as he wakes up.
And then suffocate,
by blowing smoke in the terrarium.
Okay,
We're all with you so far.
Okay.
So you're so stressed out about that
today. Go.
first of all, wait a minute.
Have you dug a hole in our backyard?
I don't know about?
No, but I watched a 90 minute video on
digging a well with a shovel.
Well, that one time you did drop.
A knife off of our deck to see. What would happen.
So it's.
I'm not putting it past you that you wouldn't try to dig a hole.
So first of all, I watched a video about digging hole tool,
and that shovel is the worst tool to dig a hole.
yeah.
Now you would think that a contractor would know that.
Okay.
He went out there with intent to kill him.
Yeah. Okay, Second, second.
But wait a minute. You.
I didn't choose the shovel.
No, I would assume he has other shovels to choose from.
So he brought.
In. It's Bertram who chose poorly.
The shovel that would kill him.
Bertram chose poorly.
Bertram should have picked up better hole digging.
I know his killer.
Dooley is a tall man. Yes.
Get that coal.
He needs a bucket at the very least. Yes.
I watched a video about a guy digging well with just a shovel.
And he came after 90 minutes.
He got to the point where it was at his neck level
and he said, You could not do this without a bucket.
So Och does not have the right.
And a pile of dirt right next to the hole, right
where you're dumping the bucket pile.
Dirt right next to the hole.
Bertram, did he have a tape measure because he measures
it exactly how tall Bertram has to be.
And you're like, well, it doesn't matter how tall he is.
Yes, it does.
Because in order to suffocate
with the glass thing around his head, it has to be a perfect seal.
It's not a perfect seal. He's not going to suffocate.
More importantly, the dirt needs to be up to his neck. Yes.
Because if it's not if it was up to, let's say, the top of his shoulders,
he might be able to wiggle his arms free. Yes.
Right now, I'm going to say that Eli has spent enough time with Bertram
that he knows roughly how tall he is and that if he's got to be
in the hall to dig it that deep, that he could probably estimate it.
What I imagine is this Keystone caper kind of thing where you keep
putting Bertram in the hole and taking him back out again.
He's dunking him in the hole to see if it fits and laying him down.
I got to go down another six inches.
But never mind that he's had to excavate the top like two inches of soil
as like a disc and neatly place it to the side. Yes.
So that he can put it. Put it back.
Perfectly and cut a hole for Bertram's head in the middle of it and then put it,
put it over his head like a donut and mash it down to match it.
Then with that airtight seal, it would not be airtight.
And that exact moment is when Bertram wakes up.
Not during the in and out of the hole.
Yeah.
Or when he's teleported into the ground or anything.
And I think he would already start
to feel like he couldn't breathe from the pressure of the dirt.
That is a factor that I did not work in.
So that ball of glass. The sphere.
Would be roughly ten gallons.
Because the hole is big enough to go over his head.
There's quite a bit of room around his head and.
The respiratory volume of a middle. Aged.
my gosh, you're such a nurse.
Six liters. Per soup. You're on a list now.
You know I'm already on the list. You're on the list for bad Google.
So definitely so that ten gallons
would be 36 liters of gaseous volume.
So he would take 6 minutes at least to die.
Well, to be fair, you don't know how long it's been on his head when we see him
wake up. Yes, Maybe he's been in there for a few minutes. All righty.
Meanwhile, the biggest problem is Venetia is in the woods and sees this.
Why is she in the woods?
Because she's followed. Him.
Did she not say stop?
No, she said and made a sandwich while Eli was test dunking him in the hole.
It would take 90 minutes to duck to dig that hole.
She's been hit.
With the right tool.
She's been hanging out for 2 hours, and.
She brings.
Here. That's what I'm saying.
She's got a snack.
Little, little flask of tea.
She's just chilling out.
Okay. It crosses her mind.
I shot them or anything.
Far too much of my life investigating this single murder scene,
only to in the next scene be even more upset
because what time do you wake up and eat breakfast in the bar to be home.
Before you get there?
I'll tell you, I didn't know how much you had dug into.
Didn't mean that much.
You looked into this.
And so I did a little bit
of looking into it and got as far as how,
my God, dangerous it is to bury people and sand up to their necks.
I, I stopped.
I ran into a number of videos of people who dig big holes at beaches and die.
Yeah. It's like.
Like on accident because it caves in on them,
but also because it's fun to bury people up to their necks.
Don't do. It's not. Don't ever. Do it.
Now, if you're laying down the.
Lane, that's different.
Or if you pile the sand up on to somebody, that's different.
But if you dig down and put somebody in it and bury them up to their necks
for a joke, there was an Austrian swimmer in Florida
who had to spend a lot of time in a hospital after he was rescued
because he got buried in the sand up to his neck because it.
Usually. Breaks.
You don't usually. Collapse your lungs.
Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it.
It's not fun.
Don't, Eli, Don't do it anyway.
Why didn't she say that?
Because she's in.
She's in the bushes with a flashlight looking at the pain.
She's got her mouth full of, you know, jam sandwich.
I guess it is, Venetia But come on, you know,
Barnaby gets interrupted while eating breakfast by Sarah,
who wants her to at once him to quiz her because she's going to be
in the Memorial Pub quiz.
And he complains because she's interrupting his breakfast
at 915 in the morning.
What what do these people do with their lives?
He should be at work for hours. Absolutely.
It's clearly a workday because he's dressed for work.
I know it's not like a weekend where he gets called in.
No, I know that we are people who wake up early.
We get up at 515.
We get. Up very early because. We're dorks.
But we get up before 915 in the morning.
my gosh.
I cannot believe he's eating breakfast at 915.
I've completely
reevaluated my relationship to this character.
Let's let's imagine.
Let us imagine he showers that morning.
Okay, so we'll give him 30 minutes for a show.
my gosh, You can't do this.
Okay, Maybe he woke up at 730, 8:00.
Exactly.
What are you doing with your life, John Barnaby We.
Don't have to walk it backwards time wise. God.
So Eli and Danny, the murderer and his wife, own a farm shop?
Yes. And a tea shop.
Yes. And Winter and John go
there and John eats Winters piece of cake.
And this is one of those examples where it's like the man
keeping the little guy down, mistreating your employees.
I don't find it amusing.
I think he's a jerk for doing it.
Don't like enough said.
That he eats this cake.
No, Venetia is deep in debt.
I need to hide this and look at my email. boy.
What did we find in Vinicius?
Email her. Clairvoyant.
Yeah. So before Reverend, But
stop it.
You're Not in fourth grade.
Says that at.
Least his name is Sebastian or not.
Seymour.
I said that.
Who's he? Give it.
Sebastian.
I'm like, my gosh, You've given money from.
The church fund.
Did you notice how much was in the roof fund?
No. £1,000.
So he's taken all of that.
Yeah, right. Okay.
And that wasn't enough anyway.
To give to his mother for psychics how to get on the bullet train to hack.
How much money has she spent trying to solve this mystery so that she can get
a treasure that isn't even worth as much as she spent to find it? Yes.
So she's she's underwater already.
In her email, we found that her psychic name was Meg Anderson.
Meg Anderson.
I think she's Mystic. Meg. Mystic Meg.
Yeah, absolutely. We got a screenshot of it.
It's at 33 minutes, 43 seconds.
But you you skipped something really important.
there's so much that we skip that's important.
But I tell banned from the quiz for cheating. Yes.
Though he still supports it enough to put a flier up in his shop.
So I found Othello shop.
So as they're walking by towards Othello shop, there's a name of a card.
You mean cons. Collectibles with a K? Yes.
Okay. There's a sign on the fence.
I found this. So
where is it?
This shop is actually in
a place called Penn England.
It's on 17 Elm Street.
And. Is called Strings.
it's a string shop.
Okay.
Now, you mean yarn or you mean like instrument string instruments.
Okay. Like violin strings.
If you're an eagle, I you notice in the last scene
that Conn is in when they're leaving through his door,
the iron on his door is in the shape of violins.
And his closed and open
sign is in the shape of a body of a violin.
Nine.
So they're actually in the store.
Well, that store is having a big sale.
Yeah.
Can't you tell?
It's got signs everywhere.
That's a big sale.
I'm a forgiving person.
Sure, But if I was banned from a trivia contest,
I've not been banned from a trivia contest.
I've been banned from playing Trivial Pursuit with friends.
But that's another thing. Yes.
I would not advertise said. Coffee.
In my store.
No, I think I'd be a little bit too better to do that.
So he's in two places in the shop.
What was behind the register to.
Do all the con stuff?
Yeah, behind the register or you like in a little lounge chair
and there's a clock beside him in the lounge chair.
And something else.
And a thing that we. We.
This is one of our watch Like a maniacs.
It was number six when it's 530 a collectibles.
What does the clock point to?
We don't have the answer. We don't know what it is.
The best thing I can think of is it is a panther on a tree limb.
That's what you think it is. That's what I think it is.
I thought it was driftwood carved to look like a lady.
This could not be two more different things.
May also be a pipe.
I It's a thing.
The others post a screenshot of it and hopefully somebody can figure it out.
The other thing that I noticed with Con Shop
was when he's outside in his car talking to when he's talking to Venecia.
Did you notice the nosey neighbor that walks by at the door who stares?
Yes, the camera.
Yeah. Entire time.
Including what? She's behind con vehicle.
You could see through the window that she bends down a little bit just.
To get a better view.
She's the nosy is the background person. Wow.
But you know what?
I think that's exactly what somebody in midsummer would do.
Yeah.
When you.
What's going on here?
Venetian.
Venetian boxes up to something. But
my gosh, there's so much in this episode.
So then I suddenly this is the point where I got really carried
away, like looking for puzzles in the episode.
Yeah.
Basically giving it more credit than it deserves, you know.
Sort of until I found one thing and we'll get to that.
But because know that Bertram Jewel isn't his real name.
Yes, right.
And his real name is Bertram is Robert Grimes.
Yeah. Sorry. So he kept the bird. The bird.
So I thought, okay, so Bird, a Bertram Jewel is a name he chose.
Yeah.
And if he's into puzzles, maybe it's an and a gray.
Maybe. Yes.
So I went online and used one of those handy dandy anagram solvers.
Yeah. And I found what?
His name actually is, what he was trying to say.
What was your.
Name that we chose?
Well, it could be a few things. Okay?
It could be, but I.
I can't keep a straight face.
It could be.
Any of these things. Are you ready?
Now you can choose which one you think Bertram was thinking of. Mr.
We table. Junior.
But it could be that.
It could be. Beware, Junior. Melt.
Beware. G.M.
rare BMW.
Jet eel
or Tiger.
The last one
is Ram Jam Beer.
Well,
I think the.
Secret message in his name is Mr..
We table Junior.
But you can choose the one that you prefer.
it. Really it could be Ram jam beer.
Well,
is that what happens at the pub we have?
okay.
So dogs and ducks are welcome at the pub.
Sign outside of the pub the dogs and ducks are welcome.
There is nowhere else in the universe That's, that's
dogs.
Welcome. Yes. Ducks.
I don't want no stinking ducks in my pub.
they, they poop on a whim.
Okay. And they can be really mean.
And what if a.
Goose comes in pretending to be a duck?
Geese are. Super mean.
Where can I find a marshy.
Where some marshy?
This is one of the two questions, of course.
Yeah. It's a kind of iron club.
The other one is what is a stream means bristle front.
This is the one she doesn't get to answer because John's phone rings.
do you know what a stream means? Bristle Fran is.
I don't. It's a Brazilian bird now. You know.
There you go.
Now I know.
Okay, So.
So the quiz is this. We're like 20 minutes.
Into the episode, by the way.
I'm just saying we're jumping around now.
So this is my a fine for the episode.
Your trip away?
Yeah, my trip.
Five stars, my five star fuck.
So what is it?
So in the pub there is a trophy.
And on that trophy, this.
Is the quiz trophy? Yes.
Okay.
Talking about how corn has won all the past championships.
Right, Right.
And may do a closeup on.
He's won it for, like the last five years or something.
Yeah, they do a closeup on it. Okay.
It starts in 2016.
Okay.
It has three names, and then the rest are corn.
So 2016, 2017, 2018.
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.
Gone, gone are all those people. And then. 29.
Yeah. They didn't stop for the pandemic by the way.
Not like the show did, but they did. Yeah.
So the first name on this list is Chloe Freaks.
So I'm, like, tickety, tickety, tickety gross.
That is a name of.
Somebody who makes up Venetian bites. Could make up Chloe Ferry.
Chloe Ferry.
Okay, but no, Chloe Freaks is a real person.
Chloe Freaks is the art director of this episode.
that's so. Smart, Chloe.
To put her own name on that. You go to. Fun.
We know the people on the show and people who make the show listen to this podcast.
We know this for sure.
This is confirmed. Yes. By Ned Badland.
At least one.
Okay, Chloe, I.
If you're listening.
I've tried to friend you on Instagram.
Please. Please.
We think you're awesome.
We want to talk to please.
Because we have so many questions.
I think it's.
Absolutely clever that she put her own name on the trophy.
I think that's great.
Abby Bowers is her best friend and is the set director.
Number two.
Not like you're stalking them. No, I got stung.
Michael Arrow back.
I don't know who that is.
I would bet a fiver it's the person who did the art for the episode.
I bet a fiver.
Okay.
And Chloe, if I'm wrong, I'll give you that fiber or fiver
or give it to your favorite charity or whatever.
But that's.
Double it. Yeah. Tell us who I think.
But you got to reach out and let us know one way
or the other.
Make sure you put that in the show note. Yes.
So it's in text somewhere, so maybe.
She might man send her a little at.
She does a little search for.
Well, I'm putting I'm putting that picture on a real.
Yeah. And Chloe, we saw you.
We see you, Chloe, and we think you're awesome.
Maybe this should have won an award for that direction.
Yeah. This episode by far.
Unlike one of the earlier episodes way back when, where there was the sign
that says dress set, do not mess up or whatever, and they forgot. She.
She's not part of that episode. She's.
Done in the last three seasons.
But wow.
What we could learn from her.
I know. Okay, so.
Ludo keeps coming back to his secret shack and finding people in his secret.
Shop, and I think maybe the problem.
Needs a lock on the seat.
Or he. Needs to close the secret.
Door. No, no, just close the door. No.
He finds Barnaby in there.
He finds winter in there, he finds Venetia in there.
They're all. In there.
Hanging out, looking through his stuff, because he just leaves the door
standing open.
And I have to assume it's somewhere very near the Farmstand and the tea shop.
Yes. So people probably walk by the open and think, look.
Conspiracy hut.
Seeker shack can't go in. There.
Okay?
Things in the conspiracy that we have yet to talk about the gnome.
Yes, with 20 question.
Yes. Ludo
was a little worked up about that gnome, sort of desperate to know what it means.
But our favorite is our little green friend.
So on the page that we see very early in the episode on the ground that.
Has the bus.
That has the double decker red London bus, there is a green alien
on the front of it. Too.
There are two on both sides.
It's like a sticker on the bus.
Yeah, which is funny because in my mind I remember
it being behind the steering wheel and that's not where.
I thought it was in the upper deck.
But yeah, yeah.
It is the number 16. Yes.
And that was one of our watch.
Like a maniac.
Questions What number does the alien ride number best as?
Alien ride? It's the number 16 bus. Yes.
And you see it blown up when Barnaby in winter
are in the conspiracy Hut you see that blown up right next to Barnaby?
Yeah. my gosh.
We have so much to cover.
We need to move.
We do so consoled Bertram, the Angel.
Yeah.
So Con knows the angel is not the real treasure.
Yes, because the real treasure would have been buried ten years
and Bertram's just now getting around to it, so.
Can be real.
Yeah. So Con knows Bertram is a con? Yep.
Not that it's a pun on con.
No, Con knows the con.
Danny's lying about knowing Bertram's history
based on bank statements she found in his room.
Yes, she knows. Because she. Knows. Yep.
And Ava is having an affair with Bertram because her mother
in law put her up to it. My
dad family is the worst group of people ever.
The reverend's mother has put his wife up to having an affair.
She embezzled thousands from the church. Yes.
She is terrifically fantastic.
She's so desperate.
To have the solution to the puzzle. Like.
What do you do? You know. This man?
Do you think he ever had like a gazillion dollars that he was able to hide?
He gives us no indication of ever having enough money
to legitimately have a treasure that was worth finding.
Okay.
Never mind that He's a con man and a liar and dead. Now.
Now let's play the game of what if she want?
Well, she wouldn't pay any of the money back.
She probably just disappear with it.
Right?
But still, again, this lady who is desperate for money
because she embezzled it from the church who lived in the same town as the guy
who's one of her her daughter in law was having an affair with.
Yeah. Won the prize again. Decides.
That the
fact that they all live within walking distance of each other is problematic.
And then she dies.
Yes. So, Venetia dies? Yes.
That I don't believe that. Selina In the.
In the. Sheet. In the. Sheet. No, I don't either.
I don't.
That the hips were wrong.
It's a ghost, basically.
So Venetia is strung up in the woods.
Okay?
This death, she suffocated with a bag.
I have no problem with that.
That would work.
Now, how are you going to string her up with a sheet over her?
I assume you got to put the sheet on her after.
Okay. Okay.
So we'll put the cina.
Now, you brought the sheet because you're trying to recreate these pages, right?
Even though these are all rage killings, too.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Never mind the fact that.
So you got to find two trees that are the right distance apart.
Okay, Ahead of time.
Okay.
Now, she would meet him in the in the forest because she's blackmailing him.
Because she saw that he killed Bertram. Bertram?
By the way, if you're blackmailing a killer, don't go to some place.
I know people.
Venetia is a moron if.
You have a moron.
So almost like she has a butt for a time.
Here's what I think happened.
Because Eli lures her there.
He chooses the location. Okay?
So he gets to stage it.
Okay? Right.
So he puts the ropes and the sheet, the tarp or whatever it is,
a ladder or five.
His helpers.
Because he needs helpers.
He can't do this alone unless he's way stronger than he looks.
He gets hired all of that in advance
and then lure her to the location, suffocate her.
Then he has to tie
the rope around each of her wrists and then using like a truck or something
that he's tied them off to, winch her up, secure the ropes, then climb
the big ladder and put the sheet over her and align the face with her face.
Okay, folks, I'm going to get.
And that's how it happened. I'm going to get that cross here.
Do you think
Celina's elbows and shoulders and risk could handle that?
I don't think that her arms would rip off, but I think they dislocate.
It's not nice.
Having looked into being Hong Kong, drawn and quartered more than I should have.
I know we are the weird.
It takes quite a bit of force to actually detach a limb.
So I think she's she's a very slight woman.
Okay. She's birdlike.
I think it would be okay.
The other thing that we haven't even talked about briefly,
Felicia's kitchen is five star.
Her house is for somebody who's deep, deep, deep deep, deep in debt.
She has a beautiful house. That house is gorgeous.
I love her house.
I absolutely love. Her. I don't know what that
is. It's like
a sideways railroad track mounted ladder.
Wow. This thing that goes around her kitchen, it has ivy growing on it,
but it's awesome.
You don't want Ivy in the house. Kids everywhere.
It's beautiful, though.
It's really nice.
So Venetia is dead.
So now we've got two people dead, and Father Butz is starting to lose it.
Father.
But he's ringing the bell and he's talking crazy.
And because he's figured it out.
And now this death is the most realist, Nick,
because there are water leaking buckets around the church from the very beginning.
Right now, that water would not be nice.
Now, I realize it's going in there to die.
Yeah, okay, But still nasty water.
It makes sense.
But that, again, is a rage killing. Yeah.
And then he takes time to.
That said the scene.
Sean Dooley is a maniac.
By the way, Reverend Butts exposed.
Is it?
Is the work of a psychotic?
Yeah, it is absolutely maniacal.
So Eli kills Burt because they go way back.
Yes, right.
They were. Involved.
Years.
They were involved in a con where they sold these gas detectors
that were supposed to save people's lives. That really didn't work.
And a woman died in a fire
due to a gas leak that their detector should have prevented.
And that woman was Miriam, the wife of the pub owner.
The wife.
So it's astronomically.
Helena. Sorry.
Bizarre that that that happened, like, I don't know, a million miles.
Away. Right.
And then they all end up in the same place?
No, because it was in Costa.
It was in Costa.
It was like ten miles away, you know, in the big city where all the cons happen.
My wife has died.
And so I'm going to move 50 miles away.
Yeah. From the big city to own a pub.
So why, why couldn't they say Bedford or Hull?
Let's move to Wales and really have a change of scenery.
So no. He's got to.
All up in the duck in Dog. Pub. Yes.
It's not what it's called.
It's the Red Lion. Yes.
So Collina died because of Bert and Elis con.
Because she saw. It. Yeah. Yeah.
And now Bertram is back.
Eli snaps.
His son is infatuated with the buck.
He got it. All. He's throwing his life.
Does it all for Ludo.
Eli loses it kills Bertram. Right.
But Venetia is sitting secretly in the woods,
eating sandwiches or whatever, and sees all of it and is desperate for money
so that she can spend more money to solve a puzzle
where there's really no prize and get money from throwing good money,
bad money after worse money, embezzled money stolen money anyway.
So she blackmails Eli, and Eli says, I'll give you the final page,
which she thinks will help her solve the puzzle.
If you meet me right, Sebastian just happens to be
in a drunken state of sleepiness laying down in a pew in his own church
and overhears this arrangement so he knows that Eli told Vinny.
And so. His mother.
Reverend Brad.
Decides to blackmail Eli.
To get the money back for the roof. Why?
He thinks Eli has money. I don't know.
I don't know.
Because Eli's been doing work for Butt and he's not paid him.
So why would Eli have a bunch of money
from that really lucrative farm tea shop?
Never mind the fact that his sign is. Everywhere.
Because he's a handyman.
He does all the work for all the people, everywhere, all the time.
So then Reverend Butts has to die.
Yeah, right.
I can only guess that if Eli had more time, Ava really should have been next.
Yes, Because she knows about the embezzlement.
She knows about what Venetia has been up to.
Yeah.
So I think it wouldn't take her long to put the pieces together.
No, those. Basically.
One sounding really stupid.
Basically, one by one, Eli probably would have had to kill off
half the village if he really wanted to cover everything He.
Already. Does kill. The villain.
He's going to have to knock off some more people.
I think, like, you know, Joe at the pub might be next.
I don't know.
Joe is such a total red herring because he actually has a motive and didn't.
Kill. Bertram.
No, He is a poor man whose wife was killed by a scam.
Yeah, he has every reason to want to take him down, and he doesn't.
He makes him sit in the quiz chair and everything.
Why does Joe's daughter Scarlet have a term in the church?
I don't know. And once I was.
So angry with her, it has to do with Oxford.
She's going to go to Oxford.
Because Bertram got in.
How on earth could that.
What sway does he have?
I don't know.
Well, he's a famous author of Seeker.
Okay, but.
Okay, I'm going to tell you, there's a thing that we haven't mentioned
how bonkers Pluto is in the conspiracy hut written on the board.
Did you see the thing about the wheels?
No. Written in all capital letters underlined three times with lines
radiating from it is the phrase All the wheels on the bus are square.
Are they?
I don't know.
I tried to see. Pull up the picture.
I have the screenshot in the folder
which we will share with all of you if it has square.
I didn't notice. They are not.
Mark has pulled up the screenshot to confirm the wheels in the bus
go round and round.
That is where we are left.
This is crazy and say that was.
Just imagine.
Though if it was your job to decorate the the seeker shack. Yes.
You know.
Okay, we've done the illustrations for this fake book.
We're going to blow them up.
Some should be in black and white, some should be in color.
PIN them up all over the place and then doodle on them
as if you're trying to solve a mystery circle.
Random things draw arrows between things that go together, that don't go together.
Let's have a map.
let's put a on his desk and circle
like entire continent on the globe, as if those are the hotspots.
I'm telling you, the very first question
for Miss Chloe Ferry is what is up with the wheels on the bus?
They are running round.
They're not square.
Okay, Sarah, there's another problem.
Okay?
And I want to make this clear.
We love episode.
yeah, obviously.
Okay. 24 years ago, my wife died.
That's a traumatic event.
She died because a man sold her a fake gas detector.
That should have saved her life.
He went to prison.
There was a trial.
At the very least, at least a sentencing hearing.
Because he goes to.
He goes up the pokey for a few years. Yeah.
Would I have not had that man's face burned into my memory?
So that when he walks into my pub, ten, 15, whatever number of years later you'd.
Still recognize. I would instantly recognize.
Mark.
He's changed his name from to Bertram. Duh.
that completely, completely changes everything.
I forgot about that.
He Says he wouldn't recognize him.
He'd say, You.
Look a lot like the guy who killed my wife.
And he says, hello.
My name is Robert Jewel or Bertram? Jewel.
well, then you're not him. Okay, never mind.
Do you have a twin brother?
Do you know?
Okay, when Ava goes to talk to Eli's wife?
She husband's dead.
She is out of money. Yep. She.
Her mother in law's also dead. Yes.
She had a pretend affair, and her last name is. But.
Okay. This woman has problems. Yes.
And Eli's wife goes,
You can have Bertram. Old
man is three days.
Dead.
Cheap gives away his room. Danny.
So ready for him to be out of her house.
I'm sure she's already stripped
everything out of his room and taken his pictures off the wall.
I gotcha. I hope she has.
If not, Ava has to move into the rooms with a picture of the dead guy
that she pretended to have an affair
with peeking around a brick wall looking at her all night.
I hope Danny's cleaned it out.
Who would put that in escrow?
How traumatic would that be?
Well, we're going to get to some drama, because after the episode,
there is a lot of trauma.
Danny is going to be kind of like needing a shoulder to cry on anyway
because her husband's going to go to prison forever
and her son is now whack a doodle because his dad killed his biggest hero
or whatever, and he's never going to know where the treasure was
or if there was a treasure. And that's done.
And, you know, Ava and Danny can just sit around drinking.
Okay. Your husband killed my husband.
Let's be friends.
I did it all for the Ludo.
Okay,
But then Sarah wins the quiz.
Okay.
As soon as I saw the quiz at the end, I had a problem.
Okay.
I know Caan is a smart man.
He tells us over and over again he's a smart man.
He wears a bow tie.
Some uses.
Fancy language. Yep.
His strop is called strings.
I know. Caan's collectibles.
He can't spell, but he.
Can't collect doubles.
From collectibles.
Never mind. That.
Okay, This.
Quiz that he got banned for.
For being too smart.
The owner, the pub owner now begs him to come back.
Why does the pub owner beg him to come. Back so Sarah doesn't run it?
I guess.
I guess an instant he's in the final.
If I was in the other round, I would be so pissed.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Everybody else has a full on another reason to be pissed off.
The detective who's solving a murder in the village for which
Joe is a key suspect, his wife is somehow in the lead.
Him Sarah.
You suspicious dog?
Not suspicious at all.
All of this.
You know who solves the puzzle?
It can't be any of people or suspicious.
She's, you know, winning the quiz.
I'm not saying Sarah is not smart and she's not studying really art.
She doesn't deserve to win.
She gets the last question wrong as far as I'm concerned.
I'll talk about that in a second.
But she should not she should have excused herself from this
as soon as there was a murder or three. Yes.
Never mind the fact that everywhere is a crime scene.
Stop going to villages where there have been murders
to have your little extra activities while your child is mysteriously away.
That's why Barnabas having breakfast at 915.
They're sleeping in because they don't have to get the kid to school.
There we go.
I No, let me tell you why she gets the last question wrong.
Okay, so there's a tie.
And then they ask the last question, which is.
Marge, Mirror.
Mudd's mirrors is. An anagram of.
Which I instantly,
the moment I saw the sign for competition, I was like, That's midsummer.
Yes. The real answer, though, really should be sur modem ceremony. Yes,
that's the writing.
The inventor of the modem. Modem.
So Leslie Modem Midsummer's completely made up her modem.
Real words.
Real person. So.
Leslie Modem. Yeah.
Amber's 1968.
He's probably you know Amber's in B.
Probably yes Duke modem.
Best corpse.
Okay.
By far the best corpse has to be Bertram.
You think so?
Because he sits there in the ground Now, they made it
so that he wasn't being compressed by the earth.
No, really, They.
Didn't really bury the actor alive.
Somebody had to dig a hole that he's standing.
Okay.
I don't agree with you.
I think the rib butts is the best one.
Correct.
Well, why are we blessed with an episode with the RAF?
But because he has to kneel and hang his head.
His legs are going to slap you.
No, no, no. He's in a lotus position. Okay?
So he has to okay. His Legs are still going to sleep.
I'm sorry. They're still going to sleep.
And he has to hang his head and be perfectly still.
That's true.
Like he's not even allowed to lay down and be still.
Yeah, that's hard.
What the person.
And then. And he's wet. SELINA Kyle.
Selina Kyle.
SELINA But her name is Selina Caddell.
Selina Caddell. Finished. Not winning.
she got the best gig of all.
She got to get killed and not even have to play it.
You know, there's a dummy.
Now. Now, let's recall she is in episode one
where she commits suicide in cell.
Her death is not shown. No.
The second episode, she's in Midsomer Life.
She gets killed in the dryer. She gets killed in the dryer.
We investigated that and clearly pointed out it's a picture of her.
Yes. Okay.
So she's not in the dryer.
She never shows up as a dead body.
Selina gets her way every time and doesn't actually have to.
Be a corpse. She's smart.
She has some of the most dramatic deaths without having to play a corpse.
that's clever.
In episode one, Tom Barnaby is so mad because she commits suicide.
Yeah. Because he knows what's going on. But yeah.
okay.
After the show.
Well, Danny
and Ava are going to do kind of a Thelma and Louise thing.
Okay, well, what about what is Ludo going to do with his life?
He's going to have to get over it, okay?
And probably spend his time creating what Sica should have been.
That's what he should do.
Because he spent all this time trying to solve puzzles that don't have a solution.
But he has no money to put up an actual prize.
No, but maybe he can find a publisher who would agree to do it
because he's got a good story about being so close to the author.
And the author died.
So now he's going to create something to replace it.
Maybe.
And I've got a book for him called Puzzle Craft.
That he can use if he needs to write the puzzle.
Things come up with that.
Look what it. Looks just like. SEAGER okay.
I think that would be a great thing for him to do.
Scarlet's going to go to Oxford?
Yeah, Joe's going to run the pub, that's all great.
Con's going to run his thing. Yeah.
I feel sorry for one person who who's not in the episode,
but I feel sorry for this person who So there has to be a new Rav in that parish.
Yeah.
And that Rav has got to look at the books
and explain to the archbishop of that diocese.
That was embezzling what's.
Going on with that church.
And that is going to be a hard conversation.
Yeah, but they aren't responsive for it at all.
No, but still, as a man of God, you got to feel bad.
You have to.
You have to look at your boss and say, Boss, the mother and son
stole all the money.
But the archbishop God. But
I always knew he was.
But I just.
Hope they don't blame, Ava, because it's not her fault she's a victim in all of it.
She's not very sharp and doesn't really have anything now, so.
And the publishers can clearly drop this book.
A ten foot pole.
Drop it like it's hot. Yeah.
Drop it like a ten foot pole. Yes.
Don't you.
Going to cross that bridge when it. Catches your wife?
Know what? That me?
my gosh.
That is season 24.
Episode two Book of the Dead.
I hope you enjoyed it.
We certainly did.
Did we do all of the watch?
Like amazing. We did. Okay. And we did our.
Next will be number three of season 24, which is claws out.
There will be many pets. Yes. Maybe.
Maybe we can have all of guest star detectives.
All of the pet detective. Yeah.
Catch up on all the socials were everywhere.
You know where we are? Yes.
Let us know what you thought of the episode.
You so much for all your suggestions and emails and all that wonderful stuff.
You are all fantastic. We read it all.
Stay warm.
Yes. Cold front going. Cold front.
If you're in North America, you're dealing with it.
That's cold in England.
To all my boaters are dealing with cold, Cold.
I watch a lot of long boat videos.
Through YouTube canal boat videos? Yep.
Stay warm. Stay happy.
We'll see you next week. Bye, maniac. Bye, maniac.
Davina is in the woods and sees this.
Why is the Nisha Vinny, Veena, Vinny Asha.