Secrets and Spies is the third episode of the twelfth series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired on 7th July 2009.
After a break-in at Causton Museum where an animal skull was stolen, ex-spy Brenda Packard tells Barnaby that Allenby House, owned by testy ex-spy master Malcolm Frazer, is a safe house for agents. Geoffrey Larkin, a visiting former agent, has a bitter argument with Frazer, who accuses him of treachery when they were spying in Berlin during the Cold war. Larkin threatens Frazer with a dossier marked "Wolfman" and the next day is murdered, seemingly by a wild animal, the legendary Beast of Midsomer. Frazer's drunkard son Nicky, another ex-spy, is killed in an identical fashion, but Barnaby realises that the "Beast" is but a cover. The true murderer is seeking revenge for betrayal back in Berlin two decades earlier when they were involved with Secrets and Spies.
Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: After being obstructed by MI6 one too many times in his investigation of a murder that they're also blaming him for, a fed up Barnaby resigns and leaves them to it. He's convinced to come back when he gets a phone call all but begging him to help after a second murder occurs, on the promise that there will be no more interference.
- Actor Allusion: The murder takes place during a cricket match. One of the competitors in said match is Peter Davison, formerly the cricket-loving Fifth Doctor. He also conspicuously bites a stick of celery, which the Doctor wore in his lapel.
- Cricket Episode
- Break the Haughty: Glen Jarvis is a stuck-up, snobbish Obstructive Bureaucrat who rudely refuses Barnaby's advice about the security of the house, demands that officers run security on Larkin playing cricket and then blames Barnaby when Larkin turns up dead. However, after a second murder occurs on his watch, he's forced to call Barnaby in a panic and hand the case back to him with the promise of no more obstruction, and is Reassigned to Antarctica at the end of the episode.
- Femme Fatale Spy: Jenny Frazer, trained by MI6 to set up Honey Traps.
- Head-Tiltingly Kinky: The footage of Jenny Frazer, going off Jones's facial reactions.
- Murder by Cremation: Jenny attempts to kill her father-in-law, Sir Malcolm, in this way.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After the conclusion of the case, one of the characters, an Obstructive Bureaucrat, is sent to the Arctic to monitor shipping traffic in the Northwest Passage.
- Resign in Protest: Barnaby, infuriated by MI6 meddling in his investigation, turns in his badge.
- This Bear Was Framed: An odd variant to say the least: when the murder victims are discovered, they're in a state that George describes as looking like they've been mauled by an animal and speculation abounds that the Beast of Midsomer is responsible. In actuality, the stolen animal skull was used as both the murder weapon and to rough the bodies up afterwards.
