Case file · Series 11, Episode 6
Days of Misrule
A compulsory police team-building exercise collides with an explosion at a haulage yard and a body recovered from a lake.
The 60-second case card
Should I watch this one?
A Christmas special that replaces country-house comfort with paintball, workplace tension and institutional embarrassment.
- Best for
- Christmas · Team building · Haulage yard
- Mood
- Eccentric
- Team
- DCI Tom Barnaby with DS Ben Jones
- Spoiler guidance
- Read the premise freely; open the marked sections only after watching. This is not a complete content advisory.
Why it matters
A Christmas special that replaces country-house comfort with paintball, workplace tension and institutional embarrassment.
A compulsory police team-building exercise collides with an explosion at a haulage yard and a body recovered from a lake.
Acting Chief Superintendent John Cotton sends Causton CID on a Territorial Army team-building course just as an explosion tears through the Parkes family haulage yard. The discovery of Alec Grainger's body in a submerged car and the later death of Jamie Parkes connect the business to a much older chain of decisions.
Barnaby, Jones and their colleagues move between the yard, Calham Cross and the compulsory exercises while family and commercial resentments surface. The seasonal setting supplies decorations but very little peace on earth.
Break the seal: reveal the finding
The explosion, the submerged body and the Parkes deaths belong to a connected history of business and family concealment. The team-building distraction helps obscure movements but does not create the motive.
Open the full research dossierProduction, cast, forensics, deaths and filming evidence
Credits, context and checked facts
The episode file
- TV series
- Series 11
- Episode number
- Episode 6
- Written by
- Elizabeth-Anne Wheal
- Directed by
- Renny Rye
- Listed transmission date(s)
- 5 July 2008 24 December 2008
- Reported filming period
- February–March 2008
- Detective
- DCI Tom Barnaby
- Partner
- DS Ben Jones
- Pathologist
- Dr George Bullard · Barry Jackson
- Principal setting
- Calham Cross
- Casebook tone
- Eccentric
Check the credits, then follow the source trail for production and filming details. Counts below describe this archive’s records.
The fictional setting and the real filming sites are separate pieces of information. The location desk currently connects it to 3 broader filming areas and 3 exact on-screen site identities.
Credits and archive connections
- Writer ledger4 episodes credited to Elizabeth-Anne Wheal
- Director ledger23 episodes directed by Renny Rye
- Release positionCase 65 of 144
- Story characterEccentric · Christmas · Team building
- Location evidence3 exact screen-use matches
A Chipperfield pub represents the fictional Calham Cross Inn.
Thame Town Hall appears among the Causton and investigation settings.
Sources for the production file
Published episode chronology and credits ↗Official ITV programme page ↗Filming-location reference index ↗The chronology is the reference for the credits shown here. A programme homepage does not independently verify a filming date or every production detail. Where multiple transmission dates are listed, territory attribution needs checking. Story, teleplay and adaptation distinctions require the original credit wording; links to external synopses may reveal plot details.
Selected episode credits
Guest cast on file
Selected profiles and published cast-list entries. Database records are linked individually; this is not a full transcription or an independent check against the end credits.
Tim Pigott-Smith
Published cast record ↗Judy Parfitt
Published cast record ↗Niamh Cusack
Published cast record ↗Joseph Millson
Published cast record ↗Philip Martin Brown
Published cast record ↗The performers behind this case
Core cast
Actor profiles for the detective, investigating partner and pathologist credited to this episode.
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John Nettles
Tom Barnaby · Detective Chief InspectorAn English actor, author and narrator who was already a household name as Jersey detective Jim Bergerac. After Bergerac he spent five seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later returned to television drama in Poldark.
- Bergerac
- Poldark
- Royal Shakespeare Company
Jason Hughes
Ben Jones · Police Constable · Detective Sergeant · InspectorA Welsh actor who first became widely known as Warren Jones in the BBC drama This Life. His later television work includes Marcella and The Pact, alongside substantial theatre work at venues including the Donmar Warehouse and Royal Court.
- This Life
- Marcella
- The Pact
Barry Jackson
Dr George Bullard · Police pathologistAn English stage and screen character actor whose career lasted more than five decades. His credits ranged from the landmark television play Cathy Come Home to Doctor Who, Barry Lyndon and many familiar British television dramas.
- Cathy Come Home
- Doctor Who
- Barry Lyndon
Portraits are used only where a reusable licence or public-domain release has been verified. Publicity stills and stock photographs are not copied into this independent guide.
Forensic desk
Dr George Bullard
- Credit
- Resident pathologist
- Played by
- Barry Jackson
Causton's long-serving pathologist is professionally unflappable, quietly witty and an old friend of Tom Barnaby.
Meet the Casebook pathologists →Spoiler-controlled deaths desk
Deaths recorded in this case
2 source rows represent 2 people in the current ledger.
Break the seal: reveal the death ledger
- Alex Grainger
Murder · Blunt force
- James Parkes
Murder · Stabbing or impalement
Real place → fictional identity
What was filmed where?
Village pub
Used as: The pub is renamed the Calham Cross Inn.
Village house
Used as: The property supplies one of the Parkes-family residences.
Representative photograph of the real filming location; the exact camera angle or building may differ.
Thame Town Hall
Used as: The civic building appears in the Causton investigation scenes.
Representative photograph of the real filming location; the exact camera angle or building may differ.Building identities are cross-checked against the Casebook's published filming-location references. A named match describes the part used on screen, not the whole village and not necessarily an interior.
Wider filming areas
Places connected to this file
Beaconsfield
Old-town architecture, churches and nearby estates have supplied homes, police buildings and village streets throughout the run.
Open location →Great Haseley
Its village hall, church, pub and cottages repeatedly become community venues across different Midsomer villages.
Open location →Thame
A versatile Causton and village backdrop whose town hall, museum, shops and surrounding estates take many identities.
Open location →