Case file · Series 11, Episode 6 · Season 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. Check the linked provider advisory for further viewing information.
Why it matters
A Christmas special that replaces country-house comfort with paintball, workplace tension and institutional embarrassment.
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.
Spoiler-safe viewing companion
Three questions to carry into the episode
Use these spoiler-safe prompts to notice the setting, the investigation and the details that may matter.
- Place
How does Calham Cross shape what people say openly, delay, or leave unsaid?
- Theme
Which details seem to carry more than one meaning, and what might be a red herring?
- Teamwork
Compare how DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Ben Jones gather information: who watches the room, and who presses the conversation forward?
More episode detailsProduction, cast, deaths and filming information
Credits, context and checked facts
Production and cast
- 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 credits4 episodes credited to Elizabeth-Anne Wheal
- Director credits23 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
Days of Misrule cast
These selected cast entries link to their published profiles. They do not include every name shown in the end credits.
Jane Wymark
Kirsty Dillon
Nick Fletcher
Judy Parfitt
Niamh Cusack
Philip Martin Brown
Joseph Millson
Alexandra Morris
Adam Kirley
Tom Beard
Sidney Livingstone
Tim Pigott-Smith
Alyson Spiro
Gus Gallagher
Elspeth Rae
Tony Bell
The performers behind this case
Core cast
Actor profiles for the detective, investigating partner and pathologist credited to this episode.
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 people die in this case, according to the linked death record.
Break the seal: reveal the death ledger
- Alex Grainger
Murder · Blunt force
Performer check- Alex Grainger: not listed in the current published cast recordNo Alex Grainger performer appears in the current published cast record.
- James Parkes
Murder · Stabbing or impalement
Performer check- James Parkes: Joseph Millson
Break a second seal: reveal the verified killer
Verified killer
Matt ParkesMatt found Alex Grainger alive after Jamie's attack and killed him while trying to protect his son. When James later refused to surrender over the wider stolen-car operation, Matt killed him too; Tim Galsworthy and Ed Lovell's bombing of the haulage yard is retained as a separate non-fatal offence.
Verified motive
Matt killed Alex while protecting his son's innocence and his own involvement, accepting Jamie's claim that the attack had been self-defence. After learning the scale of Jamie's criminal scheme, Matt intended to make him surrender; the second killing followed Jamie's refusal rather than a planned effort to silence him.
Verified important clue
Archive case 65 · checked 16 September 2026The speeding car identical to Grainger's BentleyThe camera record cannot show Grainger's real car because a Spanish garage bill places it abroad; the duplicate exposes a stolen vehicle using the Bentley's identity and explains why Grainger confronted Jamie, separating the laundering scheme from Matt's later killings.
Verified decisive clue
Archive case 65 · checked 17 September 2026The speeding car identical to Grainger's BentleyA Spanish garage bill proves that the real Bentley was abroad, so the camera image exposes a stolen car carrying its identity and the laundering scheme Grainger confronted. The trail leads through Jamie's attack to Matt's decision to kill the surviving Grainger and later Jamie, while the haulage-yard bombing remains a separate non-fatal offence.
Verified death and discovery order
Archive case 65 · checked 16 September 2026- discoveryThe haulage-yard bombing is carried out
Tim Galsworthy and Ed Lovell bomb the truck to expose the stolen-car operation, a dangerous but non-fatal offence separate from the murders.
- discoveryJamie attacks Alec Grainger
Grainger uncovers the laundering of stolen cars and is left badly injured after his confrontation with Jamie.
- deathMatt Parkes kills Alec Grainger
Matt finds Grainger alive and kills him while accepting Jamie's claim of self-defence and trying to protect his son.
- discoveryGrainger's body and car are concealed
Matt moves the body and possessions while the duplicated Bentley identity begins to expose the wider vehicle scheme.
- discoveryMatt learns the scale of Jamie's operation
The recovered Bugatti part and Tim's account show Matt that Jamie recruited others into a sustained stolen-car enterprise.
- deathJamie Parkes is killed after refusing to surrender
Matt summons Jamie to make him go to the police; the confrontation ends in a second killing when Jamie refuses.
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.Sources support the listed site uses; they do not establish every filming location in an episode.
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 →