Case file · Series 12, Episode 6 · Season 12, Episode 6
The Creeper
A celebrated cat burglar raids Midsomer while a writer planning to expose the Chettham family is smothered on their estate.
The 60-second case card
Should I watch this one?
The theft mystery and murder inquiry overlap without becoming the same puzzle, giving Barnaby two kinds of secrecy to untangle.
- Best for
- Cat burglar · Country estate · Family secrets
- Mood
- Classic
- 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
The theft mystery and murder inquiry overlap without becoming the same puzzle, giving Barnaby two kinds of secrecy to untangle.
The elusive Creeper carries out two daring burglaries in one night. On the Chettham estate, writer David Roper is then found smothered; he had been preparing a book that threatened to disclose damaging episodes in the family's past.
A second person who knew the Chetthams is shot in woodland, raising the stakes beyond stolen valuables. Barnaby and Jones must identify the burglar while also determining who fears publication enough to kill.
Break the seal: reveal the finding
The burglaries provide access and confusion, while the murders protect a Chettham family history intended for Roper's book. Barnaby separates the thief's aims from the killer's.
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 Chettham Park 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 12
- Episode number
- Episode 6
- Written by
- Andrew Payne
- Directed by
- Renny Rye
- Listed transmission date(s)
- 27 September 2009 27 January 2010
- Reported filming period
- February–March 2009
- Detective
- DCI Tom Barnaby
- Partner
- DS Ben Jones
- Pathologist
- Dr George Bullard · Barry Jackson
- Principal setting
- Chettham Park
- Casebook tone
- Classic
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 0 broader filming areas and 2 exact on-screen site identities.
Credits and archive connections
- Writer credits11 episodes credited to Andrew Payne
- Director credits23 episodes directed by Renny Rye
- Release positionCase 72 of 144
- Story characterClassic · Cat burglar · Country estate
- Location evidence2 exact screen-use matches
Polesden Lacey in Surrey supplies the principal country-house setting.
The Creeper's identity and the family murders intersect, but the episode treats motive and opportunity as separate questions.
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
The Creeper cast
These selected cast entries link to their published profiles. They do not include every name shown in the end credits.
Rik Mayall
David Roper is part of the wealthy social circle unsettled by a burglar known as the Creeper. Mayall's performance brings abrasive comic energy to a case already full of status anxiety and family friction.
Open actor profile →
Jenny Agutter
Lady Isobel Chettham is a poised member of the landed family targeted by the Creeper. Agutter gives the household an effortless sense of history while the investigation exposes its more immediate pressures.
Open actor profile →Jane Wymark
Kirsty Dillon
Amanda Ryan
George Costigan
Oliver Kieran-Jones
Nickolas Grace
Julian Wadham
Jane Booker
Nathalie Cox
Monica Gibb
Oliver Le Sueur
Paul Shelley
Angela Down
Barbara Jefford
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
- David Roper
Murder · Poisoning
Performer check- David Roper: Rik Mayall
- Dr. Sylvia Goring
Murder · Gunshot
Performer check- Dr. Sylvia Goring: Angela Down
Break a second seal: reveal the verified killer
Verified killers
Elizabeth Chettham · Lady Isobel ChetthamElizabeth and Isobel acted together to kill David Roper after he threatened to expose the Chettham family secret: Elizabeth supplied the painkillers and Isobel smothered him. Isobel later shot Dr Sylvia Goring, with Elizabeth acknowledging the shared purpose; Tallis Filby's separate Creeper burglaries are not treated as murders.
Verified motive
Elizabeth and Isobel acted to preserve the Chettham family secret that Harry Godbolt was Freddy's biological father, protecting Freddy's place in the family line and the provider they had secured for him. They killed Roper before his book could expose the truth and Goring after the surviving medical evidence threatened the same secret.
Verified important clue
Archive case 72 · checked 16 September 2026David Roper's recovered laptop and Godbolt transcriptsThe prison interviews preserve Harry Godbolt's boast about his affair with Isobel and make Freddy's hidden parentage publishable; recovering the laptop from the Chetthams exposes why Roper was smothered and why Goring's falsified blood results made her the next threat, while leaving the Creeper burglaries separate.
Verified decisive clue
Archive case 72 · checked 17 September 2026David Roper's recovered laptop and Godbolt transcriptsThe prison interviews preserve Harry Godbolt's claim that he fathered Freddy and make the Chettham secret publishable. Recovering the laptop exposes why Elizabeth and Isobel silenced Roper and later Goring, while distinguishing their shared roles from Tallis Filby's unrelated Creeper burglaries.
Verified death and discovery order
Archive case 72 · checked 16 September 2026- discoveryRoper prepares to expose the Chettham secret
David Roper's research threatens to reveal that Harry Godbolt, not Lord Chettham, was Freddy's biological father.
- deathDavid Roper is drugged and smothered
Elizabeth supplies painkillers and Isobel smothers Roper, acting together before his book can disclose the family secret.
- discoveryThe Creeper burglaries form a separate trail
Tallis Filby's thefts explain the intrusions around the village but do not account for either murder.
- deathDr Sylvia Goring is shot
Isobel kills the doctor after surviving medical evidence again threatens Freddy's place in the Chettham line.
- discoveryThe birth record restores the hidden parentage
The surviving evidence connects Freddy to Harry Godbolt and supplies the common purpose behind the two deaths.
- discoveryElizabeth acknowledges their shared purpose
The resolution separates Elizabeth's contribution to Roper's death from Isobel's physical acts while retaining both women as participants.
Real place → fictional identity
What was filmed where?
Polesden Lacey
Used as: The National Trust house becomes Chettham Park House.
Albury Park
Used as: The estate appears as a Scottish Highlands manor in the closing sequence.
Sources support the listed site uses; they do not establish every filming location in an episode.
Wider filming areas
Places connected to this file
No real-place link is published here until it can be tied to a specific, sourced screen use.