Silver Spring, MD — Celebrated for its inventive crimes, charming scenery, and subtle humor, Midsomer Murders: Village Case Files arrives to DVD from Acorn Media on November 2, 2010. This third special, value-priced collector’s set follows Barnaby’s Casebook and features the next 16 stand-alone mysteries in broadcast order of the beloved, best-selling U.K. series that counts Johnny Depp and the Queen among its legion of fans. The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary mysteries, available in this distinctively packaged 16-disc collection ($149.99, 26½ hours, www.AcornOnline.com). Village Case Files includes the episodes from Series 8 and 9 (2004-2006), previously released on DVD as Sets 9 through 12.

Inspired by the characters of novelist Caroline Graham, modern master of the English village mystery, Midsomer Murders combines quirky characters and surprising mysteries with postcard-perfect English village settings and the ever-charming John Nettles (Bergerac) as DCI Tom Barnaby, a dogged investigator and devoted family man, unflappable in the face of the macabre crimes and eccentric characters he encounters on the job. John Hopkins (Love in a Cold Climate) and Jason Hughes (This Life) co-star as his young assistants.

Together, the pair investigates the evil lurking beyond the well-trimmed hedges of Midsomer – the grisly town murders, supposed suicides, shot-gun slayings, and the deaths and rumors of deceit. Guest stars include Jane Wymark (Poldark 2) and Laura Howard (So Haunt Me) as Joyce and Cully Barnaby, and Diana Quick (The Phantom of the Opera; Brideshead Revisited), George Baker (The Ruth Rendell Mysteries), Simon Callow (Amadeus), Annette Crosbie (The Six Wives of Henry VIII), Elizabeth Spriggs (Doctor Who), Harriet Walter (Atonement), Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It), and Julia McKenzie (Marple, Bright Young Things).

THE MYSTERIES: Things That Go Bump in the Night; Dead in the Water; Orchis Fatalis; Bantling Boy; Second Sight; Hidden Depths; Sauce for the Goose; Midsomer Rhapsody; The House in the Woods; Dead Letters; Vixen’s Run; Down Among the Dead Men; Four Funerals and a Wedding; Country Matters; Death in Chorus; Last Year’s Model.

BONUS FEATURES INCLUDE: Text interviews with John Nettles and Jason Hughes, fascinating facts, The Killings of Badger’s Drift connection, production notes, Caroline Graham biography, and cast filmographies.

Midsomer Murders premiered in the United Kingdom in March 1997. Since then, more than sixty-five feature-length episodes have aired with new episodes still in production. In the U.S., the series has been seen on A&E and The Biography Channel. Acorn Media previously released Sets 1-16 with three to five mysteries per set. Each set ranked in Acorn’s top 10 best-sellers for its year and sales of each new set consistently gain momentum. Additionally, Acorn Media released two value-priced collector’s sets, The Early Cases (Sets 1-3, 5) and Barnaby’s Casebook (Sets 4, 6-8).

Street Date: Nov. 2, 2010
SRP: $149.99
DVD 16-Disc Collector’s Edition – Approx. 26 ½ hrs. – British mystery – SDH subtitles

Headquartered in suburban Washington, D.C., Acorn Media distributes distinctive home video releases to the North American market with a special focus on the best of British television. Acorn’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.