It can't be April already?

[caulkhead]

According to a report picked up by the Independent, 'Midsomer murders' is obscuring important public health messages by its concentration on 'bizarre murder methods'

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/midsomers-murders-are-affecting-public-health-messages-9132121.html

I invite the floor to suggest what public health messages *are* in fact effectively conveyed by Midsomer Murders? Or the rest of the detective canon, in fact?

ETA

Nope. Still not convinced it isn't April.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/17/south-bank-university-fake-pub-alcohol-research-drinking

(I wonder what they'd make of a Batmoot?)

Comments

[legionseagle]

Always ensure no air in syringe by gentle pressure on plunger with tip uppermost before injecting intravenously. (Unnatural Death)

[antisoppist]

Don't go to the secret assignation with the anonymous voice on the telephone without ringing back to check and leaving a note in the event of your untimely demise.

Don't be the one to drink first if someone else has poured it (as we were all yelling at the Three Musketeers the other week).

I managed to drive the length and breadth of Somerset yesterday without managing to find Midsomer Norton (or Shepton Mallet) although I ought to have done. Perhaps it is for the best.

[caulkhead]

Nitroglycerin is not only explosive, but also poisonous. (The Saint, I forget which one).

Be extremely cautious of anything flavoured with bitter almonds (I wonder why this doesn't come up more in Scandi crime, where I gather it's quite a popular flavouring?).

And most importantly:

Blackmail is bad for your health (and nobody will mind much when you are, inevitably, bumped off)

[perennialanna]

Someone actually studied the realism of Midsomer Murders? That makes my thoughts on the geographies of inter-town rivalries (with specific reference to St Just and Pendeen) look like a serious research proposal.

[oursin]

Personally I think they should be giving more thought to the extent to which Romantic Heroes are potential domestic abusers and the public health message romance conveys.

[caulkhead]

"“Concern has been expressed that the public may be given a misleading impression of homicide,”

Do they really think people are giving local Roman reenactors the side-eye in case they start shooting at people with trebuchets?

[caulkhead]

Where are the Public Health Warnings about Wuthering Heights, eh? Eh? And they teach this stuff in schools, too.

[legionseagle]

Any illnesses with varying symptoms which include hair loss are probably thallium poisoning (the Pale Horse: bonus point because a nurse who'd read it used this information to save a child's life).

There are certain anti-depressants which cause cerebral haemorrhage in conjunction with cheese. Don't be a rich woman with depression married to a doctor (Rumpole, though there are cognates - the conjunction of drug A plus foodstuff B in Christie, including Styles)

Don't tell your neer-do-well relative that you're disinheriting them until you've done it. Then make it very clear you have.

[legionseagle]

This reminds me it is some time since I linked to the YouTube classic Hurda Gurda Murder

[tree_and_leaf]

Don't over-water cacti.

[tree_and_leaf]

Also, when your solicitor tries to tell you how changes to inheritance law may affect you, pay attention.

[antisoppist]

The woman who has written that book about being a romantic heroine or everything she learned she learned from books or something, keeps turning up on radio 4 saying how Wuthering Heights was her favourite romantic book, and I want to say "but everybody is dead and then he digs her up again! And he hangs puppies!"

[liadnan]

Uploaded 2011 I see.
https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/midsomer-murders/series-16/episode-5-the-killings-of-copenhagen
"8:00pm, Wednesday 12 February 2014
Duration: 2 hours Series 16 • Episode 5
100th episode of the detective series. Barnaby and Nelson travel to Copenhagen and join forces with local police when a Midsomer resident's body is found."

[clanwilliam]

Don't trust the most famous person still alive in the room. They always dunnit. (Columbo)

[caulkhead]

Perhaps someone should write a book about 'How to be a Romantic heroine', but it probably boils down to 'Don't'.