John Barnaby returned to our screens in a satisfyingly bonkers episode of Midsomer Murders last night.
It seems an age since Neil Dudgeon first stepped out as the detective chief inspector, but this was only his third outing and it didn't disappoint.
In fact, the only thing missing from the whole experience was Terry Wogan marvelling over the Midsomer craziness on his Radio 2 breakfast show this morning. (He 'retired' - rememember?)
All the wonderful bizarreness we have come to love was there - including disembowellings in stone circles, druids, a bent copper and a widow who doesn't realise she's not about to inherit her dead husband's wealth.
Oh - and the nutcase collector of great art fakes who gave himself away because the fraud concerned never copied Picasso! Brilliant.
Well, you had to be there.
The plot got into its stride quickly, as we were presented with the first gruesome find - a disembowelled body in Midsomer Mow's stone circle - before the opening credits. Too often in previous episodes we have been denied our first cadaver until well into the show.
Two more murders followed just ahead of the first two commercial breaks. Plot twists, misunderstandings - to be quite honest, come the denouement I didn't know what the hell was going on.
Now that's Midsomer Murdering!
