Daniel’s on the Case
Interview with Midsomer Murders actor Daniel Casey

Britain’s most popular crime drama, Midsomer Murders has just launched ‘Troy’s Casebook’, a lavish, 19-disc boxed set featuring every episode with Daniel Casey as DS Troy. Based on the bestselling books by Caroline Graham, the series has sold more than 1.5 million copies on DVD, and still airs regularly on ITV. With brand new episodes already scheduled to be broadcast well into 2011, the popularity of the series, which has been on our screens since 1997, shows no signs of diminishing. It is a veritable British television institution; I spoke exclusively to Daniel about life before and after Midsomer.

‘Troy’s Casebook’ has just been launched, featuring 29 episodes starring your good self...
Actually it was 30 - I did 29 full ones, but I went back to do a cameo, so it took it to a round figure of 30.

Do you miss it at all?
Not really, but I miss John, and miss the people who work on it - but no, really; I did my time and had a great time doing it. I think when you have a brilliant time doing something and you enjoy every minute, then you can move on.

So, what was it like working with John?
He’s really lovely. I can remember my first day on Midsomer; obviously I was a bit nervous. We had a scene where we had to drive up to a murder scene. I get out of the car and say my line and he’s shouting inside the car. I thought “What’s going on?” and he’s saying “You’re ambitious and young! You’ve parked the car wrong!” I had parked about two inches from a wall, and he couldn’t get out! It was a perfect start!

Do you keep in touch with him still?
We’re both pretty useless to be honest. He was at my wedding, and I stayed with him in Stratford when I was doing a play in Birmingham.

It must have been lovely working with such an accomplished actor.
Oh, he’s fantastic and he’s a very generous man as an actor and as a person. We had an absolute ball. We spent seven months of the year, fourteen hours a day with each other; if you don’t get on, it’s going be a long journey. No, we had a great time. He’s brilliant, very generous, always there when I want to speak to him. He’s always giving me advice, even when it’s not needed; he’s that kind of man. I loved the way he always dealt with younger actors who’d come on the set and give them advice, which would put them at ease and make their performance better. Many a time, he told me wonderful stories about people he had worked with - everyone from Olivier to Guinness.

What was the filming schedule like on Midsomer?
Oh, it was great. Some days we would be covering five pages of script a day, which is very little compared to the soap operas that do around 25.

The villages are like something of the set of Camberwick Green. Do places like that really exist down south?
They do. I mean, if you go to other beautiful places, like Yorkshire, and you think about all the beautiful places around there - you know, like Swaledale - and if you take the most beautiful bits of each place, people think “that’s amazing” and that’s what we did, it’s an amalgamation of lots of different places.

What have you been doing recently?
I’ve just finished an episode of George Gently with Martin Shaw. That’ll be on later in the year and I’m waiting for a couple of things, so watch this space....

At university you studied English Literature. Was that with the aim of becoming a writer?
No, I always intended to be an actor. I thought I’d go do a degree and then I’d do a post graduate course at drama college, but I never did because, when I was at my second year at university, we took a play called “Dead Fish” up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the play won a “Fringe First”. Whilst on tour, a casting director came to see me and I was cast as Mark in ‘Our Friends in the North’. That was my big break. It was about eighteen months later, when I was twenty four, when I started in Midsomer. I was really young. I think that works really well for the character as well, because he’s really naive.

You weren’t very PC were you?
(Laughs) No, not really, Troy was hilarious. He wasn’t proper gay by any chance was he? (Laughs)

I read somewhere that Caroline Graham, who’d written it, describes how Troy was meant to be, and you weren’t really like that were you?
No, totally different. I think the producers realised that wouldn’t really work, because he was a really harsh character in the novels. It works brilliantly in the novels: he was in his mid-thirties, he was a redhead, and he wore big black leather boots and a big black leather coat. He was kind of like an SS character, very kind of right-wing and laddish and everything but, for a Sunday night, it was too harsh, too much of an abrasive character. It was more kind of generalised with Troy and he learned along the way from Barnaby, and I think that’s what they went for - a mentor/student relationship. Barnaby was like the father figure.

Is there any chance you’ll return or go back for another series, or not?
No, no, I don’t think so. It’s all changed now, and John’s leaving and Neil Dudgeon will be taking over soon.

What’s John (Nettles) got planned for when he leaves?
Someone suggested that he should do Bergerac again, where he plays a fisherman and his daughter is the detective and she goes to him for advice. He said “I can’t see that working; it’s not right clever is it?” His daughter does work for the Jersey Police in real life, you know.

So, why did you leave Midsomer?
Well, I’d just turned thirty and thought it was time to do something else after six years. As an actor you want to play many different characters and do as many things as you can.

In your opinion, Daniel, what makes Midsomer so successful?
I think it’s because it inhabits its own world. It’s set in a contemporary world, but it has a heart and a Fifties soul. So, I think the combination of the two; the fact that it inhabits its own world makes it so special and everyone who arrives in that world believes in it completely and that’s why it works. Plus the combination of the murder, mystery, and the humour as well...

Yeah, and it reminds you of that feeling of the past; it’s like old England as you remember it...
Old England as it never used to be, or what people used to think it was.

Now, just a quickfire round... Poirot or Marple?
Poirot.

Lewis or Frost?
Frost

Morse or Midsomer?
Midsomer

What would your dream role be?
I don’t know to be honest. I mean, everyone wants to be James Bond, don’t they?

You’d be a good Bond actually...
I know him! As a child, I never thought I’d know James Bond (Daniel Craig). It’s lovely knowing him and knowing how well he’s doing; he’s doing it brilliantly.

You were born in Stockton-on-Tees; what was it like, your childhood, growing up there?
It was absolutely fantastic, it was good. I grew up in the country and we had eight acres of land, horses and stuff like that.

You currently live in Sussex; would you ever consider moving back?
Being an actor means I have to be close to London. You need to be within touching distance for them, to be honest. We are moving out of London and moving to Sussex; that’s where my wife’s from. So we’re going to move near to the in-laws. It’ll be a good help as well.

Tell me about your friend Joseph...
He was my imaginary friend. I had loads of pretend friends when I was little, but Joseph was my favourite. Then, inevitably, he wasn’t hungry when it came to tea time, but had a sweet tooth, so at the sweet shop my mum would have to buy two bags of sweets, but I used to help him eat them, so that was always a bonus, wasn’t it? No, we used to chat away and play. He was just a little friend, a little person I had invented for myself.

What about your son Raferty, has he got any mates hanging around?
Yeah, he does. He’s very imaginative. He loves playing games and pretending to be other people. His friend is called Shabaz.

Where is your favourite place in the North?
Hull. I lived there for three years and the Cathedral was a great sanctuary; when you go in, you can feel that sense of peace and that sense of safety. Whenever I had a rubbish day, I’d go and sit there and it always made me feel calm. The Durham Light Infantry Division have a remembrance book there for the soldiers who fell on that particular day, in the First and Second World Wars, and it just used to give me an enormous sense of well-being. It certainly gives you a sense of perspective.

What about your favourite Northern dish?
My mum’s roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Oh, you can’t beat it, can you?
Honest, she makes the best Yorkshire pudding ever!

Midsomer Murders 19-disc boxed set featuring every episode with Daniel Casey as DS Troy. Available now.

Article from issue 32 june/july 2010. To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.