Mme Reclus and I are big fans of “The Midsomer Murders”, a British TV detective mystery series set in fictional Midsomer County, somewhere in the South of England. There’s a bit of comedy and social satire in the series, and it pokes fun at rural village life (or at least, the idealized English conception of it), the quirky local personalities, the country cliches, the quaint lifestyle, and, of course, the gorgeous English countryside. The mysteries are pretty standard police procedurals, with the usual characters, the gruff but clever Chief Inspector, the slightly goofy Detective Sargent who assists him, and the usual gang of stock characters. There are, of course, several murders per episode, usually quite gruesome and unusual, no two quite the same. The body count is quite impressive. MM has been running for about 20 years now, and we collect the episodes on DVD. Production values, script and acting are first-rate and the series is quite entertaining.

Lately, we have been methodically playing all the episodes, one every few nights, and we are working our way through the entire history of the show. Something interesting has become apparent. Soon after each new episode begins, we immediately recall it, and we remember the basic story line and even some of the notable characters and incidents. But we haven’t been able to remember, even once, who the killer is!

There is a clue there into how human memory works.