Identity and nostalgia in a globalised world: Investigating the international popularity ofMidsomer Murders

Abstract

The fictional crime programme Midsomer Murders is one of the UK’s most successful global television exports, yet scant previous research has probed the programme’s global popularity. In this article I argue that much of the programme’s international appeal is due to two characteristics: its evocation of the British crime fiction canon, and its nostalgia. Numerous scholars have examined rural nostalgia in British cultural life, but I argue that the global popularity of Midsomer Murders signals a new phenomenon: the emergence of nostalgia for Britain’s rural past among the non-British. I employ Jonathan Simon’s concept of ‘wilful nostalgia’ to analyse this new phenomenon and critically explore recent controversies about the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the case of Midsomer Murders.