A London bookshop has uncovered a shocking conspiracy about the coveted Griffin Poetry Prize, linking winners of the award to the TV drama Midsomer Murders.
The thread, which starts “does anyone want to hear my conspiracy theory”, links winners of the poetry prize to elements of the show dating back as far as 2005.
Although the latest incidents seem quite normal – Alice Oswald won the Griffin Prize in 2017 for ‘Falling Awake’ and her brother, Will Keen, played ‘Preaching’ Pete Kubatski in Midsomer Murders – things take a rather sinister turn pre-2012, when David Harsent won the Griffin for ‘Fire Songs’.
Harsent made his living writing scripts for Midsomer Murders, and his crowning achievement seems to follow years of spooky associations.
In 2011, Seamus Heaney was nominated for ‘Human Chain’. In 2010 he told a BBC journalist that Midsomer Murders was his favourite TV programme.
In 2009, C.D. Wright won the Griffin for ‘Rising, Falling, Hovering’. Midsomer Murders was commissioned for TV by an gent called C.D. Wright.
In 2008, John Ashbery won the Griffin for ‘Notes from the Air’. Several episodes of Midsomer Murders were filmed in the village of Ashbury.
In 2007, Ken Babstock was nominated for ‘Airstream Yacht Land’. A 2005 episode of Midsomer Murders was set in the village of Midsomer Babstock.
In the same year, Paul Farley was nominated for ‘Tramp in Flames’. A 2004 Midsomer Murders episode ‘The Straw Woman’ featured a former tramp who is burnt alive.
In 2005, Roo Borson won for ‘Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida’. The long-term sponsor of Midsomer Murders was Viking River Cruises.
Coincidence? I think not.
