THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - TOM & KATE BARNABY

We’re going overseas for two different shows to connect in today’s Theory of Relateeveety, rather than another one with ‘Columbo’.

‘Midsomer Murders’
“The Sword Of Guillaume”

A thoroughly despicable resident of the Midsomer villages was murdered while on a trip to Brighton by the Midsomer town council and others.  While there, DCI Tom Barnaby got help from his cousin John Barnaby who was a police detective down there along the shore.

A year later, John Barnaby moved to the Causton area to replace his cousin Tom as the chief investigator for Midsomer in the episode “Fit For Murder”.

Within the course of the series (and excluding Caroline Graham’s books) during John Nettles’ tenure as the lead actor, we met various members of Tom Barnaby’s family.  Chief among these is his wife Joyce and their daughter Cully.  Then there are Joyce’s parents, Douglas and Muriel, and eventually Tom becomes the father-in-law when Cully married Simon Dixon.  (John is married as well, to a teacher named Sarah.)  One other family member was his mother's sister, his Aunt Alice Bly.

I can’t speak for the novels, which are set in BookWorld and so are not to be considered in regard to the TV series save for the basic premise and characters and the plots for the first five episodes of the show.  So it could be that Tom Barnaby had other family members whom we never met during the course of the nearly twenty years he appeared in ‘Midsomer Murders’.

So here we go….  I’m putting forward this theory of relateeveety – Tom had a sister.  Her name was Kate.  And she was a spy who once worked with Simon Templar.

‘The Saint’
“The Organisation Man”

From the IMDb:
The Saint is contacted by Jonathan Roper, who is training a small international army, which he invites the Saint to join. In fact the Saint is working undercover for British military intelligence who are curious as to what Roper's plans are. Roper informs the Saint that he wants him to lead an assault on an army vehicle, stealing uniforms. It becomes apparent that Roper intends to disguise his men as British soldiers for criminal purposes. The Saint sets out to stop him.

Short for Kathleen or Katherine, I can’t say.  It may have just been “Kate” as is the case for the middle name of one of my cousins.  But here’s what I can tell you about her:

• Kate Barnaby is one year older than her brother Tom.
• She was an operative for MI-5.
• She took the place of J.F. Spode as “The Organisation Man” for MI-5.

Kate was part of the operation to bring down Roper's private militia.  She worked undercover at the nearby pub where Templar was able to contact her when he could get away from the compound.  After her superior, Mr. Spode; went rogue (because he was nearing retirement and wanted a taste of the good life), the head of the service took up Templar's suggestion to have Kate take over the job once the operation ended.

I’d like to think that Kate Barnaby is still alive in Toobworld and that it could be due to her highly sensitive and secretive position in the government for Tom Barnaby not to have mentioned her at some point during the series. 

But we saw her only that one time in 1968; the Cold War was at its height and there were enemy agents everywhere.  It could be that Kate Barnaby died in the line of duty.  She may even have had to deal not only with deep cover Soviet agents but organizations like THRUSH and KAOS as well as with villains like Wo Fat and Mr. Schubert; perhaps even the immortal Dr. Miguelito Loveless!  And so it could be that she had passed away and long enough ago that the sad fact of her passing hardly ever crossed Tom Barnaby's mind anymore.

In a perfect Toobworld, we would have seen her turn up again in a show like 'Spooks'.

Even so, if Kate Barnaby is still alive, it was probably for the best that we only saw her that one time in ‘The Saint’ and that neither Caroline Graham nor the ‘Midsomer Murders’ producers provided more details about Tom Barnaby’s family relations.  That means Ms. Barnaby could still be out there, ready for someone with a penchant for fan fiction about ‘The Saint’ and maybe combining it with 'Midsomer Murders'.

O’Bservation:
Kate Barnaby was played by Caroline Mortimer.

BCnU!