Neil Dudgeon (born 2 January 1961) is an English actor who, since 2010, has played DCI John Barnaby in the ITV drama series Midsomer Murders.
The following year, he appeared as a Second World War pilot in Piece of Cake, alongside Tim Woodward, Jeremy Northam and Nathaniel Parker.
[1] As well as occasional appearances in series such as Casualty, London's Burning and Lovejoy, he appeared in 1994 as Detective Constable Costello, a one-episode subordinate to Detective Inspector William Edward "Jack" Frost (played by David Jason), in the TV series A Touch of Frost, in 1998-99 as George the Chauffeur in The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (alongside Dame Diana Rigg), in Inspector Morse (episode "The Way Through the Woods"), Between The Lines, Common As Muck (in 1994 & 1997), Out of the Blue, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, The Street and four series of Messiah with Ken Stott.
Dudgeon, also cast as a senior detective, took over as the lead character in Midsomer Murders after the last episodes featuring John Nettles were screened in 2011.
[3] Dudgeon had first appeared in Midsomer Murders in the opening episode of the fourth series ("Garden of Death"), playing a secondary character.