An actor who was with the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders left after six years in the show.
Actor Daniel Casey, who played DS Gavin Troy, was a fan favourite for Midsomer Murders and joined the show from its first episode in 1997.
DS Troy starred in the show until the seventh season as DCI Tom Barnaby’s sidekick, before he was promoted within the force to Detective Inspector and moved on to Middlesbrough in 2003.
Gavin made a brief return during season 11 for the wedding of Tom’s daughter Cully Barnaby, as portrayed by Laura Howard, but has otherwise been absent from the series – much to fan’s dismay.
Defending his reason for leaving the programme, actor Daniel Casey explained that he wanted to explore other roles.
Speaking to Saga magazine, he explained: “I was just aware I didn’t want to stay with the same thing for too long and I wanted to branch out.”
Following his exit from Midsomer Murders, Casey went on to star in roles on shows like Hex, The Bill, Marchlands, Doctors, Law & Order: UK, Casualty, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
He also made an appearance in 2017 in EastEnders as a love interest for Michelle Fowler, but the character became obsessive and protective older sister Sharon Dean had to step in.
Whilst Casey is no longer a part of the ITV crime series, it still has fans tuning in for the bizarre and unique events in the countryside town.
Midsomer Murders is currently in its 23rd season, and star Neil Dudgeon has hit out at ITV bosses and begged for them to make a huge change to the show.
Neil, who became the show’s lead in 2010, has claimed that the broadcaster is letting fans down by only airing a few episodes at a time and filling gaps with repeat episodes.
DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) and his partner DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix) currently star in the series, but Neil has made it clear he disagrees with the decision to only share a handful of episodes.
Neil shared: “Some years ago, ITV decided to schedule single episodes, or just two episodes from a series, so that Midsomer could take on rival shows on the other side.
“I think this is a shame. For an audience with any programme, they like to know when their show is going to be on, say, for the next four weeks. But they stopped doing this some time ago.
“They started dotting them against whatever’s on the BBC, for instance. It’s been brilliant because we’ve kept our audience, and the audience is very loyal, and they love the show.
Crime drama buffs have a wide selection of choices on ITVX - here is a selection of some of the programmes available to binge.
“But it would be nice if it went out as a series again, but we’ve got two [new episodes] this time.”
Midsomer Murders is available to watch on ITV and ITVX.
