Midsomer Murders Harold Winstanley Kills Esslyn Carmichael Death of a Hollow Man

Barnaby surmises that there were two razors. Harold went backstage twice during the evening. Just before the show began and at the end of the interval. He made the first switch moments before curtain up. He substituted the original one with his. A casual glance at the props tray would reveal nothing wrong. The interval gave him ample time to remove the tape. And then minutes before Act Two, taking advantage of Dierdre's absence, he swapped them back. Poor old Esslyn. Never had a chance. Esslyn’s last scene, “I will go to become a ghost myself. I will stand in the shadows when you come here to this earth in your turn. And when you feel the dreadful bite of your failures. And hear the taunting of an unachievable, uncaring God... Joyce. I will whisper my name to you. Salieri, patron saint of mediocrities. And, in the depths of your downcastness, you can pray for me. And I will forgive you. Vi saluto!” Esslyn takes a razor from his butler (David Smy) and slits his throat as Joyce and David watch. He falls to the floor, dead.
Joyce and David gasp. Joyce screams. Barnaby and Troy run onstage and Troy shuts the curtain.