John Nettles in a scene from Midsomer Murders

Until I pointed it out to Lord Swraj Paul, he was not aware his 250-acre country estate in Buckinghamshire, with lovely old trees stretching away as far as the eye could see, had been used in the past as the location for Midsomer Murders, a detective series set among English village folk.

The vicar, postman, butcher, the spinster school mistress, the busy doctor and his pretty but bored wife, the maid with a past and the dashing bachelor who may not be all he seems are part of the enduring charm of Sunday evening viewing on British television. It is sort of Feluda transported to England’s “green and pleasant land”. And the British detective genre is done with superb professionalism.

Agatha Christie made Hercule Poirot Belgian but the cast of victims and suspects were almost invariably English, with the odd rich but not very sophisticated American thrown in, to bolster the British sense of effortless superiority.

Brian True-May, producer and co-creator of Midsomer Murders

In one episode, I had to laugh when Poirot gets his “little grey cells” to work and identifies the murderer who splutters with rage and spits the ultimate insult at the detective: “You… foreigner!”

Miss Marple is not that different.

In the dramatisation of the Conan Doyle canon, with Jeremy Brett as possibly the best Sherlock Holmes there has ever been on the screen and Edward Hardwicke as Dr Watson, the cast of characters still remains quintessentially English though often located in the upper reaches of society.

Now, the most delicious row has broken out in Britain because the co-creator and producer of Midsomer Murders, Brian True-May, has suggested the series, which has been sold to 231 territories around the world, has been hugely popular precisely because it is free of the ethnic minorities.

In other words, there is no Mr Patel, the cornershop owner, Dr Banerji, the overqualified doctor with a string of degrees after his name, Mr Surinder, the dentist who would much rather grope his patients than fix their teeth, Master Ahmed Aminullah, who is considering going to Afghanistan to get a bit of “training” from the brothers, Mr Patel’s cousin brother who is a dab hand at double bookkeeping and Mr Lalmohan Baniya, who has bucked all recessionary trends to become a billionaire, not to forget Miss Thakurta, the stroppy feminist-cum- novelist who wants to do good by joining an NGO.

True-May was promoting the launch of his 14th series, in which the main police officer, DCI Tom Barnaby (played by actor John Nettles), retires and is replaced by his cousin, DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) — this corrupt cousin connection is so Indian, if you ask me.

“When I talk to people in other nations they love John Nettles, but they also love the premise of the show,” True-May insisted. “They love the perceived English genteel eccentricity. It’s not British. It’s very English.”

If black or Asian faces were introduced to the idyllic Midsomer setting, “it wouldn’t be the English village” that viewers know and love, he claimed. “We are a cosmopolitan society in this country, but if you watch Midsomer you wouldn’t think so. I’ve never been picked up on that, but quite honestly I wouldn’t want to change it.”

Asked what he meant by “cosmopolitan”, True-May, 65, replied: “Well, we just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough. Ironically, Causton (the town in Midsomer Murders) is supposed to be Slough. And if you went to Slough you wouldn’t see a white face there. We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”

He conceded that many people would consider that “Englishness” in the 21st century should encompass other races. “Well, it should do, and maybe I’m not politically correct. I’m trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don’t want to change it.”

True-May added that multi-culturalism “would just look out of place” in Midsomer, with its thatched cottages and village greens.

Midsomer Murders is “the biggest drama success of all time” save for Star Trek or The X-Files, according to True-May.

The show is filmed in South Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. True-May himself lives in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire — not too far from Lord Paul’s estate.

Swraj seemed remarkably relaxed. He felt it was true that most Indians in the UK were urban animals and “like to live in the centre of town”.

He had got used to his estate, though, and confided he had “fallen in love” with the mile-long walk from his front door to the entrance to his rural hideout. Subrata Roy of Sahara had dropped by for a cup of tea, he added, pointing out his guest had also liked the place.

“I love the trees here,” Swraj told me. “I love the trees in Calcutta, too — we have trees in the garden of my house in Alipore.”

However, should anyone spot Lord Paul digging the earth, it is not because the chairman of the Caparo empire is burying a body but because Aruna (his wife) has requested some fresh onions for the kitchen. At 80, Swraj is becoming quite English.

Sadly for True-May, following his interview, he was promptly suspended by All3Media, the conglomerate that includes his company, Bentley Productions.

An ITV spokesman said more in anger than in sadness: “We are shocked and appalled at these personal comments by Brian True-May which are absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV. We are in urgent discussions with All3Media, the producer of Midsomer Murders, who have informed us that they have launched an immediate investigation into the matter and have suspended Mr True-May pending the outcome.”

But True-May is being backed by those who fear the politically correct brigade is threatening the nation’s sense of its own Englishness.

A typical viewer, Nigel Gibbon, backed True-May’s concept of a series free of ethnic minorities: “ITV has shown that it is hopelessly out of touch with the aspirations and fears of the white indigenous population of this country. Middle England is a place where Englishness survives because it has not been invaded by immigrants (of whatever colour). It is a ‘Nirvana’ or ‘Shangri-La’ for those of us who feel overrun (whatever the statistics tell us). To introduce black or coloured characters to Midsomer/ Causton (even as gardeners!) would be to force ‘politically correct’ dogma onto the programme, which would then no longer portray Middle England as it really is. If ITV wishes the programme to demonstrate greater ethnic diversity then it should insist that the new Inspector Barnaby moves several miles south but it should also rename the programme, ‘Slough’. I, for one, will not be watching.”

The fact is that ethnic minorities do feel a little intimidated about moving to the country, which makes it harder for even second generation Indians to feel truly “English”.

There was a reasoned response from a “MC Miker G”, who argued: “There’s no problem with an all-white village, it’s very much the correct context for Midsomer Murders, and it’s how the books were originally written. However, there is a big problem with Brian True-May coming out with a statement which suggests that an all-white village is ‘the last bastion of Englishness’. It’s suggesting that English = white. Which is racism, pure and simple.”

True-May has ignored one important fact. Indians have given Britain some of its best murders, a few set in villages. Dead Man Talking was about an unidentified body found on a farm in deepest Hampshire — it turned out to be a Sikh who had been murdered by another Sikh using a hockey stick made in India. I know because I turned it into a film for Channel 4 (sorry, sorry, sorry, I know this is boasting, but Indian murders in England really are fascinating).