A former member of the Everton board of directors – who wishes to remain anonymous – has revealed exclusively to the Cutter that Goodison Park during the 1980s was the real-life inspiration behind the fictional village of Causton, the idyllic yet strangely bloodthirsty, setting for ITV drama Midsomer Murders.

Our source disclosed to us the shocking revelation that the executive-producer from the hit shot, Brian True-May, who is in a great deal of bother this week following an interview he conducted with the Radio Times in which he aired views shared by millions of racists all over the country, used to be a season-ticker holder at the club and wielded some considerable influence within the corridors of power.

‘Although he had no official role here…I don’t even think he owned any shares….I remember Brian quite well as he could often be seen in the boardroom, bending the ears of the chairman and our then chief-exec. He always seemed to have quite a bee in his bonnet about us signing black players, or as he called them, ‘Slough boys’ and was thoroughly resistant to the idea. I distinctly recall him saying one time, with no small amount of pride, that Everton was ‘the last bastion of Englishness’ in Division One’.

‘On another occasion we were in tentative talks with Southampton about signing two of the Wallace brothers. When Brian got wind of it he went almost puce with rage at the mere thought. ‘It wouldn’t be an English club with them. It just wouldn’t work,’ he ranted to anyone daft enough to listen.’

The picturesque Gwladys Street End, 1989

‘He stopped coming to games around 1994, shortly after we brought in Daniel Amokachi, and I haven’t seen or heard of him since until I picked up the Radio Times last Monday. There in print was basically a rehashing of all his sayings. Same old Brian, still peddling his maidens and warm beer nonsense. Have you ever seen the show? Its like spending two hours inside John Major’s head!’

We investigated our source’s claims by watching a few episodes of the ponderous, yet bafflingly popular, programme and discovered some startling connections to the Merseyside club that suggest he is indeed correct.

In one episode the guy from Bergerac is clearly shown holding up an EFC mug, whilst in another the storyline centres on a corrupt goalkeeper taking bribes thereby saving a club called Overtown from being relegated.