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** In ''Secrets and Spies'', the murder takes place during a cricket match. One of the competitors in said match is Creator/PeterDavison, formerly the cricket-loving [[Series/DoctorWho Fifth Doctor]].
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** In ''The Axeman Cometh'', Michael Angelis plays the drummer in blues rock band Hired Gun. In one scene, the band's singer (Suzi Quatro) scathingly calls him [[Music/TheBeatles Ringo]]. Angelis took over as the narrator of WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine from Ringo Starr, as they have very similar voices. Also, Michael Angelis' brother Paul provided the voice for Ringo in WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine.
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** The weird kid hidden from sight is named "Bradley." B Radley Shoutout to ''To Kill a Mockingbird.''
** Two episodes are shoutouts to Dorothy L. Sayers; the one with the mushroom poisoning uses the same mushroom as in ''Documents in the Case''; another centers around change ringing---''Nine Taylors.''
** ''Episode/Orchis Fatalis'', dealing with obsessed orchid breeders/growers, could be a shoutout to Nero Wolfe.
** Two episodes are shoutouts to Dorothy L. Sayers; the one with the mushroom poisoning uses the same mushroom as in ''Documents in the Case''; another centers around change ringing---''Nine Taylors.''
** ''Episode/Orchis Fatalis'', dealing with obsessed orchid breeders/growers, could be a shoutout to Nero Wolfe.
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** His name is Bradley. A shout-out to ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (B Radley)?
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* LifesWorkRuined : "Orchis Fatalis"
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* LifesWorkRuined : In "Orchis Fatalis"Fatalis", someone takes revenge on an orchid collector by pouring weedkiller over his priceless orchid collection. This being Midsomer, things soon escalate to murder.
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* CrazyPeoplePlayChess: "The Sicilian Defence" revolves around a chess tournament and a computer chess game. As it takes place in Midsomer, needless to say there are more than a few unbalanced personalities involved. The killer leaves chess notations in the pockets of the victims.
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* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: The series is famous for its ridiculously high murder rate (even for a detective series). Depending on population estimates, the rural county of Midsomer has a crime rate beaten only by a few ''countries''.
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* CountryMatters: The way Dennis pronounces the word "Constable" in "The Killings at Badger's Drift" leaves no doubt as to what he means.
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* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The show never actually explains what happened to Scott. His absence in the episode that introduces his replacement Jones is explained (he called in sick -- Jones was a ''temporary'' replacement), but by the next episode Jones is there to stay without Scott being mentioned again.
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* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer : Midsomer is a county, not one village, contrary to what idiot TV announcers and others will tell you.
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* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer : Midsomer is a county, not one village, contrary to what idiot TV announcers and others will tell you. The fact that there's an actual English village called Midsomer Norton really doesn't help.
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* {{Yandere}}: quite a few of the murderers in the 1st series.
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* AristocratsAreEvil: Most of the nobility/very old established families are complete assholes , more obsessed with their lineage and money than murders.
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* YouLookFamiliar : The actor who plays John Barnaby first appeared on the series a decade earlier as a murder suspect.
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* YouLookFamiliar : The actor who plays John Barnaby first appeared on the series a decade earlier as a murder suspect.suspect, a sleazy gardener who hits on Barnaby's wife.
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* StressVomit: One character immediately starts vomiting when she learns the guy she's been banging through the whole episode is actually [[spoiler: her nephew]]. He doesn't really react to that, given that he also just learned [[spoiler: he's the product of Brother-Sister Incest]].
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* DetectiveMole: Sgt. Trevor Gibson in "Sleeper Under the Hill" turns out to be involved in the killings and does his best to throw Barnaby and Jones off the trail. He ultimately falls victim to his partner in crime.
* DirtyCop: Sgt. Trevor Gibson in "Sleeper Under the Hill".
* DirtyCop: Sgt. Trevor Gibson in "Sleeper Under the Hill".
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* NoBadgeNoProblem: One episode has Barnaby be removed from a case because his wife is tangentially connected to it. His replacement being a perfectly intolerable little dipstick, Barnaby gets to the witnesses first without mentioning he's not on the case.
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* AttackOfTheTownFestival : ''The Straw Woman'' had a village deciding to go ahead with a festival despite the vicar being burnt to death. The replacement vicar was then also murdered.
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* AttackOfTheTownFestival : ''The "The Straw Woman'' Woman" had a village deciding to go ahead with a festival despite the vicar being burnt to death. The replacement vicar was then also murdered.
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* IdenticalGrandson: Relatives of two characters from ''The Killings At Badger's Drift'' appear in ''Dead Letters'', played by the same actors.
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* IdenticalGrandson: Relatives of two characters from ''The "The Killings At Badger's Drift'' Drift" appear in ''Dead Letters'', "Dead Letters", played by the same actors.
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* MurderSimulators : Discussed and played [[spoiler:literally]] in ''Bantling Boy''.
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* MurderSimulators : Discussed and played [[spoiler:literally]] in ''Bantling Boy''."Bantling Boy".
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* NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands - Many an episode features characters whom Barnaby has known for years, but whom the audience has never seen before and for the most part will never see again.
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* NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands - NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands: Many an episode features characters whom Barnaby has known for years, but whom the audience has never seen before and for the most part will never see again.
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* SelfReferentialHumor: At one moment, the brass band from the episode "Things that go bump in the night" plays the series' main theme.
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* SelfReferentialHumor: At one moment, the brass band from the episode "Things that go bump That Go Bump in the night" Night" plays the series' main theme.
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* SlutShaming: "'' Sacred Trust''" involves some romantic liaisons, including one girl shamed for her involvement with a jock.
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* SlutShaming: "'' "A Sacred Trust''" Trust" involves some romantic liaisons, including one girl shamed for her involvement with a jock.
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* DeadlyBath: The first VictimOfTheWeek in "Fit for Murder" is drowned in a flotation pool at a spa. Joyce discovers the corpse when she goes for treatment.
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* [[BaseballEpisode Cricket Episode]]: "Secrets and Spies" (series 11)
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* [[BaseballEpisode Cricket Episode]]: Episode]]:
** "Dead Man's Eleven" (series 3)
** "Secrets and Spies" (series 11)
** "Dead Man's Eleven" (series 3)
** "Secrets and Spies" (series 11)
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** Forms part of the backstory to the murders in [[spoiler:"Dark Secrets"]]. Once Barnaby realises this, the murderer becomes obvious to him.
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* OrgyOfEvidence: In "Fit for Murder", Barnaby and Jones find a large amount of incriminating evidence when they search the house and vehicle of a pair of suspects. Barnaby points out the murders were methodical and carefully premeditated, and scarcely the work of someone who leave incriminating evidence (that they had no reason to keep) where any search would reveal it.
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* MonochromeCasting : The producer, Brian Tru-May, got fired for telling the RadioTimes that they didn't cast non-white actors, or have non-white characters because they wanted to remain "the last bastion of Englishness". Indeed. Apparently "the last bastion of Englishness" involves a murder rate higher than ''TheWire''.
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* MonochromeCasting : The producer, Brian Tru-May, got fired for telling the RadioTimes ''Magazine/RadioTimes'' that they didn't cast non-white actors, or have non-white characters characters, because they wanted to remain "the last bastion of Englishness". Indeed. Apparently "the last bastion of Englishness" involves a murder rate higher than ''TheWire''.
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Removing Nightmare Fuel potholes. NF should be on YMMV only.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Although the series has never shied away from depicting some spectacularly nasty murders, viewers are generally spared the worst of it. "The Sword of Guillaume", however, averts this trope to the point of NightmareFuel.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: Although the series has never shied away from depicting some spectacularly nasty murders, viewers are generally spared the worst of it. "The Sword of Guillaume", however, averts this trope to the point of NightmareFuel.horror.
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* ButtMonkey : Poor Jones. Will anyone EVER treat him nicely?
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* ButtMonkey : Poor Jones. Will anyone EVER treat him nicely?nicely? (Troy and Scott also received this treatment, but had a tendency to bring it on themselves.)
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* EntitledBastard: A common trait among [[AristocratsAreEvil the gentry and "old families"]] of Midsomer County. In one episode, one such gentleman brushes off accusations of conspiracy to commit murder by saying that, as a scion of England's old wealthy families, "we make our own rules." (And he has nothing on the episode's murderer.)
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* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish : In "Market for Murder", the password on the Reading Group's secret share market account is 'Gerald'; the name of the late husband of the group's founder (whom she could not go five minutes without mentioning in conversation).
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* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish : In "Market for Murder", the password on the Reading Group's secret share market account is 'Gerald'; the name of the late husband of the group's founder (whom she could not go five minutes without mentioning in conversation). Somewhat more acceptable than normal, given that she was borderline obsessed with his memory and probably could not help herself in using his name as her password.
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* PopTheTires: Happens in an episode to Troy. Troy repays the favor at the end of the episode, preventing the murderer from escaping.
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* ForkliftFu: In "Sauce for the Goose", VictimOfTheWeek Dexter Lockwood is crushed by a forklift being dumped in a sterilizer.
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Translation By Volume added.
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* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: One episode has two primary school kids sneaking vodka and cigarettes.
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* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: TranslationByVolume: Tom Barnaby once mentions that it used to be all you had to do to be understood by a foreigner. To speak loudly and slowly or shout.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour:
** One episode has two primary school kids sneaking vodka and cigarettes.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour:
** One episode has two primary school kids sneaking vodka and cigarettes.
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* WithThisRing: In "Schooled In Murder", John Barnaby buys a ring for his wife for their 15th anniversary. However, while distracted by Jones, he accidentally feeds the ring to his dog Sykes. He then has to fabricate reasons to keep the dog with him till he can, um, retrieve it.
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creating a redirect (namespace)
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/midsomermurders_621.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:300:John Nettles as Inspector Barnaby and Jason Hughes as DS Jones.]]-]
->'''Eastwood:''' ...Barnaby is [[OnceAnEpisode about to have]] the [[EurekaMoment bolt of inspiration]] that cracks the case, solves the murders and the artifact-smuggling ring, and find out that the postmistress is getting off with the vicar, who's secretly her uncle.
->'''Lothar:''' How many times have you seen this episode?
->'''Eastwood:''' Dunno, [[StrictlyFormula they all blur together]] after a while. It's a new one, Troy isn't in it.
-->'''ExterminatusNow, also [[TruthInTelevision living rooms across the UK]]'''
British MysteryOfTheWeek drama ([[LongRunners 1997 to present]]) about a police detective and his younger colleague operating in the [[{{Barsetshire}} fictional English county district of Midsomer]], which appears to consist almost entirely of picturesque little villages, mostly named after the scheme "Midsomer ''X''" - Midsomer Parva, Midsomer Mallow, Midsomer Worthy, etc.
Has a bad case of NeverOneMurder (and a murder rate that ITV actually started making fun of in their adverts for this--the editors at ''RadioTimes'' counted 321 homicides in the first 14 series), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour film. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer]].
Has a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZK9FNgK74 brilliantly apt, lilting]] theme tune.
----
!!This show provides examples of
* ActorAllusion : In ''Vixen's Run'', [[spoiler:the plot kicks off when elderly Sir Freddy Butler dies at dinner. Despite there being traces of strychnine in his system, the coroner rules natural causes as strychnine is an ingredient in heart medication and Sir Freddy was rather old, fat and drunk. Several other members of his family are killed over the course of the episode by Sir Freddy's first wife Lady Annabel, played by [[Series/IClaudius Sian Philips]]. When she's taken away by Barnaby in the police car at the end she says]]
-->[[spoiler:Lady Annabel: I suppose you want to know how I killed Freddy.]]
-->[[spoiler:Barnaby: But Sir Freddy died from natural causes.]]
-->[[spoiler:Lady Annabel: Oh... of course.]]
** [[spoiler:Now remember what Livia did to her husband (and much of the rest of the cast) in ''Series/IClaudius''...]]
* AssholeVictim: at least three quarters of the dead people.
* AttackOfTheTownFestival : ''The Straw Woman'' had a village deciding to go ahead with a festival despite the vicar being burnt to death. The replacement vicar was then also murdered.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Nearly half the couples seen. In one case, a woman was not only a witness to her husband's bizarre murder (see GrievousBottleyHarm), she ''calls out corrections when the murderer misses''.
* BadHabits: Jones disguises himself as a nun to trap a muderer in "A Sacred Trust".
* {{Barsetshire}} : The titular [[PunnyName Midsomer]] district.
* BehindTheBlack: Barnaby manages to pull off this trope from time to time. One notable instance occurs in the Series 7 episode "Sins of Comission".
* BeneathSuspicion
* BewareTheNiceOnes : One way to guess correctly who the murderer is with depressing frequency is to pick the one who is the only likable one of the lot.
* BigScrewedUpFamily : ''Lots...''
* {{Blackmail}}: Lots of it, and a prime cause of death.
* BluffingTheMurderer : A classic example in "The Sleeper Under the Hill".
* BookEnds : Tom Barnaby's final episode ends with the new guy being called out on his first Midsomer murder investigation - in Badger's Drift, the location of the murder that started the series.
* BrotherSisterIncest : In the pilot, no less. Also appears once or twice later on.
** Subverted in "Shot at Dawn", where the prospect is raised with respect to a newly-engaged couple who are unaware that her mother and his father have been carrying on for decades; the mother only laughs and says that she's been very careful to ensure none of her children are the result of the affair.
* ButtMonkey : Poor Jones. Will anyone EVER treat him nicely?
* ConspiracyTheorist : Dudley Carew in "Murder on St. Malley's Day".
** [[spoiler:ProperlyParanoid]]
* CouldntFindALighter: In "Ghosts of Christmas Past", {{Jerkass}} Digby lights a cigar from one the candles on the dinner table as a taunt at one of the other guests who is not allowed to smoke.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer : Midsomer is a county, not one village, contrary to what idiot TV announcers and others will tell you.
** Although Badger's Drift is a very common locale where (judging by rough guess) everyone in the town has died or been a murderer. Including the priest. It's also one of the few non-Midsomer titled locales and is close to many of the others (you see signs pointing to Badger's Drift often). So it does fit the "deadliest village in Britain" tag.
** In Australia it's "deadliest county" in the ads, which are often edited to highlight the more tart dialogue, thus making them quite amusing.
* CowboyEpisode: "Blood on the Saddle"
* [[BaseballEpisode Cricket Episode]]: "Secrets and Spies" (series 11)
* DangerTakesABackseat: The first two victims in "The House in the Woods" are garrotted by a killer hiding in the backseat of their car.
* DeadMansChest: A dismembered body is placed in a wicker hamper and left in a railway station in "Echoes of the Dead".
* DeathByLookingUp: In "The Dark Rider", one victim is lured outside his ancestral home and looks up just in time to see a gargoyle toppling on top of him.
* DefectiveDetective : Averted, unusually for the genre.
* DefenestrateAndBerate : "Ring Out Your Dead"
* DepravedBisexual : The murderer in "Not In My Back Yard", who was using seduction to manipulate several people of both sexes.
* DepravedHomosexual: Some.
* DrivesLikeCrazy : It's a wonder Barnaby kept letting Sgt. Troy drive.
-->'''Barnaby''': [[TheCameo Troy!]] ... You were driving on the ''wrong side of the road''.
* DryCrusader: A sect of these appear in "The Night of the Stag".
* TheEeyore: The Reverand Giles Shawcross in "The Sword of Guillaume".
* EnfantTerrible: At ''least'' two episodes have had children as the murderer (though one just masterminded the whole thing [[spoiler:using his mentally-retarded uncle to do the killing]]).
* EnhanceButton: Usually {{Averted}} due to the show's rather classic detective approach. There's one in "Days of Misrule", though.
* EurekaMoment : Barnaby [[OnceAnEpisode gets a lot of these]] from offhand remarks by his wife or daughter.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One murderer takes a small boy who he knows to be the witness to his crime out on a boat ride. Then Barnaby has his EurekaMoment and heads for the dock, expecting the worst... only to find the kid unharmed, with the murderer saying he couldn't kill him.
* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: Illicit affairs probably make up half the secrets Barnaby uncovers.
* EvilBrit : Pretty much everybody but the recurring characters is a lying, perverted, murdering hypocrite.
* FakeAmerican
* FakedKidnapping : [[spoiler: In "Faithful Unto Death"]]
* AFeteWorseThanDeath : In the episode "The Straw Woman"
* {{Gaslighting}} : "Beyond the Grave".
* GeographicFlexibility : The villages often gain features and places previously unseen or unheard of. The series is filmed in locations all around England and Wales. It shows. But, surprisingly, it mostly averts CaliforniaDoubling. The use of this trope is to be expected, given how the series is one of the Long Runners of British TV and is set in a small fictional English administrative region with a predominantly rural, old-timey character.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot : Actually averted with Troy, who's a bit of a homophobe and never considers lesbians as arousing.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Although the series has never shied away from depicting some spectacularly nasty murders, viewers are generally spared the worst of it. "The Sword of Guillaume", however, averts this trope to the point of NightmareFuel.
* GrievousBottleyHarm : In "Not In My Back Yard", the first VictimOfTheWeek is done in with a broken bottle.
** In another, the guy is tied down to the lawn while the murderer uses a small catapult to hurl filled bottles at him. His wife sees the whole thing and corrects the murderer's aim.
* HandOfDeath
* HappilyMarried: Tom Barnaby and his wife Joyce, apparently they are the only happily married couple in Midsomer.
** There ''are'' a few other HappilyMarried couples, they're often the murderers.
* HeadlessHorseman: In "The Dark Rider", a killer lures several victims to their deaths by masquerading as a headless horseman from local legend.
* HisNameIs: Classic case in "The Glitch". [[spoiler: The mechanic leaves a message for a friend indicating he knows who the murderer is, but he's murdered before they can talk. He leaves a cryptic clue at least.]]
* HomeCounties: Where Midsomer district is supposedly located (or is it set in TheWestCountry).
* HuntingAccident: "Ghosts of Christmas Past"
* IAteWhat: In "The Night of the Stag", Barnaby drinks half a pint of cider from a barrel that has a dead body floating in it. It causes him to throw up even before the body is discovered.
* IdenticalGrandson: Relatives of two characters from ''The Killings At Badger's Drift'' appear in ''Dead Letters'', played by the same actors.
* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: An early episode had Joyce in a bar with friend who ordered two large whiskies and soda, then asked Joyce if she wanted anything.
* ImplausibleDeniability: One guy is caught in bed with a young man. His next words during the interrogation are "I'm not gay".
* IrishPriest: Father Behan in "A Sacred Trust". [[spoiler: Being Catholic, however, does not spare him from the same fate as so many of his [[TheVicar Anglican counterparts]].]]
* JackTheRipoff: In the episode "Echoes of the Dead", Barnaby recognises the murders as recreations of famous murders of the early 20th century, except for the last one, which he's not able to place. When the murderer is caught, Barnaby asks about it, and the murderer shrugs and says, "I was in a hurry and I couldn't think of anything".
* LifesWorkRuined : "Orchis Fatalis"
* LongRunners : Fifteen years and counting.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: [[spoiler:As alluded to in the title "Left For Dead", a kid who was seemingly killed 19 years prior turns out to be alive, brain damaged, and locked in a cellar convinced by a couple that he was their lost child. When he finally figures out his true identity, he goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]
* MagicBrakes: "Death and the Divas".
* MataHari: [[spoiler: Alice Krige's character in "Secrets and Spies". Trained by MI6 to setup {{Honey Trap}}s.]]
* MistakenForServant: Troy does this to a local lord in "Market for Murder".
* TheMistress : As likely as not, a mystery might involve this or adultery.
* MonochromeCasting : The producer, Brian Tru-May, got fired for telling the RadioTimes that they didn't cast non-white actors, or have non-white characters because they wanted to remain "the last bastion of Englishness". Indeed. Apparently "the last bastion of Englishness" involves a murder rate higher than ''TheWire''.
* MurderByCremation : "Secrets and Spies"
* MurderByMistake: The first victim in "The Glitch".
** And the first victim in "A Sacred Trust".
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Many episodes feature people who think this.
* MurderSimulators : Discussed and played [[spoiler:literally]] in ''Bantling Boy''.
* NakedApron : "Destroying Angel". Barnaby arrives to question a middle-aged, male suspect only to find him doing a spot of baking wearing nothing but an apron.
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognise: More than once, the most famous of the guest stars turns out to have done it. (On the occasions when they're not the one to whom it was done.)
* NeverMessWithGranny : [[spoiler: Especially if she was a secret war hero.]]
* NeverOneMurder : [[spoiler:Subverted in "Painted in Blood," when there really was only one murder.]]
** [[spoiler:"Dead in the Water" is another exception, although there was a second attempted murder.]]
** [[spoiler:Also played with in "Blue Herrings". Though there are many deaths, most were natural or accidental. Only one was a murder, and it was played as a MercyKilling.]]
** LampshadeHanging on this in one episode:
--> Sgt Scott: "Sir, I just got here, and we already have three bodies."\\
DCI Barnaby: "It has been remarked upon before, yes."
* NewMediaAreEvil: "Picture of Innocence". The plot revolves around ''Digital'' vs ''Traditional'' Photography.
* NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands - Many an episode features characters whom Barnaby has known for years, but whom the audience has never seen before and for the most part will never see again.
* NotInMyBackYard: The title (and main theme) of an episode. Unpopular development plans often end in murder in Midsomer.
* NotSoFakePropWeapon : In the episode "Death of a Hollow Man".
** And again in "The Magician's Nephew".
* ObfuscatingDisability
* OffWithHisHead: In "Midsomer Rhapsody" a motorcyclist is decapitated by a length of piano wire strung across the road at neck height.
* OldCopYoungCop: Standard formula for a British cop show.
* OldFashionedCopper : Inspector Barnaby and pretty much any other standard police detective in Midsomer county. Goes hand in hand with the very British attitude of DoesntLikeGuns.
* OvertookTheSeries : Originally based on four (now seven) books by Caroline Graham.
* PaidForFamily : One episode has a woman paid by her clients to act as a loving wife.
* ParentalIncest : Heavily implied between [[spoiler: the Rainbirds]] in the pilot.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish : In "Market for Murder", the password on the Reading Group's secret share market account is 'Gerald'; the name of the late husband of the group's founder (whom she could not go five minutes without mentioning in conversation).
* PickACard : In the episode "Ghosts of Christmas Past", a boy who wants to be a magician when he grows up does an actually-quite-clever version of the trick while being interviewed by Barnaby and Scott about the murder, and his explanation of how he did it (including the fact that he arranged matters to have his own choice of card come up at the end) inspires Barnaby's later EurekaMoment.
* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery : Fiona Conway does this (literally with the pizza boy) in "Not In My Back Yard".
* PursuedProtagonist: "The Night of the Stag" opens with the first VictimOfTheWeek being chased through an orchard at night.
* PutOnABus : Sergeant Troy is promoted and transferred up north. He returns for the episode "Blood Wedding".
** Similarly, Sergeant Scott goes on a LongBusTrip - Barnaby mentions that he "called in sick" but the character is never heard from again.
* RealAfterAll : At least two episodes featuring somebody taking advantage of or inventing a place's haunted reputation have ended with indications that the place really is haunted.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Sergeant Scott bemoans his transfer to Midsomer has ended him up in "the Sticks".
* RetroUniverse : Kind of. It's clearly set in the PresentDay (mid 1990s-early 2000s), but the atmosphere is very rustic and sort of a GenreThrowback to the golden age of English detective fiction [[GenteelInterbellumSetting in the inter-war period]].
* SelfReferentialHumor: At one moment, the brass band from the episode "Things that go bump in the night" plays the series' main theme.
* SeriousBusiness: Some of the murders have unbelievably ridiculous motives (to anyone but the murderers). One woman ends up killing three people because her driving drunk would bar her from joining the ''village social club'' for life.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: One episode has Barnaby figure out two women are related when both use the same bizarre expression despite not living near each other, just in time to save the AssholeVictim.
* ShoutOut: To the famous album cover of The Beatles' ''Abbey Road''. [[spoiler: An artist/forger hides errors in his forgeries as a joke. One landscape painting, which he claimed to be centuries old, includes four men in the distance who on close inspection are clearly John, Paul, George, and Ringo.]] ("The Black Book")
* SlutShaming: "'' Sacred Trust''" involves some romantic liaisons, including one girl shamed for her involvement with a jock.
* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: The gloomy vicar in "The Sword of Guillaume". Naturally (for this programme), he's given a sign just at that moment.
* StalkerShrine: Revealed just before the climax of "A Rare Bird".
* StepfordSmiler : Chief Superintendent John Cotton, coupled with BewareTheNiceOnes. Or vice versa.
* StoppedClock: Abused in at least one episode [[NeverSuicide to make a murder look like a suicide]].
* StylisticSuck: The [[ShowWithinAShow movies]] in "Death and the Divas". Complete with wooden acting and [[SpecialEffectsFailure poor effects]]. [[JustifiedTrope This is justified]], as they were supposed to be low budget horror films from the late '60s and early '70s.
* SurpriseIncest: This was in an episode where a man had 'spread his seed far and wide' — you could hardly turn a corner without finding one of his bastards. One couple didn't meet until they were both in graduate school in Canada and got married, only later realizing they were half-siblings; she was totally squicked, he didn't mind.
** A character in "Dark Secrets" immediately vomits upon learning [[spoiler:the employee she'd been having an affair with was her nephew, the nephew himself being the product of BrotherSisterIncest.]]
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute : When John Nettles left the series, DCI Tom Barnaby retired, to be replaced by the younger and more energetic DCI ''John'' Barnaby. Apparently he's a cousin, and they did hang a {{lampshade}} on it in the episode where John Barnaby was introduced, but really, it's like they're not even trying. The name at least might be chalked up as an EnforcedTrope due to the show being called "Inspector Barnaby" in certain other markets (France, Italy, Germany, and Japan according to TheOtherWiki).
* TagAlongActor: Cully's actor boyfriend rides along with Barnaby and Jones to research the role of a detective sergeant. It's a comment of his that gives Barnaby the EurekaMoment.
* ThatOneCase: George Meakham's obsession with the original Strangler's Wood murders.
* ThemeNaming : Most of the villages are "Midsomer *blank*".
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: One episode has two primary school kids sneaking vodka and cigarettes.
** This was a major plot revelation in "Left for Dead" (series 11). [[spoiler:A group of four kids allow another kid to tag along while they smoke and drink. When that kid gets uncomfortable, they torture him, drown him in a river, and toss his body down a well.]]
* TrustBuildingBlunder: DCI Tom Barnaby's (predictable) contempt towards team building exercises is on display in "Days of Misrule" when he is forced to go on one by the new chief superintendent. HilarityEnsues.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm : Inspector Martin Spellman in "Picture of Innocence".
* UnwillingSuspension: Happens to John Barnaby in "Death in the Slow Lane".
* VehicularSabotage: "Death in the Slow Lane". The episode "Death and the Divas" from season 15 also had a death involving this.
* TheVicar: Almost a prerequisite for any whodunit set in an English village, though dog collars appear to be the Midsomer equivalent of a RedShirt. If you're a clergyman in Midsomer, chances are you'll either be horribly murdered or unmasked as a horrible murderer before the credits roll. [[spoiler: Of particular note is the Reverend Stephen Wentworth, played brilliantly by Richard Briers in the episode "Death's Shadow". Another honourable mention should go to Mark Gatiss's Giles Shawcross in "The Sword of Guillaume".]]
* WhatADrag: One victim in "Blood on the Saddle" is killed by being lassoed and dragged along behind a horse.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Cully's husband, Simon, is never seen or heard from after their wedding.
* WomanScorned: Quite a few cases. [[spoiler: Patricia Blackshaw in "The Black Book", for one.]]
* YeOldeButcheredEnglish: In one episode with a medieval fair/tourney.
* YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything
* YouLookFamiliar : The actor who plays John Barnaby first appeared on the series a decade earlier as a murder suspect.
** John Nettles himself, who starred in another detective show, ''{{Bergerac}}'', set in Jersey.
* ZettaiRyouiki: Charlotte Cameron in "Death in the Slow Lane".
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[-[[caption-width-right:300:John Nettles as Inspector Barnaby and Jason Hughes as DS Jones.]]-]
->'''Eastwood:''' ...Barnaby is [[OnceAnEpisode about to have]] the [[EurekaMoment bolt of inspiration]] that cracks the case, solves the murders and the artifact-smuggling ring, and find out that the postmistress is getting off with the vicar, who's secretly her uncle.
->'''Lothar:''' How many times have you seen this episode?
->'''Eastwood:''' Dunno, [[StrictlyFormula they all blur together]] after a while. It's a new one, Troy isn't in it.
-->'''ExterminatusNow, also [[TruthInTelevision living rooms across the UK]]'''
British MysteryOfTheWeek drama ([[LongRunners 1997 to present]]) about a police detective and his younger colleague operating in the [[{{Barsetshire}} fictional English county district of Midsomer]], which appears to consist almost entirely of picturesque little villages, mostly named after the scheme "Midsomer ''X''" - Midsomer Parva, Midsomer Mallow, Midsomer Worthy, etc.
Has a bad case of NeverOneMurder (and a murder rate that ITV actually started making fun of in their adverts for this--the editors at ''RadioTimes'' counted 321 homicides in the first 14 series), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour film. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer]].
Has a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZK9FNgK74 brilliantly apt, lilting]] theme tune.
----
!!This show provides examples of
* ActorAllusion : In ''Vixen's Run'', [[spoiler:the plot kicks off when elderly Sir Freddy Butler dies at dinner. Despite there being traces of strychnine in his system, the coroner rules natural causes as strychnine is an ingredient in heart medication and Sir Freddy was rather old, fat and drunk. Several other members of his family are killed over the course of the episode by Sir Freddy's first wife Lady Annabel, played by [[Series/IClaudius Sian Philips]]. When she's taken away by Barnaby in the police car at the end she says]]
-->[[spoiler:Lady Annabel: I suppose you want to know how I killed Freddy.]]
-->[[spoiler:Barnaby: But Sir Freddy died from natural causes.]]
-->[[spoiler:Lady Annabel: Oh... of course.]]
** [[spoiler:Now remember what Livia did to her husband (and much of the rest of the cast) in ''Series/IClaudius''...]]
* AssholeVictim: at least three quarters of the dead people.
* AttackOfTheTownFestival : ''The Straw Woman'' had a village deciding to go ahead with a festival despite the vicar being burnt to death. The replacement vicar was then also murdered.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Nearly half the couples seen. In one case, a woman was not only a witness to her husband's bizarre murder (see GrievousBottleyHarm), she ''calls out corrections when the murderer misses''.
* BadHabits: Jones disguises himself as a nun to trap a muderer in "A Sacred Trust".
* {{Barsetshire}} : The titular [[PunnyName Midsomer]] district.
* BehindTheBlack: Barnaby manages to pull off this trope from time to time. One notable instance occurs in the Series 7 episode "Sins of Comission".
* BeneathSuspicion
* BewareTheNiceOnes : One way to guess correctly who the murderer is with depressing frequency is to pick the one who is the only likable one of the lot.
* BigScrewedUpFamily : ''Lots...''
* {{Blackmail}}: Lots of it, and a prime cause of death.
* BluffingTheMurderer : A classic example in "The Sleeper Under the Hill".
* BookEnds : Tom Barnaby's final episode ends with the new guy being called out on his first Midsomer murder investigation - in Badger's Drift, the location of the murder that started the series.
* BrotherSisterIncest : In the pilot, no less. Also appears once or twice later on.
** Subverted in "Shot at Dawn", where the prospect is raised with respect to a newly-engaged couple who are unaware that her mother and his father have been carrying on for decades; the mother only laughs and says that she's been very careful to ensure none of her children are the result of the affair.
* ButtMonkey : Poor Jones. Will anyone EVER treat him nicely?
* ConspiracyTheorist : Dudley Carew in "Murder on St. Malley's Day".
** [[spoiler:ProperlyParanoid]]
* CouldntFindALighter: In "Ghosts of Christmas Past", {{Jerkass}} Digby lights a cigar from one the candles on the dinner table as a taunt at one of the other guests who is not allowed to smoke.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer : Midsomer is a county, not one village, contrary to what idiot TV announcers and others will tell you.
** Although Badger's Drift is a very common locale where (judging by rough guess) everyone in the town has died or been a murderer. Including the priest. It's also one of the few non-Midsomer titled locales and is close to many of the others (you see signs pointing to Badger's Drift often). So it does fit the "deadliest village in Britain" tag.
** In Australia it's "deadliest county" in the ads, which are often edited to highlight the more tart dialogue, thus making them quite amusing.
* CowboyEpisode: "Blood on the Saddle"
* [[BaseballEpisode Cricket Episode]]: "Secrets and Spies" (series 11)
* DangerTakesABackseat: The first two victims in "The House in the Woods" are garrotted by a killer hiding in the backseat of their car.
* DeadMansChest: A dismembered body is placed in a wicker hamper and left in a railway station in "Echoes of the Dead".
* DeathByLookingUp: In "The Dark Rider", one victim is lured outside his ancestral home and looks up just in time to see a gargoyle toppling on top of him.
* DefectiveDetective : Averted, unusually for the genre.
* DefenestrateAndBerate : "Ring Out Your Dead"
* DepravedBisexual : The murderer in "Not In My Back Yard", who was using seduction to manipulate several people of both sexes.
* DepravedHomosexual: Some.
* DrivesLikeCrazy : It's a wonder Barnaby kept letting Sgt. Troy drive.
-->'''Barnaby''': [[TheCameo Troy!]] ... You were driving on the ''wrong side of the road''.
* DryCrusader: A sect of these appear in "The Night of the Stag".
* TheEeyore: The Reverand Giles Shawcross in "The Sword of Guillaume".
* EnfantTerrible: At ''least'' two episodes have had children as the murderer (though one just masterminded the whole thing [[spoiler:using his mentally-retarded uncle to do the killing]]).
* EnhanceButton: Usually {{Averted}} due to the show's rather classic detective approach. There's one in "Days of Misrule", though.
* EurekaMoment : Barnaby [[OnceAnEpisode gets a lot of these]] from offhand remarks by his wife or daughter.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One murderer takes a small boy who he knows to be the witness to his crime out on a boat ride. Then Barnaby has his EurekaMoment and heads for the dock, expecting the worst... only to find the kid unharmed, with the murderer saying he couldn't kill him.
* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: Illicit affairs probably make up half the secrets Barnaby uncovers.
* EvilBrit : Pretty much everybody but the recurring characters is a lying, perverted, murdering hypocrite.
* FakeAmerican
* FakedKidnapping : [[spoiler: In "Faithful Unto Death"]]
* AFeteWorseThanDeath : In the episode "The Straw Woman"
* {{Gaslighting}} : "Beyond the Grave".
* GeographicFlexibility : The villages often gain features and places previously unseen or unheard of. The series is filmed in locations all around England and Wales. It shows. But, surprisingly, it mostly averts CaliforniaDoubling. The use of this trope is to be expected, given how the series is one of the Long Runners of British TV and is set in a small fictional English administrative region with a predominantly rural, old-timey character.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot : Actually averted with Troy, who's a bit of a homophobe and never considers lesbians as arousing.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Although the series has never shied away from depicting some spectacularly nasty murders, viewers are generally spared the worst of it. "The Sword of Guillaume", however, averts this trope to the point of NightmareFuel.
* GrievousBottleyHarm : In "Not In My Back Yard", the first VictimOfTheWeek is done in with a broken bottle.
** In another, the guy is tied down to the lawn while the murderer uses a small catapult to hurl filled bottles at him. His wife sees the whole thing and corrects the murderer's aim.
* HandOfDeath
* HappilyMarried: Tom Barnaby and his wife Joyce, apparently they are the only happily married couple in Midsomer.
** There ''are'' a few other HappilyMarried couples, they're often the murderers.
* HeadlessHorseman: In "The Dark Rider", a killer lures several victims to their deaths by masquerading as a headless horseman from local legend.
* HisNameIs: Classic case in "The Glitch". [[spoiler: The mechanic leaves a message for a friend indicating he knows who the murderer is, but he's murdered before they can talk. He leaves a cryptic clue at least.]]
* HomeCounties: Where Midsomer district is supposedly located (or is it set in TheWestCountry).
* HuntingAccident: "Ghosts of Christmas Past"
* IAteWhat: In "The Night of the Stag", Barnaby drinks half a pint of cider from a barrel that has a dead body floating in it. It causes him to throw up even before the body is discovered.
* IdenticalGrandson: Relatives of two characters from ''The Killings At Badger's Drift'' appear in ''Dead Letters'', played by the same actors.
* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: An early episode had Joyce in a bar with friend who ordered two large whiskies and soda, then asked Joyce if she wanted anything.
* ImplausibleDeniability: One guy is caught in bed with a young man. His next words during the interrogation are "I'm not gay".
* IrishPriest: Father Behan in "A Sacred Trust". [[spoiler: Being Catholic, however, does not spare him from the same fate as so many of his [[TheVicar Anglican counterparts]].]]
* JackTheRipoff: In the episode "Echoes of the Dead", Barnaby recognises the murders as recreations of famous murders of the early 20th century, except for the last one, which he's not able to place. When the murderer is caught, Barnaby asks about it, and the murderer shrugs and says, "I was in a hurry and I couldn't think of anything".
* LifesWorkRuined : "Orchis Fatalis"
* LongRunners : Fifteen years and counting.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: [[spoiler:As alluded to in the title "Left For Dead", a kid who was seemingly killed 19 years prior turns out to be alive, brain damaged, and locked in a cellar convinced by a couple that he was their lost child. When he finally figures out his true identity, he goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]
* MagicBrakes: "Death and the Divas".
* MataHari: [[spoiler: Alice Krige's character in "Secrets and Spies". Trained by MI6 to setup {{Honey Trap}}s.]]
* MistakenForServant: Troy does this to a local lord in "Market for Murder".
* TheMistress : As likely as not, a mystery might involve this or adultery.
* MonochromeCasting : The producer, Brian Tru-May, got fired for telling the RadioTimes that they didn't cast non-white actors, or have non-white characters because they wanted to remain "the last bastion of Englishness". Indeed. Apparently "the last bastion of Englishness" involves a murder rate higher than ''TheWire''.
* MurderByCremation : "Secrets and Spies"
* MurderByMistake: The first victim in "The Glitch".
** And the first victim in "A Sacred Trust".
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Many episodes feature people who think this.
* MurderSimulators : Discussed and played [[spoiler:literally]] in ''Bantling Boy''.
* NakedApron : "Destroying Angel". Barnaby arrives to question a middle-aged, male suspect only to find him doing a spot of baking wearing nothing but an apron.
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognise: More than once, the most famous of the guest stars turns out to have done it. (On the occasions when they're not the one to whom it was done.)
* NeverMessWithGranny : [[spoiler: Especially if she was a secret war hero.]]
* NeverOneMurder : [[spoiler:Subverted in "Painted in Blood," when there really was only one murder.]]
** [[spoiler:"Dead in the Water" is another exception, although there was a second attempted murder.]]
** [[spoiler:Also played with in "Blue Herrings". Though there are many deaths, most were natural or accidental. Only one was a murder, and it was played as a MercyKilling.]]
** LampshadeHanging on this in one episode:
--> Sgt Scott: "Sir, I just got here, and we already have three bodies."\\
DCI Barnaby: "It has been remarked upon before, yes."
* NewMediaAreEvil: "Picture of Innocence". The plot revolves around ''Digital'' vs ''Traditional'' Photography.
* NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands - Many an episode features characters whom Barnaby has known for years, but whom the audience has never seen before and for the most part will never see again.
* NotInMyBackYard: The title (and main theme) of an episode. Unpopular development plans often end in murder in Midsomer.
* NotSoFakePropWeapon : In the episode "Death of a Hollow Man".
** And again in "The Magician's Nephew".
* ObfuscatingDisability
* OffWithHisHead: In "Midsomer Rhapsody" a motorcyclist is decapitated by a length of piano wire strung across the road at neck height.
* OldCopYoungCop: Standard formula for a British cop show.
* OldFashionedCopper : Inspector Barnaby and pretty much any other standard police detective in Midsomer county. Goes hand in hand with the very British attitude of DoesntLikeGuns.
* OvertookTheSeries : Originally based on four (now seven) books by Caroline Graham.
* PaidForFamily : One episode has a woman paid by her clients to act as a loving wife.
* ParentalIncest : Heavily implied between [[spoiler: the Rainbirds]] in the pilot.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish : In "Market for Murder", the password on the Reading Group's secret share market account is 'Gerald'; the name of the late husband of the group's founder (whom she could not go five minutes without mentioning in conversation).
* PickACard : In the episode "Ghosts of Christmas Past", a boy who wants to be a magician when he grows up does an actually-quite-clever version of the trick while being interviewed by Barnaby and Scott about the murder, and his explanation of how he did it (including the fact that he arranged matters to have his own choice of card come up at the end) inspires Barnaby's later EurekaMoment.
* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery : Fiona Conway does this (literally with the pizza boy) in "Not In My Back Yard".
* PursuedProtagonist: "The Night of the Stag" opens with the first VictimOfTheWeek being chased through an orchard at night.
* PutOnABus : Sergeant Troy is promoted and transferred up north. He returns for the episode "Blood Wedding".
** Similarly, Sergeant Scott goes on a LongBusTrip - Barnaby mentions that he "called in sick" but the character is never heard from again.
* RealAfterAll : At least two episodes featuring somebody taking advantage of or inventing a place's haunted reputation have ended with indications that the place really is haunted.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Sergeant Scott bemoans his transfer to Midsomer has ended him up in "the Sticks".
* RetroUniverse : Kind of. It's clearly set in the PresentDay (mid 1990s-early 2000s), but the atmosphere is very rustic and sort of a GenreThrowback to the golden age of English detective fiction [[GenteelInterbellumSetting in the inter-war period]].
* SelfReferentialHumor: At one moment, the brass band from the episode "Things that go bump in the night" plays the series' main theme.
* SeriousBusiness: Some of the murders have unbelievably ridiculous motives (to anyone but the murderers). One woman ends up killing three people because her driving drunk would bar her from joining the ''village social club'' for life.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: One episode has Barnaby figure out two women are related when both use the same bizarre expression despite not living near each other, just in time to save the AssholeVictim.
* ShoutOut: To the famous album cover of The Beatles' ''Abbey Road''. [[spoiler: An artist/forger hides errors in his forgeries as a joke. One landscape painting, which he claimed to be centuries old, includes four men in the distance who on close inspection are clearly John, Paul, George, and Ringo.]] ("The Black Book")
* SlutShaming: "'' Sacred Trust''" involves some romantic liaisons, including one girl shamed for her involvement with a jock.
* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: The gloomy vicar in "The Sword of Guillaume". Naturally (for this programme), he's given a sign just at that moment.
* StalkerShrine: Revealed just before the climax of "A Rare Bird".
* StepfordSmiler : Chief Superintendent John Cotton, coupled with BewareTheNiceOnes. Or vice versa.
* StoppedClock: Abused in at least one episode [[NeverSuicide to make a murder look like a suicide]].
* StylisticSuck: The [[ShowWithinAShow movies]] in "Death and the Divas". Complete with wooden acting and [[SpecialEffectsFailure poor effects]]. [[JustifiedTrope This is justified]], as they were supposed to be low budget horror films from the late '60s and early '70s.
* SurpriseIncest: This was in an episode where a man had 'spread his seed far and wide' — you could hardly turn a corner without finding one of his bastards. One couple didn't meet until they were both in graduate school in Canada and got married, only later realizing they were half-siblings; she was totally squicked, he didn't mind.
** A character in "Dark Secrets" immediately vomits upon learning [[spoiler:the employee she'd been having an affair with was her nephew, the nephew himself being the product of BrotherSisterIncest.]]
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute : When John Nettles left the series, DCI Tom Barnaby retired, to be replaced by the younger and more energetic DCI ''John'' Barnaby. Apparently he's a cousin, and they did hang a {{lampshade}} on it in the episode where John Barnaby was introduced, but really, it's like they're not even trying. The name at least might be chalked up as an EnforcedTrope due to the show being called "Inspector Barnaby" in certain other markets (France, Italy, Germany, and Japan according to TheOtherWiki).
* TagAlongActor: Cully's actor boyfriend rides along with Barnaby and Jones to research the role of a detective sergeant. It's a comment of his that gives Barnaby the EurekaMoment.
* ThatOneCase: George Meakham's obsession with the original Strangler's Wood murders.
* ThemeNaming : Most of the villages are "Midsomer *blank*".
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: One episode has two primary school kids sneaking vodka and cigarettes.
** This was a major plot revelation in "Left for Dead" (series 11). [[spoiler:A group of four kids allow another kid to tag along while they smoke and drink. When that kid gets uncomfortable, they torture him, drown him in a river, and toss his body down a well.]]
* TrustBuildingBlunder: DCI Tom Barnaby's (predictable) contempt towards team building exercises is on display in "Days of Misrule" when he is forced to go on one by the new chief superintendent. HilarityEnsues.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm : Inspector Martin Spellman in "Picture of Innocence".
* UnwillingSuspension: Happens to John Barnaby in "Death in the Slow Lane".
* VehicularSabotage: "Death in the Slow Lane". The episode "Death and the Divas" from season 15 also had a death involving this.
* TheVicar: Almost a prerequisite for any whodunit set in an English village, though dog collars appear to be the Midsomer equivalent of a RedShirt. If you're a clergyman in Midsomer, chances are you'll either be horribly murdered or unmasked as a horrible murderer before the credits roll. [[spoiler: Of particular note is the Reverend Stephen Wentworth, played brilliantly by Richard Briers in the episode "Death's Shadow". Another honourable mention should go to Mark Gatiss's Giles Shawcross in "The Sword of Guillaume".]]
* WhatADrag: One victim in "Blood on the Saddle" is killed by being lassoed and dragged along behind a horse.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Cully's husband, Simon, is never seen or heard from after their wedding.
* WomanScorned: Quite a few cases. [[spoiler: Patricia Blackshaw in "The Black Book", for one.]]
* YeOldeButcheredEnglish: In one episode with a medieval fair/tourney.
* YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything
* YouLookFamiliar : The actor who plays John Barnaby first appeared on the series a decade earlier as a murder suspect.
** John Nettles himself, who starred in another detective show, ''{{Bergerac}}'', set in Jersey.
* ZettaiRyouiki: Charlotte Cameron in "Death in the Slow Lane".
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