History Series / MidsomerMurders

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Cully's husband, Simon, is never seen or heard from after their wedding.

* BeleagueredBureaucrat: In "Dark Secrets", the VictimOfTheWeek is a poor beleaguered social services inspector. Dealing with the eccentric inhabitants of Midsomer would be enough to drive anyone crazy, but what he disocers while trying help the elderly gets him murdered.

* CrimeConcealingHobby: On occasion, the crimes are committed because of the hobby, which are SeriousBusiness in Midsomer and cause for any number of reprehensible activities from adultery to blackmail to creative accounting. [[spoiler:One episode has a mentally-disturbed woman murder people who might interfere with the local tourist attraction (a miniature village), a Social Climber murders any potential witnesses that saw her driving drunk (which would have barred her from entering the village social club), etc.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The killer in ''A Vintage Murder'' has this reaction [[spoiler: when she finds out who really killed her daughter in a hit-and-run, meaning she murdered two innocent people.]]

** Knocked out, had a hollowed-out TV with a hole in the top shoved over their head, and wine poured into the TV until they drown.

* HelloAttorney: Rex Masters solicitor in "The Animal Within" definitely played up to this, even if she was on the slightly more older side of this trope. She even let Rex take some sexy pictures of her for her husband.

Has a bad case of NeverOneMurder (and a murder rate that ITV actually started making fun of in their adverts for this--according to a documentary made to celebrate Midsomer’s 25 years on TV that in aired in 2022, there have been 396 murders up to that point), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour episode. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer, unless they themselves are murdered instead]].

* AdaptedOut: Troy in the original novels was married with a daughter.

Has a bad case of NeverOneMurder (and a murder rate that ITV actually started making fun of in their adverts for this--according to a documentary made to celebrate Midsomer’s 25 years on TV, there have been 396 murders up to that point), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour episode. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer, unless they themselves are murdered instead]].

* ArtisticLicensePharmacology: The episode "King's Crystal" has a victim die from ingesting ground glass (quite ironically). Not only was the time it (apparently) took him to die ridiculously short (20 minutes), but according to a variety of [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ground-glass-deadly/ literature]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210812090711/https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/01/18/1828923.htm sources]], ground glass isn't deadly (or poisonous) upon ingestion, unless the slivers are large enough that the victim would sense them as he was chewing his food (and would cut up the inside of his mouth as a result). The odds of dying to ground glass poisoning are, hence, slim to none, unless the victim truly wanted to die (which he didn't).

Has a bad case of NeverOneMurder (and a murder rate that ITV actually started making fun of in their adverts for this--according to a documentary made to celebrate Midsomer’s 25 years on TV, there have been 396 murders since it started.), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour episode. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer]].

* 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".]]

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 ''Magazine/RadioTimes'' counted 321 homicides in the first 14 series), with the killer frequently BeneathSuspicion until five minutes from the end of each two-hour episode. Many episodes featured a SpecialGuest who [[NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize turned out to be the murderer]].

* FigertipDrugAnalysis: In "Happy Families", Winter tests a bottle of poison he finds in the kitchen by dipping his finger it and touching it to his tongue. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a prop for the murder mystery game that was supposed to be played at the party.]]

* AccidentalMisnaming: Barnaby, flustered after seeing his ex-Sergeant in “Last Man Out,” calls Winter 'Jones' by mistake.

** After appearing regularly throughout the first six series, Troy was seen leaving in the first episode of Series 7, but he made a [[TheCameo brief guest appearance]] at the end of "Blood Wedding”, the second episode of Series 11.

** [[spoiler: Rosemary]] from “Dance of the Dead” was in love with [[spoiler:Carol.]] The murderer couldn’t stand the sight of the murder victim being someone else, especially someone of the opposite sex. Unable to handle the heartbreak, the murderer attempted to carry out the opening murder by knocking the couple out, placing them in the car, and suffocate them with toxic fumes. [[spoiler:She reveals as Tom is interrogating her that she brought Carol’s body back to her house and buried it so that they were still together.]]
** It’s implied during his first episode as Tom’s replacement that John has a gay neighbor who was trying to pick him up. When John mentioned his wife would be moving into their new house in a few days, the neighbor laughs in embarrassment. It’s unknown if John knew his neighbor was interested in him or was just being friendly.

* McGuffin: In “Shot at Dawn”, Tom Barnaby has proof of who the murderer is in a box, and even refers to it as a “McGuffin” when Ben Jones asks him what it is.

** The murderers in “[[spoiler:Point Of Balance]]”

* WifeBasherBasher: In “Crime and Punishment”, it’s revealed that [[spoiler:Frank was killed because of his abusive nature towards Maxine. Barbara couldn’t stand seeing her friend getting hurt by Frank and chose to run him over with her husband’s car.]]

** In “The Ballad of Midsomer County”, the murderer turns out to be one for [[spoiler:his wife. He was jealous of John Carver who she dated and killed him so that he would have her all to himself. Decades later, he killed three more men under the impression that they were trying to take his wife away from him. When he confronts her, he claims that all his actions were done to “protect” her. When she reveals that she was planning on leaving her husband of her own free will, he pointed his gun at her with intent to [[IfICantHaveYou kill her]].]]

* AdultFear: Well...yes, it's a murder mystery series, and it's reached the point of self-parody. However, some of the psychology in Midsomer makes for some more specific adult fears:
** That the people that are a threat to you are likely to be people you know and love: colleagues, neighbours, friends, spouses, ''your children...''
** Being harmed or killed because of MistakenIdentity -- or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
** Being killed for reasons that you find ridiculous, simply because some else saw it as SeriousBusiness.
** That despite your love and care, your child becomes an EnfantTerrible.
** On the flip side of that, your child becomes the ''target'' of a predator.
** That you are always being watched (Midsomer has no secrets that a semi-competent {{Blackmail}}er couldn't sniff out with minimum difficulty).
** That ''any'' mistake -- no matter how minor -- will come back to bite you in [[DisproportionateRetribution terrible]] and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath creative]] ways.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Last Year's Model" departs from the normal formula with a CourtroomEpisode where Barnaby ends up reinvestigating a murder he thought he solved the previous year.