Fit for Murder is the eighth episode of the thirteenth series of Midsomer Murders and was first aired on 2nd February 2011. It is the final episode featuring John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby.
Barnaby accompanies Joyce to Swaveley Manor health spa, run by fussy Luke Archbold and his wife Phoebe. Luke is in a right of way dispute with Phoebe's former best friend, Miranda Bedford, who has written a novel, and her volatile handyman Carter Smith. Demanding guest Kitty Pottinger is found drowned in the flotation chamber and soon afterwards Luke is killed by a faulty weights machine. The spa faces closure and evidence points to Carter having killed Luke, though Barnaby believes he was framed. Kitty's husband Kenny disappears but is found, having survived an attempt on his life. Before Barnaby retires, handing over to his cousin John Barnaby, he has exposed a fake medium and discovered that the killer had dual motives—hatred for the Pottingers and a need to not stop Miranda 's book being published—both instances being Fit For Murder.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: In the end, the murderer turns out to be Phoebe Archbald. Her motive is twofold: partly she wanted to prevent her greedy and despicable husband, Luke Archbald, from selling the estate, but the real motive behind her actions was that she found out that he and Kitty Pottinger were planning to steal the manuscript of the novel that Phoebe's best friend, Miranda Bedford, had been writing for twenty years in order to blackmail her. When Phoebe confesses this, Miranda explains that she finished writing the novel over a year ago and has already had it published, so there was nothing Luke and Kitty could have done.
- Deadly Bath: Kitty Pottinger is drowned in a flotation pool at a spa. Joyce discovers the corpse when she goes for treatment.
- Died on Their Birthday: We learn that Tom's father died on his birthday. As Tom approaches the age his father was when he died, he starts to worry that he is going to die on his own birthday as well.
- Orgy of Evidence: Barnaby and Jones find a large amount of incriminating evidence when they search the home and vehicle of a pair of suspects. While Jones at first wants to arrest them, Barnaby points out that the victims were killed methodically and with careful premeditation, so it is absurd that the killer would do this and then leave incriminating evidence where any search would reveal it.
