The Dark Rider is the first episode of the fifteenth series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired 1st February 2012.
DCI Barnaby and DS Jones investigate the death of Bentham DeQuetteville, who fell from the roof of the family manor house after seeing a headless horseman in the courtyard. His last word to his nephew Toby DeQuetteville - who also saw the headless horseman - was simply 'Geoffrey'. Several members of the family are quite open about their dislike of the dead man but are less open about the family legend that says the headless horseman is their 17th century ancestor, Geoffrey DeQuetteville, whose appearance always portends a death in the family. Toby's mentally disturbed son Simon DeQuetteville has always claimed that the headless horseman had appeared prior to his mother's death. The DeQuettevilles have had a centuries old row with their neighbors, the Fleetwoods, but two other members of the DeQuetteville family will die before Barnaby figures out just what is going on.
Tropes:
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Acting for Two: James Callis plays twins Julian and Toby DeQuetteville. - Bound and Gagged: The killer attempts to remove someone who is afraid of the dark from the line of succession by leaving them bound and gagged inside a priest hole, driving them into a permanent state of trauma.
- Death by Looking Up: Ludo DeQuetteville is lured outside his ancestral home and looks up just in time to see a gargoyle toppling on top of him.
- Feedback Rule: Sarah Barnaby is plagued by feedback while attempting to narrate a Civil War reenactment. She keeps yelling at her sound engineer, Andy, to fix the problem.
- Headless Horseman: The headless horseman from local legend (or rather, an imposter) appears in order to frighten the aristocrats.
- Love Makes You Evil: Toby DeQuetteville murders everyone between himself and the Lordship, because he's afraid of his wife leaving him, and assumes being a Lady will make her stay.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Toby DeQuetteville is nowhere near as stupid or harmless as he seems, the implication being that he plays to his reputation in order to be underestimated.
- War Reenactors: Given the event takes place in Midsomer, it should come as no surprise that the annual Civil War recreation results in murder.
