Dead Man's Eleven is the third episode of the second series of Midsomer Murdersand originally aired 12th September 1999.
Barnaby and Troy investigate the murder of Tara Cavendish, who is beaten to death with a cricket bat near a quarry on her husband's estate. She is the young wife of Robert Cavendish, a local landowner who is also captain of the Fletcher's Cross cricket team. He is disliked by many: his son, Stephen, who resents his father and is having an affair with a local barmaid; Charles Jennings, whom Cavendish recently dismissed from the cricket team; and a group of locals who resent that Cavendish has closed a public footpath that ran across his estate. The mystery deepens when it turns out that a Cavendish's housekeeper, Emily Beavis, died in a fall at the quarry site some 18 months previously. With that information, Barnaby is convinced that the two deaths are connected.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Played with. All the Cavendishes we meet are mean-spirited, cruel and greedy, and have wronged many people - all except the victim, who at worst comes off as a Gold Digger but who does genuinely seem to care. The only person who dislikes her is the son, Stephen Cavendish, and even then because her presence risks his inheritance. In the whole of the mystery, she turns out to be a Sacrificial Lamb - an unrelated innocent sacrificed in the murderer's vengeance against someone worse.
- Batter Up!: A cricket bat is used as a murder weapon.
- The Butler Did It: The culprit turns out to be the Cavendish's rarely seen housekeeper, who is actually the wife of a man killed by Cavendish's corporate negligence in the past. In keeping with the trope, most of the hanging mysteries are solved by the fact that she had access to the whole house while remaining beneath everyone's notice.
- Baseball Episode: Or rather, Cricket Episode.
- Honey Trap: Stephen Cavendish is having an affair with with a bartender in town, who is in on the murder plot and is using the relationship as means to frame him.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Trish dips into this after The Reveal that she was the child seen in the flashback, dipping into childish speak and using a much higher tone of voice as she tries to kill Cavendish.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The events of the episode turn out to be part of a Best Served Cold revenge plot against Cavendish for the death of a worker of his that he was indirectly responsible for.
- Robbing the Dead: In an unconventional way. The couple that witnessed the death of the Cavendish's first housekeeper, instead of reporting the death, immediately went to break into her house and rob some rare coins they knew she had - reasoning that since she was dead, it was no longer stealing. To avoid further unnecessary questions they kept quiet about most of what they say - despite having seen the person who murdered her. This inaction meant the murder went listed as a suicide for over a year, indirectly allowing the current murders to take place as well. Barnaby is furious when he finds out and has them arrested on the spot.
- Rope Bridge: A rope bridge across a mere is sabotaged to dump a group of walkers in the lake (although without murderous intent).
