Blue Herrings is the second episode of the third series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired on 22nd January 2000.
While taking a week off to move into their new home, Barnaby takes time to visit his aunt, Alice Bly, who is staying at a local convalescent home for a few weeks. She tells him that a resident died there the previous evening and at least one other resident believes it was murder. When the home's administrator tells Barnaby that residents' personal effects are going missing, he gets Troy to look into the goings-on at the manor. When a second resident is found dead soon after, Barnaby begins to suspect that something is amiss.
Tropes:
- Mercy Kill: While still murder under UK law, Pru Bennett was actually performing one of these. Her aunt, Celia Armstrong, faced a slow, undignified and agonising death from a terminal illness, and as the closest thing to a daughter she had, Pru couldn't bear to watch her suffer.
- Never One Murder: Played with here. Though there are many deaths, most were natural or accidental. Only one was a murder, and it was played as a Mercy Killing.
- Red Herring: The initial deaths are accidents, not murders: the sad but understandable reality of a retirement home. The only real murder is a Mercy Kill by a very Sympathetic Murderer.
