History Series / MidsomerMurders

* DropTheHammer: In "Crime and Punishment", the second VictimOfTheWeek has his head smashed in with a hammer taken from the display in his own hardware store.

* EvilIsNotAToy: In “Blood On The Saddle” [[spoiler:Susan Fincher seduced Adam Burbage, taking advantage of his love of Westerns and the Old West meaning he secretly owned and knew how to use several illegal guns, to murder her husband and anyone else who stood in her way of gaining the disputed land in Ford Forley; planning to simply have Adam take the fall. However, she underestimated how unstable Adam was, thus upon realising she’s betrayed him Adam turns up intending to kill her next. She’s only saved by the intervention of Inspector Barnaby and Sergent Jones.]]

** Actors Tom Chambers, Natalie Gumede and Danny Mac, along with singer [[Music/{{Steps}} singer Fay Tozer]] were all previous finalists, and in Chambers case, a former champion, of Series/StrictlyComeDancing. They all ended up playing dancers during the ballroom themed episode "Point of Balance."

** Played with in "Wild Harvest". [[spoiler: The murder of the chef was intentional but the murderer didn't know that the chef's husband (and the murderer's ex-husband) would take up drinking again. It's set up in such a way that Barnaby, while questioning her, is faking that he's still alive to get the name of the poison before the murderer realizes she accidentally killed her ex... before we cut outside to show that both of them are still alive, having been treated for their poison.]]

** The ''third'' murder turns out to have been accidental in [[spoiler: "Send in the Clowns"]] -- the murderer triggered an alarm system while snooping around a slaughterhouse, and when the victim came around jostled a heavy wagon while trying to hide, which went rolling and knocked the victim on the ''automatic'' [[ConveyorBeltODoom slaughter line]] (and left the victim too dazed to move away before the line went to the gassing room).

** In "The Straw Woman", Reverend Hale dies when his cape mysteriously catches fire. [[spoiler: It turns out that the killer had drenched it in a solution of phosphorous in toluene, which started to burn when the toluene had evaporated. However, toluene has a strong gasoline-like smell which the reverend would have noticed, and furthermore the evaporation would take heat from the surroundings, making the cape icy cold and near-impossible to wear.]]

** Played with in "A Vintage Murder". The victims aren't very nice people, [[spoiler: but they weren't involved in a hit-and-run that killed a little girl. When the murderer (the girl's mother) finds out, she's horrified.]]

* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: Jane Rochelle's]] burns from "Judgement Day" are not a pretty sight, especially her hand.

* BondageIsBad: In "Country Matters" this is inverted and played straight; while there are multiple men adopting the submissive role they are both bad and good. [[spoiler: The Dom is the murderer.]]

* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: "The Pudding Club", an exclusive club restricted to members of the elite Devington School's students who are pursuing careers in diplomacy. On the surface, it's just a "boy's club" that regularly eats "puddings"[[note]]in the British sense of the term, which means anything from pies to desserts[[/note]]. [[spoiler: In reality, it's a front for an illegal art-smuggling ring, with the members using their positions to smuggle valuables out of foreign countries and into the school proper, to be sold off to finance the school whenever it needs the money.]]

** Part of the plot of [[spoiler:"The Fisher King"]]. A couple had gotten together and married, only to then find out that they shared a father. At that point they committed to treating each other as brother and sister in the usual non-incest way despite officially being husband and wife, but then the brother got it into his mind that a Celtic ritual could get the gods to give permission for them to have sex again.[[spoiler: Which gets him killed, but only because the murderer exploited the opportunity of the ritual to send an arrow into his back. The murderer's motivations have ''nothing'' to do with the incest, and more to do with just who the father was.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: In ''Bad Tidings'', Joyce mentions that one of Cully's old schoolfriends used to bully her. [[spoiler: Guess who the murderer turned out to be...]]

* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: A highly successful and kind-hearted psychiatrist is oblivious to the fact that [[spoiler: all three of her children are sociopathic, gleeful serial killers who murdered her husband (their own father) because they wanted her all to themselves, and hated him for wanting to spend time alone with her. They repeat the process for anyone they deem is getting too friendly with their mum - including Barnaby]].

* CoolOldGuy: DCI Tom Barnaby evolved into this as the series centred on him went on and in one episode [[spoiler: it's revealed he was an ex-member of [=MI6=]]].

* {{Crossdresser}}: [[spoiler: Gerald Hadleigh]] from the series 1 episode "Written in blood".

* DangerTakesABackseat: The first two victims in "The House in the Woods" are garrotted by a killer hiding in the backseat of their car.

** [[spoiler: DI Mark Gudgeon from NIS takes over the investigation in "Painted in Blood". Problem is, he was the one who committed the murder.]]
** [[spoiler: Sgt. Trevor Gibson in "Sleeper Under the Hill"]] turns out to be involved in the killings and does his best to throw Barnaby and Jones off the trail. He ultimately falls victim to his partner in crime.

** [[spoiler: DI Mark Gudgeon and his NIS underlings in "Painted in Blood".]]
** [[spoiler: Sgt. Trevor Gibson in "Sleeper Under the Hill"]].
** ''The Debt of Lies'' features several different variations of this (although none of them are actually active by the time they first appear), from borderline to clear and regulars at crookedness to cops that slipped up once or twice.[[spoiler: But all of it is irrelevant to the ''actual'' motive for the murders, which is much more personal]].

* EvilutionaryBiologist: [[spoiler: "Master Class": An elderly piano virtuoso takes a talented young girl under his wings. It turns out that she is secretly his daughter from an incestuous relationship, and that he wishes to conceive a genetically superior child with her to save Britain from degeneracy.]]

* FakedKidnapping: [[spoiler: In "Faithful Unto Death"]]

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Downplayed. in "The Ballad of Midsomer County", Danny Carver isn't keen on his daughter Melody becoming a famous folk singer as he worries it will change her irrevocably. [[spoiler: He comes around at the end of the episode. Ironically, Melody's ''real'' father probably wouldn't have minded.]]

* FemmeFataleSpy: [[spoiler: Alice Krige's character in "Secrets and Spies". Trained by [=MI6=] to setup {{Honey Trap}}s.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HisNameIs: Classic case in "The Glitch". [[spoiler: The mechanic]] leaves a message for a friend indicating he knows who the murderer is, but he's murdered before they can talk. He leaves a cryptic DyingClue at least.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Murderers with a sense of poetic justice deliberately invoke this. For example, a malicious game show host who thinks of himself as a wine connoisseur gets a taste of his own medicine when [[spoiler: his victims force him to take part in a deadly quiz show where they slowly drown him. In wine.]]

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: A downplayed example, but in several cases Tom Barnaby overlooks the murderer as a suspect due to personal attachment and invariably ends up with a BrokenPedestal, though he's at least aware of it enough to catch himself in [[spoiler: "The Noble Art" and point out that he's been dismissing his friend Gerald as a suspect. Gerald is of course the murderer]].

* HumanSacrifice: The killings in "Murder by Magic" ultimately centre around an ancient human sacrifice, and someone's attempt to recreate in the present-day [[spoiler: although this is a misdirection]].

* IHaveYourWife: In "Faithful Unto Death", the wife of a local businessman is kidnapped. Her husband is sent photographs of her bound to a chair and looking bruised and battered along with ransom demands (and the usual exhortation not to contact the police). [[spoiler: The wife is actually the mastermind of the scheme, and is using it to extract cash from her husband before he is murdered.]]

* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Inkpen family in "Garden of Death", which had to sell their manor (which had been in the family since the reformation) 25 years earlier (but were able to buy it back five years before the episode). [[spoiler: They got the money to buy back the manor from the father of a bishop, which (unknownst to the bishop) had a illegimate child with Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas.]]

** [[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.]]

* IrishPriest: Father Behan in "A Sacred Trust". [[spoiler: Being Catholic, however, does not spare him from the same fate as so many of his [[TheVicar Anglican counterparts]].]]

* KidDetective: The two kids in "Worm In The Bud," who think that trying to investigate a murder will be fun. Their parent's are not amused, and try and talk them out of it, by telling them it's dangerous. However a couple of clues they find do help one villager put the pieces together, and they actually work who the murderer is before Barnaby does.[[spoiler: They end up shooting the murderer themselves in front of Barnaby.]]

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: A plot point - and the motive - in [[spoiler: ''Vixen's Run.'']]

* MercyKill: While still murder under UK law, the killer in [[spoiler:"Blue Herrings"]] was actually performing one of these. [[spoiler: The killer's aunt faced a slow, undignified and agonising death from her terminal illness, and as the closest thing to a daughter the older woman had, her niece couldn't bear to watch her suffer.]]

* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: [[spoiler: Honoria Lyddiard]] from the first series episode "Written in Blood" still keeps the corpse of her dead [[spoiler: brother Ralph Lyddiard in her house, despite him dying several years earlier of aids. Honoria's sister in law (and Ralph's wife) Amy is understandably horrified of this when she discovers it.]]

* 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.]]

* NeverMessWithGranny: [[spoiler: Especially if she was a secret war hero.]]

** [[spoiler: "Sauce for the Goose" only has one murder as well.]]
** [[spoiler: Subverted in "Habeas Corpus" which managed to have no murders. At all!]]

** "Death and Dreams" sees Inspector Barnaby investigating a series of garrotting's which appear to tie to a respected local psychiatrist who provides support for ex criminals. [[spoiler: Its eventually revealed the murders were committed by her three children as the individuals were taking away their mothers attention. It at first seems they were motivated by the death of their father, only for it turn out they murdered him as well for the same reason]].

** Another sad example is "Garden of Death", where Hilary, the illegitimate daughter of the Inkpen family (who was given up for adoption) is treated like a servant by the other members of the family, including her half-sister. [[spoiler: Turns out they only brought her back into the family to use her DNA to blackmail her wealthy paternal grandfather, who wouldn't want people finding out his son had fathered an illegitimate child. When Hilary found out, she snapped and started wiping out the Inkpens in revenge.]]
* ParentalIncest: Heavily implied between [[spoiler: the Rainbirds]] in the pilot.
** [[spoiler: "Master Class": An elderly piano virtuoso takes a talented young girl under his wing. It turns out that she is secretly his daughter from an incestuous relationship, and that he wishes to conceive a genetically superior child with her to save Britain from degeneracy.]]

* ParentalMarriageVeto: In "Vixen's Run", it's mentioned that Lord Freddy forbade his son to marry the housekeeper's daughter. [[spoiler: Turns out he had a valid reason: she's also the illegitimate daughter of Freddy's brother, and her mother wanted it to stay a secret.]]

* RedHerring: All over the place -- it's a murder mystery after all. Special mention must go to the aptly named "Blue Herrings", where [[spoiler: the initial deaths are accidents, not murders: the sad but understandable reality of a retirement home. The only real murder is a MercyKill by a very SympatheticMurderer.]]

* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler: In "Sins of Commission", it turns out the three "victims" all tried to murder the same nice older lady - who happened to have been an agent with the Special Operations Executive during WWII.]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Dudley Carew in "Murder on St. Malley's Day" is a ConspiracyTheorist who believes that there's a secret and sinister purpose behind the Pudding Club at the Devington School, claiming they're an Illuminati-esque group responsible for murder and mayhem on a global scale. [[spoiler: He's right about there being a sinister purpose, alright, but it's nothing so grand as that: it's art-smuggling under a guise of diplomatic immunity.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The killer's motive of 'Ghosts of Christmas Past'. [[spoiler: His sister Claire married into the family the story revolves around where she drew the suspicion of her sister-in-law, Jennifer, who hired a private detective to go into her past where it was revealed Claire had a criminal record of possessing drugs and stealing. To try and get her away from Lydia, Jennifer forced her mother to claim several family heirlooms were stolen and put on sale in auctions without her knowledge, causing Claire to be charged before she was DrivenToSuicide. When her brother found out, he murdered both of them.]]
** [[spoiler: The motive for ''Death's Shadow'', where the murderer wanted to avenge the accidental death of his illegitimate son by killing the boys who had accidentally killed him 30 years earlier.]]

* ShoutOut: To the famous album cover of Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/AbbeyRoad''. [[spoiler: An artist/forger hides errors in his forgeries as a joke. One landscape painting, which he claimed to be centuries old, includes four men in the distance who on close inspection are clearly John, Paul, George, and Ringo.]] ("The Black Book")
** One of the murders in ''Night of the Stag'' is the murder of St Thomas Becket in all but name. [[spoiler: The episode's BigBad even orders the killing by asking his two henchmen "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?"]]
** One of the suspects in "Strangler's Wood" [[{{Film/Psycho}} is a creepy hotel owner, who is looking after his ill mother in the attic.]][[spoiler: He is later stabbed to death by an old woman while taking a bath.]]

* SpoilerTitle: If you know the alternate name for the profession or the character's nickname, it's no surprise who the killer in [[spoiler: "The Axeman Cometh"]] is.

* StressVomit: One character immediately starts vomiting when she learns the guy she's been banging through the whole episode is actually [[spoiler: her nephew]]. He doesn't really react to that, given that he also just learned [[spoiler: he's the product of Brother-Sister Incest]].

* SuspiciousSpending: In "The Killings At Badger's Drift", Barnaby and Troy notice that Dennis Rainbird is driving an awfully fancy car, with Troy commenting that he didn't think undertakers made that much. [[spoiler: They don't: Dennis and his mother have been routinely profiting from {{Blackmail}}.]]

** The landlord of the pub in "Breaking The Chain," who sent the local councillor a pig's heart, threatening letters and spray painted the monument she was due to unveil with the word murderer in an attempt to get her to confess [[spoiler: that her mistake in the first cycle race meeting had led to the death of his wife years ago, and that she had covered it up save herself. He was even in a relationship with her as well at the time. It worked, he recorded the confession, and handed it over to Barnaby.]]

** The first victim in "Blood will out".[[spoiler: Rushing a person who is pointing a loaded shotgun at your chest? Not a good idea, Bridges.]]
*** [[spoiler: Then again, it was never explained why Bridges had a loaded shotgun lying on his desk, and it is entirely possible that he was thinking of killing himself anyway.]]

* 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, to the point where you could probably fit all the names of the Vicar’s who were major characters and who turned out to be neither by the end of the episode on the back of the proverbial postage stamp.[[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" and the Reverend in "Sting of Death".]]

** In "Blue Herrings" a murder ([[spoiler: the only one in the episode]]) is done with a pillow smothered over the victim's face as [[spoiler: she]] is asleep.
** In "Judgement Day" [[spoiler: the killer is mercy killed after being given a large quantity of sleeping pills and then suffocated with a pillow.]]

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Winter and Kam. [[spoiler: They don't.]]

* WomanScorned: Quite a few cases. [[spoiler: Patricia Blackshaw in "The Black Book", for one.]]

* YourDaysAreNumbered: In "Strangler's Wood", [[spoiler: The first murder victim, Carla Constanza, only had a couple years left to live due to pulmonary emphysema she got from smoking.]]

* 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, to the point where you could probably fit all the names of the Vicar’s who were major characters and who turned out to be neither by the end of the episode on the back of the proverbial postage stamp.[[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".]]

** In "The Axeman Cometh", Michael Angelis plays the drummer in blues rock band Hired Gun. In one scene, the band's singer (Suzi Quatro) scathingly calls him [[Music/TheBeatles Ringo]]. Angelis took over as the narrator of WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends from Ringo Starr, as they have very similar voices. Also, Michael Angelis' brother Paul provided the voice for Ringo in ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine.''

Has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZK9FNgK74 brilliantly apt, lilting]] theme tune.

** Nastily subverted, however, in "Death and Dreams", where the someone ''appears'' to have a trope-type FreudianExcuse, but doesn't...[[spoiler:instead, they all have a rampaging and lethal version of the OedipusComplex (a more ''literal'' Freudian excuse). The three children of Banraby's psychiatrist friend saw their father die in a climbing accident, which we're lead to believe is the cause of their obsession with keeping their mother with them. Then it turns out the two older children ''[[SelfMadeOrphan killed]]'' their father for daring to be affectionate with their mother!]]

'''John Barnaby:''' Really? And you think you can ''win'' this time, because you weren't quite ''bright'' enough back then to keep her school at the top of the league tables? And I don't think anything's changed.\\
'''Hayley Brantner:''' ''I've'' changed. I'm the one in charge now.\\
'''John Barnaby:''' Yes, you've got your own back. You've, uh, put her in her place.\\
'''Hayley Brantner:''' Yes. Where she ''belongs.''\\
''(John Barnaby glares at her)''\\
'''Hayley Brantner:''' Not me. I don't let people put me in places I don't want to be. Not any more.

''(John Barnaby glares at her)\\''

'''Hayley Brantner:''' Don't be lording it over me. [[MotiveRant Keeping secrets from me with my own husband; Beatrix still thinking she was much better than me; and Helen - if she could have found it in herself to say sorry]]. Nothing had changed... ''except me.'' I don;t let people push me around anymore, like Greg. I told him six months, and no more. I didn't want to ''be here.''\\

'''John Barnaby:''' Yes, you've got your own back. You've, uh, put her in her place.

'''Hayley Brantner:''' Not me. I don't let people put me in places I don't want to be. Not any more.\\

* AxeBeforeEntering: The killer of the episode "Dark Autumn" attempted to cut through a door with a machete to get to his final victim, only for the victim to disarm him by hitting the blade. He, nevertheless, manages to get in the room, but is stopped by Barnaby and Jones before he can kill again.

* AxeBeforeEntering: The killer of the episode "Dark Autumn" attempted to cut through a door to get to his final victim, only for the victim to disarm him by hitting the blade. He, nevertheless, manages to get in the room, but is stopped by Barnaby and Jones before he can kill again.