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The Best Episodes of Midsomer Murders

Every episode of Midsomer Murders ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Midsomer Murders!

The Best Episodes of Midsomer Murders

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and...
  1. Background image for Ghosts of Christmas Past
    8.5/10(5 votes)

    #1 - Ghosts of Christmas Past

    S8:E3

    An elderly woman is found dead in her cottage and DCI Tom Barnaby is convinced the death is not down to natural causes.

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    Director:Renny Rye
  2. Background image for Fit for Murder
    8.4/10(6 votes)

    #2 - Fit for Murder

    S13:E8

    Barnaby reluctantly accompanies Joyce on a spa weekend to Swavely Manor. But as he attempts to de-stress, a woman is found dead in the flotation chamber. He abandons his treatment to investigate, but his personal worries are never far away as he contemplates his future.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for Death's Shadow
    8.2/10(1.6k votes)

    #3 - Death's Shadow

    S2:E1

    Barnaby and Troy are in Badger's Drift again, this time to investigate the murder of an unpopular property developer called Richard Bayly who had been suffering from a brain tumour. Bayly had recently come up with plans to build a new housing estate in the sleepy village, despite determined local opposition, and he was killed with an Indian sword belonging to Stephen Wentworth, the local Vicar. Another interesting factor is the recent arrival in the village of Simon Fletcher, a theatre director with unhappy childhood memories and perhaps an old grievance.

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  4. Background image for Orchis Fatalis
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #4 - Orchis Fatalis

    S8:E4

    When a rare orchid is smuggled illegally into Midsomer Malham it releases the heady scents of passion, jealousy and death.

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  5. Background image for Hidden Depths
    8.1/10(6 votes)

    #5 - Hidden Depths

    S8:E7

    When local solicitor Nick Turner falls to his death from his house roof, it is not clear whether it was murder or suicide.

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  6. Background image for Vixen's Run
    8.1/10(1.0k votes)

    #6 - Vixen's Run

    S9:E3

    The elderly Sir Freddy Butler has invited both his ex-wives, Annabel & Lucinda, to stay with him and his current wife, Tara. When he dies suddenly of a heart attack, the bitter rivalry between the three and Sandra, the wife of his heir, comes to the surface, with murderous consequences. To solve the mystery, Barnaby must unravel paternity questions about some of the residents of the hall, and find the legendary missing emeralds.

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  8. Background image for Last Year's Model
    8.1/10(1.1k votes)

    #7 - Last Year's Model

    S9:E8

    Annie Woodrow, a charity worker from Midsomer Malham, is standing trial for killing her best friend, Frances Trevelyan, in a case that Barnaby had investigated ten months previously. But he becomes increasingly unsettled that the prosecution's case doesn't match the facts. Barnaby & Jones enlist the help of key witness Mrs Beverly in a risky entrapment to find out what really happened. Jones's promotion to Det Sgt comes through at the same time.

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  9. Background image for Small Mercies
    8.1/10(4 votes)

    #8 - Small Mercies

    S12:E5

    Richard Tanner is found murdered in a model village, stabbed and trussed up like Gulliver in a macabre tableau. The disturbing manner of his death leads Barnaby and Jones to suspect that someone in the village of Little Worthy is criminally insane. As further gruesome killings rock the community, the detectives face a race against time to unravel past events that lead to the making of a dangerous serial killer.

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  10. Background image for A Vintage Murder
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #9 - A Vintage Murder

    S17:E4

    The fizz goes out of a sparkling wine launch when the glasses are laced with poison. Who is targeting the Midsomer Vinae Winery and what does the attack have to do with the death of a child in a hit-and-run accident?

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  11. Background image for The House in the Woods
    8.0/10(1.1k votes)

    #10 - The House in the Woods

    S9:E1

    A couple who have been searching the Midsomer area for a suitable property to renovate, Peter & Caroline Cave, are found brutally garrotted in their car outside a supposedly haunted dilapidated old cottage in the woods near Midsomer Newton. There are several other people interested in buying the house, but are they desperate enough to murder potential rivals? Barnaby investigates, with the assistance of PC Ben Jones, who he temporarily appoints Detective Constable, in the absence of DS Scott. Joyce Barnaby is helping a local group of conservationists identify architecturally important buildings in the area, and is asked to investigate the same cottage, potentially putting her in danger. Barnaby then discovers that there is something odd about the person selling the cottage.

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    Director:Peter Smith
  12. Background image for The Animal Within
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    #11 - The Animal Within

    S10:E2

    Faith Alexander arrives in Midsomer Deverell to visit her estranged Uncle Rex, much to the surprise of his friends and associates who had been told she was dead. The problem is Rex is missing and Barnaby's initial investigation into his disappearance becomes more sinister when Rex's body is found at the bottom of the weir. The case becomes more complicated as it appears the eccentric Rex left several different wills and everyone wants a slice of his estate. Was this the reason for murder, or is it related to a family feud from 40 years ago? What was the secret of the feud? Those who know are not saying but someone is prepared to commit further murders to ensure it is not revealed.

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    Director:Renny Rye
  13. Background image for Picture of Innocence
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    #12 - Picture of Innocence

    S10:E6

    There's a shock for Joyce when she and Tom visit a photo exhibition in Luxton Deeping. Barnaby also gets a glimpse of the bitter rivalry between the traditional film photo followers and the digital enthusiasts. Things develop a more serious turn, however, when a member of the local camera club is brutally strangled. For once there are no shortage of clues and leads, all pointing to one suspect - Barnaby himself !! Suspended from duty, Barnaby, with a little covert help from Jones, has to use all his deductive powers to discover the motive and unmask the real murderer before they strike again.

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  14. Background image for Strangler's Wood
    7.9/10(1.4k votes)

    #13 - Strangler's Wood

    S2:E2

    Nine years after a series of unsolved murders at Midsomer Worthy, a new death which follows the same pattern (a girl is found strangled in the woods) leads to fears that the serial killer is back in business. Barnaby and Troy look out the old files in dealing with the first new murder - and then others follow.

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  15. Background image for Dead Man's Eleven
    7.9/10(1.4k votes)

    #14 - Dead Man's Eleven

    S2:E3

    Troy is in the Midsomer Worthy cricket eleven for the annual match against Fletchers Cross, so he is on the spot when the wife of Robert Cavendish, the Team Captain and a big local landowner, is found bludgeoned to death with a cricket bat. As often happens, the death toll mounts before the killer can be unmasked. Why should the cricket team's scorer be stabbed to death with a Nazi dagger at the following match? Cavendish, as a mine owner, may have been responsible for the 'accidental' deaths of two of his employees in years gone by. If someone is out for revenge, who is it? Meanwhile, a protest march to maintain footpaths across Cavendish's land finds a foot-bridge has been sabotaged, and their leader takes a ducking...

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  16. Background image for Sins of Commission
    7.9/10(8 votes)

    #15 - Sins of Commission

    S7:E4

    The Midsomer Literary Festival opens with the real-life murder of a famous author at Midsomer St Michael. In investigating the killing, Barnaby and Scott find that the village highbrows are busy with corruption, embezzlement, and sexual peccadillos of various kinds. And the dead bodies go on piling up.

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  17. Background image for Blood Wedding
    7.9/10(987 votes)

    #16 - Blood Wedding

    S11:E2

    An upper class wedding results in an evil and sudden death, which becomes another challenge for Barnaby. These people are not used to having the police around asking a lot of silly questions. Besides, Barnaby has Cully's wedding to sort out as well

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    Director:Peter Smith
  18. Background image for Secrets and Spies
    7.9/10(4 votes)

    #17 - Secrets and Spies

    S12:E3

    A number of murders near a government safe house in Midsomer appears to be connected to a group of British spies stationed in East Berlin during the Cold War.

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    Director:Unknown
  19. Background image for The Glitch
    7.9/10(4 votes)

    #18 - The Glitch

    S12:E4

    Midsomer University science fellow George Jeffers threatens to make public a problem with his state-of-the-art invention Kernel Logic, but American software boss Clinton Finn fears he will lose millions if the truth comes out. When a schoolteacher is killed in a hit-and-run, Barnaby suspects Jeffers was the intended target.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for The Great and the Good
    7.9/10(4 votes)

    #19 - The Great and the Good

    S12:E7

    The night time peace of Badger's Drift is shattered horribly when teacher Connie Bishop screams in fright, convinced there is an intruder. Days later a local councillor, said to be obsessed with her, is found murdered in her garden. Is Connie the innocent victim she seems? Barnaby and Jones uncover jealous rivals, ruthless social climbers and a cottage with mysterious secrets as they search for the killer.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for The Made-to-Measure Murders
    7.9/10(4 votes)

    #20 - The Made-to-Measure Murders

    S13:E2

    The residents of Milton Cross, a feudal estate with a church, farms, houses and acres of land, depend on lord of the manor Edward Milton for their livelihoods. When Sonia Woodley is stabbed to death in the churchyard two years after the death of her husband, bespoke tailor Gerald, Barnaby and Jones investigate, and the village begins to reveal its secrets. Guest staring James Wilby, Gwyneth Strong and Karl Davies (formerly Emmerdale's Robert Sugden), with John Nettles and Jason Hughes

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    Director:Peter Smith
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Happy Families
    7.9/10(871 votes)

    #21 - Happy Families

    S22:E3

    Barnaby is investigating the murder of Victor Karras, a manufacturer of exclusive board games, who appears to have been poisoned.

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  23. Background image for Market for Murder
    7.8/10(1.2k votes)

    #22 - Market for Murder

    S5:E1

    A ladies reading group in Midsomer Market starts losing members to murder.

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  24. Background image for Ring Out Your Dead
    7.8/10(1.2k votes)

    #23 - Ring Out Your Dead

    S5:E3

    In the village of Midsomer Wellow, someone is killing off the bellringers of the parish church, in the week before a big bell-ringing competition. One young woman on the team is even shot dead in the churchyard on her wedding day. Before he can crack the case, Barnaby has to understand the significance of an old killing in the same village in the year 1860, when the Midsomer Wellow Vicar of the day, the Reverend Jonathan Ebbrell, was murdered and thrown down a well by the bellringers of his church. So where are the Ebbrells now?

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  25. Background image for Painted in Blood
    7.8/10(8 votes)

    #24 - Painted in Blood

    S6:E3

    Barnaby's wife, Joyce, finds a dead body on the Midsomer Florey village green while taking part in a watercolour painting class, and she recognizes it as the elderly Miss Fairfax.Barnaby is given the case, then finds himself taken off it and replaced by a team from the National Intelligence Squad, while he is assigned to deal with a missing handbag. However, he continues his investigation into the murder, finding deceit and double-dealing. It appears that 'Miss Fairfax' was not an elderly spinster at all, but a young detective sergeant from the National Intelligence Squad working under cover, and that her colleagues are busy fitting up the village handyman for the murder of an old lady who never was. He discovers that someone is busy hunting for some five million pounds still missing from an old robbery. In the closing moments, Barnaby has to lock two of the National Intelligence Squad's officers in a bank strong-room, where they are trying to snatch the missing cash, and to arrest the

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  26. Background image for The Green Man
    7.8/10(6 votes)

    #25 - The Green Man

    S7:E1

    The Barnaby-Troy partnership is about to come to an end, as Troy has passed his inspector's exam and is moving on. However, the murderers of Midsomer go on piling up the bodies. Joyce Barnaby gets trapped in a fallen canal tunnel, and in getting her out seven skeletons come to light in a hidden chamber. Meanwhile, two local tearaways are shot dead in the woods at Midsomer Worthy, and a tramp called Tom is accused of the killings. While Troy looks into the shootings, Barnaby wrestles with an old mystery. And although six of the skeletons found in the tunnel date from the 18th century, one is much more recent.

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Best Episodes Summary

"Ghosts of Christmas Past" is the best rated episode of "Midsomer Murders". It scored 8.5/10 based on 5 votes. Directed by Renny Rye and written by David Hoskins, it aired on 12/25/2004. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Fit for Murder".