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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!

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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 his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Midsomer Murders Season 1 Episode 1 - The Killings at Badger's Drift
    8.2/10(2631 votes)

    #1 - The Killings at Badger's Drift

    S1:E1

    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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  2. Midsomer Murders Season 2 Episode 1 - Death's Shadow
    8.2/10(1607 votes)

    #2 - 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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  3. Midsomer Murders Season 3 Episode 3 - Judgement Day
    8.2/10(1583 votes)

    #3 - Judgement Day

    S3:E3

    Midsomer Mallow has a shot at the Perfect Village title, provided it can keep a murderer at bay.

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  4. Midsomer Murders Season 8 Episode 6 - Second Sight
    8.2/10(1101 votes)

    #4 - Second Sight

    S8:E6

    John Ransom is found murdered with suspicious burn marks to his head. The investigation leads to two feuding families - one with the ability of second sight.

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  5. Midsomer Murders Season 9 Episode 8 - Last Year's Model
    8.2/10(1116 votes)

    #5 - 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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  6. Midsomer Murders Season 6 Episode 3 - Painted in Blood
    8.1/10(1173 votes)

    #6 - 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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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Midsomer Murders

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  8. Midsomer Murders Season 7 Episode 1 - The Green Man
    8.1/10(1307 votes)

    #7 - 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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  9. Midsomer Murders Season 9 Episode 3 - Vixen's Run
    8.1/10(1080 votes)

    #8 - 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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  10. Midsomer Murders Season 9 Episode 1 - The House in the Woods
    8.0/10(1175 votes)

    #9 - 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.

    Director:Peter Smith

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  11. Midsomer Murders Season 2 Episode 2 - Strangler's Wood
    7.9/10(1464 votes)

    #10 - 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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  12. Midsomer Murders Season 2 Episode 3 - Dead Man's Eleven
    7.9/10(1425 votes)

    #11 - 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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  13. Midsomer Murders Season 4 Episode 2 - Destroying Angel
    7.9/10(1304 votes)

    #12 - Destroying Angel

    S4:E2

    Barnaby attends the funeral of the owner of the Easterly Grange Hotel and hears that the hotel manager has gone missing. The will is read, and it seems the hotel has been divided between the missing manager and his beautiful wife, the hotel's chef and its accountant.A dog finds the hotel manager's severed hand, and the others named in the will receive threatening notes. Then accidents start to happen to them all, including mushroom-poisoning, an apparently accidental shooting, a falling drinks cabinet and a sabotaged vehicle. Barnaby next learns that the missing hotel manager had in his possession a more recent will, which is also now missing....

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  14. Midsomer Murders Season 9 Episode 6 - Country Matters
    7.9/10(1076 votes)

    #13 - Country Matters

    S9:E6

    Frank Hopkirk, an environmental adviser on the proposed site of a controversial Goodfare supermarket in Elverton-cum-Latterly, is found stabbed to death in an old farm building on the site. Barnaby & Jones question locals on both sides of the debate over the plans, and find that Mr Hopkirk had extra-curricular dealings with a number of the local ladies and their businesses. But which one of these caused passions to be stirred up to such a murderous extent?

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  15. Midsomer Murders Season 10 Episode 2 - The Animal Within
    7.9/10(1104 votes)

    #14 - 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.

    Director:Renny Rye

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  16. Midsomer Murders Season 11 Episode 2 - Blood Wedding
    7.9/10(1013 votes)

    #15 - 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

    Director:Peter Smith

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  17. Midsomer Murders Season 12 Episode 2 - The Black Book
    7.9/10(959 votes)

    #16 - The Black Book

    S12:E2

    The sale of a previously unknown painting by an 18th century painter sends Barnaby into an investigation of murders as well as art forgery.

    Director:Peter Smith
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Midsomer Murders Season 12 Episode 6 - The Creeper
    7.9/10(966 votes)

    #17 - The Creeper

    S12:E6

    Midsomer's Chettham Park House, once owned by Sir William Chettham, has been bought by entrepreneur Jack Filby to save Sir William from financial ruin. Long-term friends dating back to the days of university, Jack has allowed William, his mother Elizabeth, wife Isobel and son Freddy to stay on living at The Dower House - the smaller house on the estate where the Baronet's widowed mother would traditionally live. Jack is the man of the manor now with William and Isobel's son Freddy as his right hand man.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Midsomer Murders Season 13 Episode 5 - Master Class
    7.9/10(1050 votes)

    #18 - Master Class

    S13:E5

    Piano student Zoe Stock has won a place at the Devington Manor Winter School led by internationally renowned musician Sir Michael Fielding. From the riverbank in the grounds of the manor she sees a woman jump from the bridge and disappear underwater. When Barnaby and Jones start investigating the possible drowning, they discover unsavoury connections to the past that could prove lethal twenty years later. But can they intervene before the body count escalates and will the talented Zoe survive her master class?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Midsomer Murders Season 14 Episode 2 - Dark Secrets
    7.9/10(1018 votes)

    #19 - Dark Secrets

    S14:E2

    The reclusive lives of elderly eccentrics William and Mary Bingham comes under police scrutiny when a social services investigator is murdered. Barnaby and Jones must unearth generations of family secrets and decipher astronomical charts to find the killer.

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  21. Midsomer Murders Season 22 Episode 3 - Happy Families
    7.9/10(905 votes)

    #20 - 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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  22. Midsomer Murders Season 1 Episode 2 - Written in Blood
    7.8/10(1914 votes)

    #21 - Written in Blood

    S1:E2

    Gerald Hadleigh, secretary of a writers' circle, is found battered to death the morning after the group's meeting with best-selling novelist (and former psycho-therapist) Max Jennings. Gerald did not want to invite Max to Midsomer Worthy, and he seemed apprehensive about the visit.Barnaby's investigations show that Gerald was a man of mystery - he had no National Insurance number, no family, and no marriage certficate to go with his wedding photographs. And it seems he had a mysterious woman visitor on the night of his death... then Max Jennings goes missing and is found dead.

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  23. Midsomer Murders Season 5 Episode 1 - Market for Murder
    7.8/10(1210 votes)

    #22 - Market for Murder

    S5:E1

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

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  24. Midsomer Murders Season 5 Episode 3 - Ring Out Your Dead
    7.8/10(1266 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. Midsomer Murders Season 9 Episode 4 - Down Among the Dead Men
    7.8/10(1000 votes)

    #24 - Down Among the Dead Men

    S9:E4

    Barnaby and Jones investigate the shooting of a blackmailer, Martin Barrett. But he had so many victims, they are spoiled for choice for a suspect. Then one of his victims, Sir John Waverley, gets another demand. The trail leads them to the seaside and diving for treasure on an uncataloged wreck.

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  26. Midsomer Murders Season 10 Episode 6 - Picture of Innocence
    7.8/10(994 votes)

    #25 - 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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Best Episodes Summary

"The Killings at Badger's Drift" is the best rated episode of "Midsomer Murders". It scored 8.2/10 based on 2631 votes. Directed by Jeremy Silberston and written by Caroline Graham, Anthony Horowitz, it aired on 3/23/1997. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Death's Shadow".