The Worst Episodes of Midsomer Murders
Every episode of Midsomer Murders ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst 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 his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Midsomer Murders" is "Blood on the Saddle", rated 6.3/10 from 886 user votes. It was directed by N/A and written by N/A. "Blood on the Saddle" aired on 9/8/2010 and is rated 0.1 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "The Night of the Stag".
6.3/10 886 votes#1 - Blood on the Saddle
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 9/8/2010
Ford Florey is a town with a Wild West Society and many grudges. During a Wild West show at the local fayre, the witch on the 'Dunk the Witch' stall is well and truly dunked. Laughter turns to horror when she doesn't get up and the water in the tank starts to turn red. Barnaby and Jones need to be quick on the draw to track down the murderer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 811 votes#2 - The Night of the Stag
Season 14 Episode 6 - Aired 10/12/2011
A tax inspector goes missing as he tries to track down the maker of an illicit, potent cider popular among the residents of Midsomer Abbas. Barnaby and Jones have a murder investigation on their hands when the man's body is found floating in a vat at the village's spring fair, where the duo are sampling the local brew
Director: Simon Langton
Writer: N/A
6.6/10 779 votes#3 - The Wolf Hunter of Little Worthy
Season 22 Episode 1 - Aired 4/4/2021
After a local photographer wins an urban myth competition with his creation of The Wolf Hunter, it unexpectedly gains a cult following.
Director: Matt Carter
Writer: Chris Murray
6.6/10 499 votes#4 - The Witches of Angel's Rise
Season 22 Episode 6 - Aired 8/27/2023
Each year, the village of Angel's Rise hosts the Psychic Fayre. Founded by the Saint-Stephens family in memory of their late daughter, the event attracts mediums, psychics, and followers of the occult. When a body is found surrounded by ritual symbols on the eve of the festival, Barnaby must step into the spiritual world to find the killer.
Director: Gill Wilkinson
Writer: Maria Ward
6.7/10 695 votes#5 - Breaking the Chain
Season 18 Episode 3 - Aired 1/27/2016
An international cycling competition goes through the village of Burwood Mantle and after the race leader is murdered, DCI Barnaby and DS Nelson find themselves involved in a competitive world of blackmail, bribery and bloodshed where winning matters at any cost.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 539 votes#6 - The Blacktrees Prophecy
Season 23 Episode 1 - Aired 4/14/2024
When a doomsdayer is found murdered in his bombproof shelter, a dark conspiracy is revealed - how far people will go to escape the end of the world?
Director: Roberto Bangura
Writer: Jeff Povey
7.0/10 918 votes#7 - Bantling Boy
Season 8 Episode 5 - Aired 1/16/2005
DCI Tom Barnaby and Sgt Dan Scott investigate the murders of a horse-racing syndicate.
Director: Sarah Hellings
Writer: Steve Trafford
7.0/10 785 votes#8 - The Magician's Nephew
Season 11 Episode 5 - Aired 6/14/2008
Jean Wildacre dies suspiciously during a performance as assistant to local magician Aloysius Wilmington, and Barnaby & Jones are called in. They have to investigate the relationships of Midsomer's Magic Circle, a group of old friends whose activities spun off a new cult, and led to long-running animosities. Soon they are looking for colorful South American poison-dart frogs, as the death count rises
Director: Richard Holthouse
Writer: Michael Russell
7.0/10 709 votes#9 - Written in the Stars
Season 15 Episode 3 - Aired 9/25/2012
As darkness covers Midsomer Stanton during a total eclipse of the sun, amateur astronomer Jeremy Harper is killed by blow to the head with a meteorite. Barnaby and Jones are called in to investigate, and the duo discover that intrigue, sexual tension and academic rivalry are rife among the local stargazing community. Murder mystery, guest starring Maureen Lipman and Kenny Ireland, with Neil Dudgeon and Jason Hughes
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 592 votes#10 - Send in the Clowns
Season 20 Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/2019
Things take a gruesome turn when Ferabbees Circus comes to town, bringing with it a chain of sinister clown sightings, threatening notes and deathly dangerous circus acts. Barnaby will have to face up to his fears in order to solve the case.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/10 427 votes#11 - A Grain of Truth
Season 23 Episode 3 - Aired 7/23/2024
Tom and Chrissie Larkton are baking superstars. They run a bakery from an old water mill, but rumor has it that they are looking to expand, and that is not popular in the area. Is that why someone is apparently trying to poison Chrissie?
Director: Paul Gibson
Writer: Julia Gilbert
7.1/10 952 votes#12 - Who Killed Cock Robin?
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 9/9/2001
Dr Burgess, on his way home from a party at the glamorous Francesca Ward's riding school, knocks a stranger down in the road at Newton Magna, and the stranger mysteriously vanishes. Barnaby identifies the missing man as Sean O'Connell, a disgraced Irish vet, then he recognizes the village's new squire as Melvyn Stockard, a retired villain. A body found in a well proves to be the father of the man Stockard's daughter is about to marry... everyone knows he was against the marriage, but is Stockard a killer, and where does the missing Irishman fit in?
Director: David Tucker
Writer: Jeremy Paul
7.1/10 711 votes#13 - Death by Persuasion
Season 19 Episode 5 - Aired 5/13/2018
A young journalist, seemingly interested in the village's healthcare drone delivery program, is murdered when she slips away from a Jane Austen event dressed in period attire. Barnaby has to look back in time to find answers.
Director: Alex Pillai
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 701 votes#14 - The Point of Balance
Season 21 Episode 1 - Aired 1/21/2020
When a former ballroom-dance champion is found dead with tulle stuffed in her mouth after the opening gala of the Paramount Dance Extravaganza, Barnaby and Winter go toe-to-toe with rival dancers, jealous partners, and suspicious corporate sponsors. Meanwhile, Barnaby contends with a visit from his estranged father.
Director: Audrey Cooke
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 603 votes#15 - The Sting of Death
Season 21 Episode 3 - Aired 2/11/2020
Barnaby and Winter are called to the stately home of a master beekeeper after he is injured attempting to apprehend a thief. The village of Granville Norton is abuzz with news of the missing bees, and suspicions fly when one of the locals is stung to death.
Director: Matt Carter
Writer: Julia Gilbert
7.2/10 1,274 votes#16 - Death in Disguise
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 5/6/1998
At a local New Age commune (fancifully called the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse) William Carter is found dead with a broken neck, lying at the bottom of a staircase. Barnaby and Troy have to decide whether the death was an accident or murder.
Director: Baz Taylor
Writer: Douglas Watkinson, Caroline Graham
7.2/10 1,052 votes#17 - Electric Vendetta
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 9/2/2001
A man's naked body is found in a crop circle, then another dead man electrocuted at the wheel of his vehicle, and then yet another dead man in another crop circle. Barnaby is not impressed by rumours of extra-terrestrial killings, and is sure he is dealing with a human murderer. Before he can solve the mystery, he has to fathom a forty-year-old rivalry in love, the vengeance of the loser, and the defences of the winner.
Director: Peter Smith
Writer: Terry Hodgkinson
7.2/10 971 votes#18 - The Straw Woman
Season 7 Episode 6 - Aired 2/29/2004
When a traditional festival is revived at Midsomer Parva, it goes disastrously wrong, with the curate (or assistant priest) being burnt alive inside a straw effigy of a woman. Local property owner Alan Clifford holds a party at the Manor House, and it seems he has secrets... And then, just after finding a pig's head on the altar of the parish church, the dead curate's gay lover, the Reverend Jim Hale, dies too, seemingly of 'spontaneous combustion' - that is, he bursts into flames without any normal explanation. Barnaby refuses to believe in rumours of witchcraft and is vindicated when it proves that Hale's clothes had been sprinkled with phosphorus. Then, with Barnaby hot on the killer's trail, Liz Francis is knocked out with a candlestick and becomes the third villager to be burnt alive.
Director: Sarah Hellings
Writer: Jeff Dodds
7.2/10 872 votes#19 - Four Funerals and a Wedding
Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 9/24/2006
Barnaby's mother-in-law comes to visit, and insists on being taken to the village of Broughton, which has seen a war between the sexes for decades. During this year's traditional fair, elderly women's campaigner Mildred Danvers is murdered. And then the misogynist vicar, the Rev Anthony Gant, is murdered during a bizarre traditional event that forms part of the proceedings. Is this an evening of the score, or is another long-standing feud responsible?
Director: Sarah Hellings
Writer: Elizabeth-Anne Wheal
7.2/10 766 votes#20 - They Seek Him Here
Season 10 Episode 7 - Aired 4/27/2008
Nick Cheney was once a successful director, but he has now ended up mainly directing low-budget films. We meet him as he is directing The Scarlet Pimpernel at Magna Manor. A former convict, Jed Norris, has been hired as a security guard on the film set, and one night he finds the director dead, beheaded by the use of a guillotine.
Director: Sarah Hellings
Writer: Barry Purchese
7.2/10 749 votes#21 - Days of Misrule
Season 11 Episode 6 - Aired 7/5/2008
It is Christmas and DCI Barnaby deals with an explosion and some killings near a freight company, at the same time as trying to deal with his acting CS who has very strong beliefs about teamwork.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 832 votes#22 - The Made-to-Measure Murders
Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 5/12/2010
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
Director: Peter Smith
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 771 votes#23 - The Noble Art
Season 13 Episode 6 - Aired 10/13/2010
Local boxer John Kinsella's successful world title bid stirs up hidden passions among the residents of Midsomer Morchard. As plans to stage a celebratory re-enactment of a Victorian prizefight shape up, jealousy, betrayal and blackmail take a ringside seat, while two suspicious deaths suggest Barnaby has let friendship cloud his judgement. Detective drama, guest starring Phil Daniels (formerly EastEnders' Kevin Wicks)
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 860 votes#24 - Echoes of the Dead
Season 14 Episode 3 - Aired 4/20/2011
When a young woman is dressed like a bride and drowned in a bath, it triggers a spate of ghoulish wedding-themed murders in Great Worthy. The case takes Barnaby and Jones to a donkey sanctuary, a heritage steam railway, and a pub run by an ex-copper and former brothel madam. With the serial killer still at large, could history be repeating itself?
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter J. Hammond
7.2/10 713 votes#25 - The Sleeper Under the Hill
Season 14 Episode 5 - Aired 9/21/2011
When the body of a farmer is found in the middle of a stone circle in Midsomer Mow, suspicion points at local druids. The murdered man had planned to plough Gorse Meadow, making Crowcall Circle inaccessible to the group led by high priests Ezra and Leticia. Barnaby and Jones are joined in their investigation by new pathologist Kate Wilding. The body left on the bloodstone is her first assignment, but Kate doesn’t shock easily.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A