---
title: "Midsomer Murders"
year: 1997
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders"
fi1m_id: "midsomer-murders"
imdb_id: "tt0118401"
tmdb_id: 764
wikidata_id: "Q751917"
fi1m_score: 66
critics_score: 70
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-23T13:47:40.158951+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-23T13:47:49.563416+00:00"
region: "SG"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Midsomer Murders (1997)

Created by Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Graham · 1h 30m · Crime, Drama, Mystery

## Identity

Midsomer Murders

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** midsomer-murders
- **IMDb ID:** tt0118401
- **TMDB ID:** 764
- **Wikidata ID:** Q751917
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118401/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/764, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q751917

**Fi1m score: 66** · Critics 70 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* The prettiest villages in England, and nobody dies of natural causes or thinks of moving away

> Nearly three decades of thatch, flint and inventive homicide. The county looks lovely, John Nettles is quietly excellent, and the plotting has not changed since 1997. It does one thing, does it politely, and asks nothing of you. That is either the appeal or the complaint.

## Synopsis

In the fictional county of Midsomer, where every village has a green, a pub, a manor house and a grudge, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) investigates murders that arrive at a rate no rural England could survive. He begins in the village of Badger’s Drift, where an elderly woman’s death is not the accident it appears. Barnaby is patient, married and unbothered by his own psyche; he goes home to his wife Joyce (Jane Wymark), whose cooking he endures, and their daughter Cully (Laura Howard). At the mortuary, Dr George Bullard (Barry Jackson) reads out causes of death in a voice fit for the shipping forecast. A succession of sergeants, among them Daniel Scott (John Hopkins), does the driving. Each episode runs 90 minutes and finds a second body about halfway through.

## Review

Anthony Horowitz adapted Caroline Graham’s novels for television and the first episode went out on 23 March 1997. The series has since run to twenty-five series, each episode 90 minutes long and carrying a 15 certificate that it earns with the deaths and almost nothing else. The premise is a fictional English county of impossible loveliness and an impossible murder rate, and a detective, DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles), who turns up in a decent suit and asks decent questions. Here is the verdict, so you can get on with your evening: it is good at exactly one thing, and it has done that thing, without deviation, for longer than most of its victims lived.

The one thing is Nettles. Barnaby is not a wounded man. He does not drink, he is not divorced, he has no dead partner and no past he will not discuss. He listens, he is faintly amused, and he goes home to Joyce (Jane Wymark), whose cooking is a running joke that Wymark plays with more grace than the writing deserves, and to his daughter Cully (Laura Howard). Barry Jackson’s pathologist George Bullard gives cause of death like a man reading out cricket scores. In a genre that has spent thirty years piling damage onto its detectives, a happy one is a relief, and Nettles knows precisely how little he needs to do.

The county is the other asset, and it is a designed one. Doug Hallows shoots the villages in flat, bright, uncomplicated light, all green lawns and gold stone, and nothing stays in shadow for long, including the corpses. Christine Ruscoe furnishes it with pubs, village halls, kitchens with dressers and the big house that always has a locked room. Jim Parker’s theme, played on a wobbling theremin, tells you in ten seconds that none of this is to be taken seriously. Derek Bain cuts at a pace that could be described as Sunday. Directors come and go, Renny Rye, Jeremy Silberston, Peter Smith and dozens more, and you could not tell one episode’s direction from another’s, which is the point and is also the problem.

The murders are the joke, and the writers know it. People are done in with kitchen implements, garden tools and, on one occasion, a wheel of cheese. We laughed at the cheese, out loud, and then felt slightly ashamed, which we suspect is the intended response. We should also admit the other thing. We have been soothed by this programme more often than we would like to say, usually at the end of a poor week, and what does it is not the mystery but the church clock, the cricket pitch and the certainty that Barnaby will be home by the end.

What does not work has not worked since the start. The plotting is signposted from the first quarter hour: the guilty party is whoever has the least screen time and the nicest garden. The sergeants exist to be explained to, and John Hopkins’s Dan Scott, Gwilym Lee’s Charlie Nelson and Nick Hendrix’s Jamie Winter are all written as the same young man with a different haircut. For years the county had no non-white faces at all, and the series took a long time to notice. The later run is better on that score, and better in general, for Manjinder Virk’s Kam Karimore, Tamzin Malleson’s Kate Wilding and Annette Badland’s Fleur Perkins, a pathologist who is drier than the scripts around her. The faces around Barnaby changed over the years, and in time it is Fiona Dolman’s Sarah Barnaby running the kitchen; the county carried on as if nothing had happened, which tells you how much of the programme was ever the detective and how much was the scenery.

Against the standard of [*Inspector Morse*](https://film.one/tv/inspector-morse) (1987), which gave its detective a wound and a city with real weather, this is a lesser thing and does not pretend otherwise. Watched in a run, as some critics have done under duress, it turns into wallpaper and we were bored by the third episode in an afternoon. Watched one at a time, on a Sunday, with something to do with your hands, it is exactly what it says on the tagline. Do not expect to be surprised; expect to be told, at the eighty-minute mark, who did it, and to have half guessed.

*Fi1m score 66, published 23 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics treat Midsomer Murders as a comfort and rate it accordingly. The reviews cluster around the same virtues: a reliable whodunnit shape, picturesque villages, and a steady supply of inventive, faintly absurd murder methods that the writers are still managing to think up after a quarter of a century. John Nettles’s understated Barnaby draws particular praise in the earliest notice, and later critics find the detective’s plainness a relief beside the damaged cops elsewhere on television. One of the warmest reviews is not of the programme at all but of a stage adaptation of the original story, which is said to keep the series’ charm intact.

The spread is wide. The reservations are about sameness: plotting that signposts its solutions, characters drawn as caricature, individual episodes that drift towards the soporific. The Telegraph goes furthest, calling the series tedious and outdated and arguing it should end. Most disagree, though even the admirers concede that predictability is the point rather than a fault.

## Straight answers

**Is Midsomer Murders worth watching?**

*Midsomer Murders* is worth watching one episode at a time, on a slow Sunday, for anyone who wants a pretty county, a happy detective and a murder solved by the eighty-minute mark; we scored it 66. John Nettles is quietly excellent, but the plotting has barely changed since 1997 and a run of several episodes turns to wallpaper.

**How long is Midsomer Murders, and what is it rated?**

*Midsomer Murders* has episodes of about 1h 30m. It is a crime and drama series.

**Where can I watch Midsomer Murders in Singapore?**

*Midsomer Murders* is not on any streaming or rental service in Singapore at the moment. It is available in 20 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Midsomer Murders, and is it suitable for children?**

*Midsomer Murders* carries a 15 certificate that it earns with its deaths and almost nothing else; the violence is inventive rather than graphic, with kitchen implements, garden tools and once a wheel of cheese. There is little to frighten a teenager, and the tone is closer to a joke than a shock, but the certificate makes it unsuitable for younger children.

**How does Midsomer Murders compare to Inspector Morse?**

*Midsomer Murders* is the lesser of the two beside [*Inspector Morse*](https://film.one/tv/inspector-morse): the same length and the same England, but Morse gives its detective a wound and its city real weather, where Barnaby is happy, married and unbothered. Choose Morse for prickly company and cases worth untangling; choose Midsomer when you want scenery and certainty and nothing asked of you.

**Is Midsomer Murders based on a true story or a book?**

*Midsomer Murders* is based on the novels of Caroline Graham, adapted for television by Anthony Horowitz, and is not a true story; the county of Midsomer is fictional and its murder rate could not be survived by any real rural England. You need not know the books, since each episode is a self-contained mystery that explains itself as it goes.

**What should I watch after Midsomer Murders?**

After *Midsomer Murders*, try [*Inspector Morse*](https://film.one/tv/inspector-morse) (1987, Fi1m 84): The same length, the same England, and a detective who actually minds. Then [*Hot Fuzz*](https://film.one/film/hot-fuzz) (2007, Fi1m 84): The Midsomer village committee as a horror film, and rather more honest about it; and [*Detectorists*](https://film.one/tv/detectorists) (2014, Fi1m 87): The same fields and light, with the murders replaced by metal detectors and kindness.

### Reviews we read (6)

- **Radio Times**, Michael Sidhu (5/5): The stage adaptation of the original story is a thrilling, faithful and thoroughly entertaining whodunnit that retains the heart, charm and escapism of the TV series, with strong performances grounding the production. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/going-out/tickets/midsomer-murders-stage-review/)
- **Variety**, Ray Richmond (87/100, inferred): The pilot is a crackling good whodunnit with colorful characters and a disturbing twist, kept riveting by sharp writing, taut direction and strong performances, especially John Nettles as the understated Barnaby. [Read](https://variety.com/1998/tv/reviews/midsomer-murders-the-killings-at-badgers-drift-1200453882/)
- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the series as comforting lockdown viewing for its predictability, certainty, and creative murder methods in picturesque settings, noting its cosy appeal despite a lack of diversity in earlier episodes. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/18/death-by-boiled-egg-why-midsomer-murders-is-a-lockdown-delight)
- **The Times** (★★★☆☆): The critic notes the anniversary episode felt more serious than usual but commends the writers for continuing to invent amusing new murder methods after 25 years. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/midsomer-murders-review-respect-this-series-is-still-coming-up-with-killer-storylines-s5kstzv29)
- **The i Paper**, Gerard Gilbert (56/100, inferred): The critic finds this episode of the long-running series minor and mildly soporific, noting that the straightforward, uncomplicated detective Barnaby is a refreshing contrast to more damaged TV cops but that the plotting here lacks creativity. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/midsomer-murders-review-john-barnaby-3172495)
- **The Telegraph**, Michael Hogan (1/5): The critic argues the series has become tedious and outdated with caricatured characters, signposted plotting, and hammy performances, suggesting it belongs in a different era and should be ended. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/12/18/midsomer-murders-should-laid-rest-review/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Graham
- **Creator:** Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Graham
- **Director:** Renny Rye, Peter Smith, Richard Holthouse, Sarah Hellings, Jeremy Silberston, Nicholas Laughland, Matt Carter, Alex Pillai, Paul Gibson, Roberto Bangura, Gill Wilkinson, Toby Frow, David Tucker, Audrey Cooke, Simon Langton, Moira Armstrong, Baz Taylor, Leon Lopez, Peter Cregeen, Darcia Martin, Jennie Darnell, Steve Hughes, Christine Lalla, Andy Hay, Luke Watson, Rob Evans, Charles Palmer, Paul Harrison
- **Screenplay:** Sally Griffiths, Rachel Cuperman, Michael Aitkens, Chris Murray, Paul Logue, Nicholas Hicks-Beach, Michael Crompton
- **Writer:** Andrew Payne, David Hoskins, Peter J. Hammond, Jeff Povey, Michael Aitkens, Julia Gilbert, Douglas Watkinson, Helen Jenkins, Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Graham, Chris Murray, Paul Logue, Michael Russell, David Harsent, Sally Griffiths, Rachel Cuperman, Steve Trafford, Maria Ward, Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Lisa Holdsworth, Nicholas Martin, Nicholas Hicks-Beach, Barry Purchese, Terry Hodgkinson, Tony Etchells, Michael Crompton, Barry Simner, J. C. Wilsher, Douglas Livingstone, Jeff Dodds, Richard Cameron, Hugh Whitemore, Guy Andrews, Isabelle Grey, Alan Plater, Christopher Russell, Jeremy Paul, Caleb Ranson, Christopher Russell
- **Novel:** Caroline Graham
- **Cinematography:** Doug Hallows
- **Editor:** Derek Bain
- **Music:** Jim Parker, Evan Jolly
- **Production design:** Christine Ruscoe
- **Producer:** Brian True-May, Betty Willingale, Phil Hunter
- **Cast:** John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby; Gwilym Lee as DS Charlie Nelson; Jane Wymark as Joyce Barnaby; Nick Hendrix as DS Jamie Winter; Tamzin Malleson as Doctor Kate Wilding; Laura Howard as Cully Barnaby; John Hopkins as Sgt Daniel Scott; Kirsty Dillon as WPC/DC Gail Stephens
- **Runtime:** 1h 30m
- **Release (Singapore):** 23 March 1997
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Mystery

## Where to watch in Singapore

Not streaming, renting or buying in Singapore at the last check.

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, CA, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, IT, MX, NO, NZ, PA, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Inspector Morse* (1987), Fi1m 84: The same length, the same England, and a detective who actually minds. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/inspector-morse.md)
- *The Brokenwood Mysteries* (2014): New Zealand borrows the formula, adds country music and better jokes.
- *Hot Fuzz* (2007), Fi1m 84: The Midsomer village committee as a horror film, and rather more honest about it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hot-fuzz.md)
- *Murder, She Wrote* (1984): Cabot Cove has Midsomer’s death rate and a lead who never breaks stride.
- *Detectorists* (2014), Fi1m 87: The same fields and light, with the murders replaced by metal detectors and kindness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/detectorists.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders