In 2025, there are many reasons to celebrate and commemorate in Midsomer County. What happened 25 years ago and more? They are listed here in chronological order. And at the end you can read which episodes will be a quarter of a century old in 2025.

January

❓ 60 years ago (24 January): Midsomer Worthy’s Eric Edwards is reported missing. (07×01: The Green Man)

April

🎂 55 years ago (15 April): Emma Harris of Midsomer Langley is born. (15×04: Death and the Divas)

June

🙏150 years ago (25 June): Carolina Maria Roberts, terminally ill with tuberculosis, commits suicide on the grand staircase of the entrance hall of St Fidelis, March Magna. According to her tombstone, she is ‘not dead, but sleepth.’

🙏 30 years ago (26 June): Bella Trace is murdered in the woods of Badger’s Drift. (Pilot episode: The murders at Badger’s Drift)

October

🙏 50 years ago (16 October): Midsomer Wellow bell-ringer Gordon Fogden died. A quarter peal of Grandsire Double was rung in his honour. (05×04: Ring Out Your Dead)

🙏 25 years ago (28 October): Dave Cutler, a popular postman in Goodman’s Land, is murdered shortly before his 32nd birthday. (04×05: Dark Autumn)

November

🏅 100 years ago (20 November): The ruins of Waverley Abbey, a popular filming location for Midsomer’s Abbeys, are added to the National Heritage List.

The following episodes of Midsomer Murders were broadcast in 2000

(first UK broadcast)

• 22 January: 03×02: Blue Herrings
• 29 January: 03×03: Judgment Day
• 05 February: 03×04: Beyond the Grave
• 10 September: 04×01: Garden of Death

Read more about Midsomer Murders & History

The Chronology of Midsomer County by Year or by Episodes • Deep Dives into Midsomer & History • History of Midsomer Murders Film Locations

I would like to point out that this is an unofficial fan site. I am not connected to Bentley Productions, ITV or the actors.

It was sometime in the summer of 2005 when my mother mentioned, almost in passing:
‘There’s a new crime series on TV. It’s really good.‘

That was all I needed to hear. I had been allowed to watch Murder, She Wrote and Columbo with her from the age of eight, and by my teenage years I had worked my way through nearly all of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Marple novels. So a recommendation like this, coming from her, carried weight.

That Sunday evening, I sat down to watch Midsomer Murders – or, as it’s known in Germany (and a few other countries), Inspector Barnaby. I must have taken to it quickly, although the episode that truly lodged itself in my memory was Dead Man’s Eleven. It didn’t air in Germany until the summer of 2006, under the title ‚Sport is a Murder‘ – a play on the German phrase ‚Sport ist Mord.‘

I remember it particularly because I found the ending so troubling. A mother and daughter, grieving the loss of their husband and father – brought about by a cold, self-interested Nazi memorabilia collector. And yet it was Patricia who died. Why? Why not a simpler ending: both women arrested, Robert Cavendish given a heavy dose of Valium and a few hours – maybe days – to reflect and change his ways? It didn’t feel fair. In truth, I still don’t quite understand the narrative choice.

I must have seen most episodes when they were first broadcast on ZDF, although the channel didn’t begin airing them in the correct order until 2014 – starting with the first episode featuring John Barnaby. When ZDFneo, the network’s special-interest channel, started showing episodes every Monday evening in 2010, I followed them there too.

But Monday evenings were also reserved for the second division of men’s football. So each week brought a choice: Is the match worth watching, or is it a Barnaby evening?

From 2012 on, two episodes were broadcast back to back – and from 2018 finally in chronological order. I usually watched at least the second one. And ever since Monday matches were removed from the Bundesliga 2 schedule in 2017, our Monday routine has been consistent: two episodes of Midsomer Murders, in order, every week. Again and again.
We’re currently in the sixth full run, here in 2025.

Every January, the new episodes premiere on ZDF and are later integrated into the rotation on ZDFneo – where they quietly take their place among the well-worn favourites.

And so, at least once a week, my path leads me back to Midsomer – quietly, as if it had never quite let me go.

🤓 Read more about Midsomer Murders & History

The Chronology of Midsomer County by Year or by Episodes • Deep Dives into Midsomer & History • History of Midsomer Murders Film Locations

I would like to point out that this is an unofficial fan site. I am not connected to Bentley Productions, ITV or the actors.