To Find and Return to Midsomer

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.