Episodes

1. Episode 1

   Death in the Slow Lane

   DCI John Barnaby arrives in Causton on his cousin Tom's retirement. Jones misses his old boss and the two men do not gel, especially as Barnaby seems dismissive of Jones' efforts to restore a vintage car once driven by local racer Duncan Palmer for a classic car competition hosted at her school by frosty headmistress Harriet Wingate. Palmer faked his death in the 1960s but was actually found dead in Midsomer some years later. His old team-mate Peter Fossett is judging the contest and the entrants include Peter's brisk, bossy daughter Kate Cameron and her ex-husband Jamie, now in love with Harriet's shy daughter Jessica. Kate will do anything to win, enlisting the help of the other judge, radio D.J. Dave 'Doggy' Day, who is found murdered. Soon after another young man is killed, who turns out to be involved with Kate's precocious schoolgirl daughter Charlotte in drug dealing. After Barnaby has discovered that Duncan Palmer was Jessica's father, he confronts the killer, but has cause to show respect for Jones who rescues him from being another victim of death in the slow lane.

2. Episode 2

   Dark Secrets

   Barnaby's wife Sarah arrives to take up her job as a head mistress at Causton School. Officious social worker Gerry Dawkins has an awkward encounter with an artists' colony run by horse whisperer Maggie Viviani after a fruitless visit to elderly recluses William and Mary Bingham. Two days later his corpse is fished from a river. Through the offices of their bitchy daughter, stable owner Selina Stanton and her roguish husband Eddie, a prospective Euro M.P. Barnaby visits Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, who are hospitable but vague. Mary however furtively asks him to return to see her but is killed soon after. Thirty-five years earlier the Binghams' son and daughter, Robin and Jennifer, died when their car plunged into a river. Robin's body was recovered but Jennifer was never found and has forged a new identity for herself, reuniting her with Selena. Once more Jones comes to Barnaby's rescue when he confronts a killer whose family, unsurprisingly for Midsomer, has dark secrets.

3. Episode 3

   Echoes of the Dead

   Dianne Price is drowned in the style of the Brides in the Bath murders of almost a century earlier. Blessed Be the Bride is scrawled in lipstick on her bathroom mirror. Her grieving flatmate Jo,who works at a donkey sanctuary run by hard-drinking Liz Tomlin and her antagonistic son Sam,takes the opportunity to escape her voyeuristic landlord Bernard Flack to move in with vet Fran Carter but Fran too is killed,also in a copycat murder from the 1930s,again bridal-related. Pub landlord Matt Rowntree,an ex-cop,is married to Nikki,a former madame whose girls specialized in dressing up fantasies,which arouses Barnaby's suspicions but then an elderly couple are slain,with Just Married daubed on their car and Bridal Suite on the door. Bernard's voyeurism actually saves Jo's life as he calls the police to arrest the murderer,out to claim a fifth victim. The killer turns out to be a deranged and embittered religious maniac,out to slaughter people they believe to have acted immorally,executing them in the the manner of murders evoking echoes of the past.

4. 

   Episode 4

   The Oblong Murders

   Barnaby sends Jones undercover into a New Age cult to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who entered an introduction course and then never left the movement.

5. 

   Episode 5

   The Sleeper Under the Hill

   Alex Preston is murdered and his corpse placed in the Crowcall stone circle in a field on his land. He was intending to plough the field,setting him at odds with the New Dawn druids,all of whom have alibis. His wife Eleanor was two-timing him with her fencing instructor, and local cop Trevor Gibson destroys her alibi but when Leticia Clifford, a leading druid,is killed in the same way as Alex,crimes of passion are ruled out. As Barnaby and Jones disagree over the possibility of Gibson's involvement Barnaby seeks the advice of local historian Caradoc Singer,hoping to discover if the killings were motivated by greed or bound up with popular superstitions such as the Sleeper Under the Hill.

6. 

   Episode 6

   The Night of the Stag

   Whilst temperance campaigners,led by fervent,ex-alcoholic parson Norman Grigor,protest against the Midsomer Abbas May Festival,the body of Peter Slim,a revenue inspector investigating illicit stills,is found dumped in a cider vat. The murder weapon,an apple tree harvester which shook him to death,belongs to boozy cider mill owner Anthony Devereux, a man with something to hide though he denies murder. Then Barnaby discovers a secret connecting Slim to a village girl and a party to that secret is murdered. As pub landlord Samuel Quested leads the villagers in the revival of an old fertility custom Barnaby and Jones find themselves in peril during the night of the stag.

7. Episode 7

   A Sacred Trust

   At Midsomer Priory,home to a small group of nuns,Mother Thomas Aquinas is strangled and,shortly afterwards,a set of silver worth £60,000 is found to be stolen from the safe. Sister Catherine,the most recent member of the order,turns out to be descended from Sir Anthony Vertue,who donated the priory to the nuns two centuries earlier and Barnaby learns that if the order is ended she will inherit the land and buildings. Father Behan,who heard the nuns' confessions and had long exhorted Mother Julian,the prioress,to sell the premises,is also killed and the missing silver turns up,not stolen but sold by Mother Thomas Aquinas. Then Barnaby learns of an atrocity in Africa thirty years earlier where Mother Julian was a missionary,which could help him solve the case but also put an end to the sacred trust.

8. Episode 8

   The Rare Bird