Television series

Midsomer Murders

Name: Midsomer Murders
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Released: 1998
Cast: John Nettles, Neil Dudgeon, Jason Hughes, Nick Hendrix, Daniel Casey

A cosy, indestructible institution: two hours of gorgeous thatched-roof scenery, a body in the vicarage garden, and a village population apparently smaller each week. It's whodunit as comfort food — gentle, predictable in the best way, with a rotating cast of eccentric locals who are almost always hiding something. Perfect for a rainy Sunday and a cup of tea.

TVMaze rating

7.9

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Death in Paradise2011

Same cosy-murder engine, transplanted to a sun-drenched Caribbean island. A fish-out-of-water detective, a tiny population with a suspicious body count, and an impossible-crime puzzle every week.

But The tropical setting and broader comedy make it lighter and less atmospheric than Midsomer's damp English gloom.

Agatha Christie Poirot1989

David Suchet's definitive Poirot is the genre's gold standard — meticulous, witty, and impeccably dressed, with plots that reward close attention.

But 1930s period setting and a fussier, more cerebral detective than Barnaby's amiable everyman.

Vera2011

Brenda Blethyn's rumpled, sharp-tongued detective works the same rural-crime beat but with grittier cases and a colder, more melancholic North East backdrop.

But Considerably bleaker and more emotionally heavy than Midsomer's gentler tone.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hot Fuzz2007

It's the joke Midsomer never quite tells on itself: the same twee village concealing absurd carnage, played for spectacle instead of comfort.

A blistering action-comedy that takes the exact premise — impossibly high murder rate in a picture-perfect English village — and detonates it with shotguns and slapstick.

But Broad, violent, and knowingly ridiculous; if you want gentle cosiness, this will feel like a different genre entirely.

Father Brown2013

A cassock-wearing priest solves village murders with warmth and moral curiosity instead of procedure. Just as cosy, just as body-strewn, endlessly rewatchable.

But Leans more whimsical and less plot-twisty; the mysteries are gentler puzzles than genuine whodunits.

Endeavour2012

A younger, more soulful Morse navigating 1960s Oxford — gorgeous period detail wrapped around genuinely twisty mysteries.

But More serialised and character-driven, with a moodier, less self-contained structure than Midsomer's weekly puzzle box.

Grantchester2014

A vicar and a detective solve crimes in a postcard English village, with more emotional and moral weight underneath the mystery-of-the-week format.

But More interested in interior lives and faith than in the pure mechanics of the whodunit.

Inspector Morse1987

The grandfather of the modern British detective drama — cerebral, unhurried, and soaked in Oxford's dreaming spires and classical music.

But Considerably slower and more downbeat; Morse himself is prickly where Barnaby is affable.

Rosemary & Thyme2003no page yet

Two gardeners stumble into murders across beautiful English estates — pure comfort viewing, low on menace, high on hedgerows.

But Thinner mysteries and lower stakes make it a slighter, sleepier watch than Midsomer.

Kind Hearts and Coronets1949

Decades before Midsomer made a genre of it, this film found the same dark comedy in genteel English murder among people who barely raise an eyebrow.

A dazzlingly dry Ealing comedy about a disinherited man calmly murdering his way through an aristocratic family, with Alec Guinness playing eight of the victims.

But Black-and-white, theatrical, and very much a product of postwar British class satire — an acquired rhythm.