MIDSOMER MURDERS: Season 2

Encore Thursdays, Aug. 10 - 31, 2023 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV (Not available in the PBS App)

The rural countryside of a fictional county in England provides the backdrop for season two of MIDSOMER MURDERS, a crime series based on the novels of Caroline Graham. A lush visual style, quirky characters (frequently wealthy eccentrics), and ubiquitous red herrings, recall classic public television British mysteries of the past.

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A scene from MIDSOMER MURDERS “Stranglers Wood.”

Courtesy of American Public Television

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A scene from MIDSOMER MURDERS “Beyond the Grave.”

Courtesy of American Public Television

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A scene from MIDSOMER MURDERS "Strangler's Wood." In this episode, the body of a young Brazilian woman is found strangled with a tie in a forest where three similar murders occurred several years before.

Courtesy of American Public Television

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A scene from MIDSOMER MURDERS “Beyond the Grave.”

Courtesy of American Public Television

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DCI Barnaby

American Public Television

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A scene from MIDSOMER MURDERS "Death's Shadow."

Courtesy of American Public Television

EPISODE GUIDE:

"Death's Shadow" (Parts 1 & 2) Thursday, Aug. 10 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV - A successful theatrical director, Simon Fletcher (Julian Wadham), arrives in the village of Badgers Drift; his head filled with disturbing childhood memories. Then, soon after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, a property developer in the village is savagely murdered with an Indian sword belonging to a vicar. Barnaby (John Nettles) and Detective Sergeant Troy (Daniel Casey) investigate the crime, trying to discover if it was motivated by ill-feeling in the village about his plans for property development or some longer buried secrets.

“Stranglers Wood” (Parts 1 & 2) Thursday, Aug. 17 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV - The body of a young Brazilian woman is found strangled with a tie in a forest where three similar murders occurred several years before. Barnaby and Troy visit George Meakham, the now-retired police officer who was in charge of the investigation of the earlier crimes, and who has since become obsessed with them. The trail leads them to a local cigarette and tobacco company and two of its employees in particular. The Portuguese au-pair of one of them is then murdered. Barnaby manages to solve both the new murders and the old ones, though not before the murder of yet another victim.

“Beyond the Grave” (Parts 1 & 2) Thursday, Aug. 24 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV - The slashing of a 17th-century painting in Aspern Tallow museum appears to herald the start of a series of ghostly manifestations by the ghost of Jonathan Lowrie. Cully's (Laura Howard) boyfriend Nico has just been given a part in a soap opera as a Detective Sergeant, and asks DCI Barnaby if he can shadow DS Troy to learn more about how to play the role.

“Blood Will Out” (Parts 1 & 2) Thursday, Aug. 31 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV - When an unpleasant and unpopular local magistrate, Hector Bridges (Paul Jesson), is found shot dead in his house, investigations uncover that his wife was once married to one of their neighbors, Will Saxby (John Duttine). Saxby’s current wife used to be Mrs. Bridges (Tricia George), his daughter, Fleur (Honeysuckle Weeks), is really Saxby’s daughter! A new-age traveler, Orville Trudway, who has recently moved into the village, was an old army comrade with a grudge against Bridges. Things are complicated still further by the presence of a group of travelers on the village common, who proceed to hold a horse race.

Distributed by American Public Television, produced by All3Media International.