Iconic, quirky, sometimes whimsical Midsomer Murders is twenty-one years old and still going strong. It is made in England by ITV and syndicated to over 200 jurisdictions. It is a streaming staple all over the world. Why? Well, in some ways it is a classic cozy mystery. But with a difference. It’s become an icon, an institution, all over the world.

There are over the top, sometimes bizarre, murders. There is humor. There is always humor. And there is a strong central cast consisting of DCI Barnaby, his family, and his ever-loyal sidekicks. Most movie-length episodes offer up several murders. What’s not to love? Here are 10 of the most outrageous murders. Some of them are corkers, we think.

Death By Cheese (2013)

In Schooled in Murder, Debbie Moffatt (Martine McCutcheon) plays a wanton woman who, shock horror,  is having an affair. She is the object of the ire of the “yummy mummies” of the Midsomer Pastures School PTA. She storms out of the PTA meeting gets a mysterious phone call and (gullibly) agrees to meet someone in a deserted cave where cheese is matured.

We would have advised her against that. Debbie meets her end, quite fittingly, by being crushed under a massive round of cheese.  It’s a delicious moment. The still when Debbie sees what is coming is a classic scream-a-fest moment.

The Demise Of The Rainbirds (1998)

The Killings at Badger’s Drift was the very first episode of Midsomer Murders. It had it all. Beautiful countryside, multiple murders, incest, and suicide. Elizabeth Spriggs (who went on to be the Fat Lady in Harry Potter) plays Iris Rainbird and Richard Cant is wonderful as Dennis, her icky undertaker son.

The blackmailing duo gets hacked and cut to death over a stately tea tray because of their tendency to blackmail the locals. So popular was the dastardly pair that in 2006 they played Iris’s sister and nephew in Dead Letters. 

The Head Bounced Into The Living Room (1999)

Death’s Shadow begins with  DCI Tom and Joyce Barnaby decide to renew their wedding vows in a Badger’s Drift church. Yes, Badger’s Drift again.  The vicar (Richard Briers) seems a pleasant, if bumbling and ineffectual, sort. When Badger’s Drift resident Richard Bayly has his head chopped off with the vicar’s Indian sword, Barnaby and Troy drop everything and come running. Joyce gets mad because she thinks the renewal won’t happen and gives Tom burned toast.

When Troy asks where the body is, ME George Bullard says, a little wearily, that most of it was in the hall, but that the head had bounced into the living room.  Other deaths? One burned to death and one bow and arrowed. Busy episode.

Death By Flying Wine Bottles (2005)

In 2005’s Hidden Depths, a solicitor (supposedly) falls to his death. Seems he had been stealing client funds. It’s pretty clear upfront that a seedy wine aficionado (Oliver Ford Davies) and a former TV host by the name of Mike Spicer are up to no good. It transpires that the solicitor had stolen the money to invest in a wine scam run by the duo.

Otto gets bonked on the head and staked out on his own lawn. Otto’s long-suffering wheelchair-bound wife shouts encouragement to the murderer. Wine bottles are catapulted at Otto until he gives up the ghost. Later, Mike is slowly drowned, his head trapped in an aquarium. Good fun, we think.

Taking A Spin In A Tumble Dryer (2008)

Midsomer has it’s own magazine. Guess what it is called? Its owner, Guy Sandy is prone to write nasty restaurant reviews. He doesn’t make it to the end of the show.  In 2008’s Midsomer Life, Selena Cadell plays an alcoholic hotel maid who meets her end after being pushed into a tumble dryer and, well, tumbled to death. It was a glorious moment. The special effects weren’t all that great, but we got the idea. Death by tumble dryer could only happen in Midsomer.

There are one or two other deaths. You know, an ordinary stabbing or two. But the dryer scene is unforgettable. Tom Barnaby and his sidekick Scott are on the case. They figure it out in the end. Of course, they do.

Tied To A Tree. Smeared With Truffle Oil. Cue The Wild Boar (2014)

Wealthy landowner Martin Strickland has made at least one enemy because one early morning he is found tied to a tree, having been smeared with truffle oil and left to the mercies of wild boar that go wild for the stuff. Not a nice way to go. Set in the fancy Wyvern House Restaurant, 2014’s Wild Harvest sees Sharon Small as Head Chef Ruth Cameron.

Had Martin not already been dead, he would have probably been finished off by Camilla, his trophy wife, when she learned he had disinherited her in favor of his daughter. The daughter is, of course, poisoned, leaving the dreaded Camilla in charge once again. Think you know who did it?

Off With Their Heads (2007)

In 2007, Midsomer Murders had nearly ten years under its belt and was hitting its stride. In They Seek Him Here, a movie about the French Revolution is being shot in Midsomer. There is, of course, a guillotine that everyone thought would appear to work without actually cutting anyone’s head off. It had been “fixed”.

Well, they were wrong. The has-been director is the first to go, followed by an extra or two. Joyce, Tom’s wife, gets some air time by playing an extra. She, we are happy to say, keeps her head. At the end of the day, Tom Barnaby and Ben Jones get their man in nick of time.

Death By Concrete (2011)

Hugo Speer played a dodgy builder in 2011’s Not In My Back Yard. His character dies when he is sedated and placed in a car. Then the murderer fills the car with concrete. Actually, Speer has said that they used porridge. It was a little messy, but not fatal.

The story revolves around a familiar Midsomer Murders theme: Good, old traditional village life versus the wicked modernizers. Peter Egan plays Norman Swanscombe, a modernizer who is running for Parliament. In that episode, an architect who designed Swanscombe’s  (gasp) modern house is choked to death when a sliding door shuts while, inconveniently, his head is in it. Of course, it was murder.

Off With Their Heads (One More Time) (2010)

At the very beginning of 2010’s Sword of Guillaume, we see a hooded figure breaking into a stone sarcophagus and coming out with a rather nasty looking sword. You can guess what happens later on. Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) goes on a road trip to Brighton with the Causton (Midsomer’s main town) Chamber of Commerce.

There is an oily property developer played by Tim McInnerny and a lusty lady hotelier along for the ride. The property developer gets his head whacked off as he rides Brighton’s Ghost Train, while the lady is dispatched from the comfort of her room. And it was Neil Dudgeon’s first appearance as DCI John Barnaby. Later, we learn that Tom is intent on retiring and that John is taking over.

Skewered By A Pitchfork (2000)

Fictional Midsomer Mallow is all set to (hopefully) win the Perfect Village Competition. Tom Barnaby’s wife Joyce just happens to be one of the judges. Then a local thief and womanizer (played by a young Orlando Bloom) gets skewered by a pitchfork and all hell breaks loose. The judges, thankfully excluding sweet Joyce, start dropping like flies, the victim of a mysterious murderer.

A serial killer is running amok in Midsomer. What again? There goes the competition.