'Midsomer Murders' Season 25 Is Officially in Production

This week's big annual event in Europe for the television crowd is called "Series Mania." Initially held in Paris, the yearly event has been held in Lille since 2016. Like most events of this type, the goal is to get the most promising pilots from around the EU in front of global distributors; the difference between this event and the markets that run concurrently with the big film festivals is that this is an invite-only event, where shows compete to be chosen as part of the "best of the best" screened for industry insiders. It's also a place to break news, not just about the series being screened, but also the status of other popular projects, and there's no series more beloved than Midsomer Murders, which distributor All3Media was eager to announce. had started production on its landmark 25th season.

Second only to Silent Witness in long-running crime shows, Midsomer Murders first debuted in 1997, though unlike Silent Witness (which first aired in 1996 and just aired Season 28), it has skipped a few years here and there, increasing (and then decreasing) the episode count to suit the times. It's also been remarkably stable, with its original lead John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby from 1997 to 2011, thirteen seasons, before handing the reigns to Neil Dudgeon as his replacement, DCI John Barnaby, who still leads the show today. 

However, the detective sergeants, the show's other lead characters, have been cycled through faster. OG DS Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) starred in the show's first seven seasons, DS Benjamin Jones (Jason Hughes) lasted eight, and current bagman DS Jamie Winter (Nick Hendrix) will reach seven with Season 25.

Since this announcement came during the festival, there's no synopsis, just this quote from All3Media's official spokesperson:

“We can’t wait to see what uniquely perplexing and quirky crimes DCI Barnaby and DS Winter will unravel in this landmark 25th series. More than two decades since it began, Midsomer Murders continues proving its evergreen credentials, offering the ultimate primetime ‘cozy crime.’ With the show vastly surpassing the episode and crime counts of many iconic detective dramas, its credentials as a global detecting favorite are legendary.”

The core cast for Season 25 will include Neil Dudgeon (Morse) and Nick Hendrix (The Crown) as Barnaby and Winter, Fiona Dolman (Unforgotten) as Sarah Barnaby, Annette Badland (D.I. Ray) as pathologist Dr. Fleur Perkins, and no-longer-a-newcomer Isabel Shaw as Betty Barnaby. Writers Julia Gilbert, Jeff Povey, Helen Jenkins, and Maria Ward are expected to pen episodes of Season 25, with directors Roberto Bangura, Gill Wilkinson, Paul Gibson, and Leon Lopez expected to return to each helm an installment.

Midsomer Murders' early seasons in the 1990s typically ran four feature-length episodes, though the show expanded to eight in Nettles' final season; it started dropping back to six in the wake of his departure and fell back to four since reaching the 2020s. The 25th season will continue that trend with four feature-length installments; those included will bring the show up to 144 episodes, officially surpassing Poirot and Vera.

Season 25 of Midsomer Murders is currently filming in the U.K. and is expected to be ready by the end of the year. However, considering the release schedule the series has been following, it is a good bet that Americans will see the show first on Acorn TV towards the end of 2025, with the U.K. getting episodes sometime in 2026.