'Midsomer Murders' Season 26 Officially Filming
'Midsomer Murders' apparently still hasn't killed off everyone in its little town, so we're getting a Season 26.
We were tragically on hiatus when Midsomer Murders' landmark 25th season debuted on Acorn TV at the end of 2025. Second only to Silent Witness in long-running crime shows, the case-of-the-week series first debuted in 1997. Despite running for over a quarter of a century, it's also a series that's been remarkably stable, only increasing (and then decreasing) the episode count to suit the times. Its original lead, John Nettles, starred as DCI Tom Barnaby from 1997 to 2011, thirteen seasons, before handing the reins to Neil Dudgeon as his replacement, DCI John Barnaby, who still leads the show today.
(Midsomer Murders has not always been consistent with its yearly release schedule, hence being on Season 26, despite 2027 being the show's 30th anniversary.)
Season 26 was commissioned before the landmark 25th season arrived on Acorn TV in late 2025. The four-episode commission brings the series up to 148 feature-length installments, making DCI Barnaby the hardest-working detective currently on British TV.
The synopsis for Season 26 currently doesn't provide much detail. It does, however, have the good sense to poke a little fun at itself:
Season 26 will invite viewers back to the picturesque yet surprisingly lethal English countryside for four new feature-length mysteries.
Returning cast for Season 26 will include Dudgeon (Morse) as Barnaby and Nick Hendrix (The Crown) as his current bagman, DS Jamie Winter. This will mark Hendrix's eighth season on the series, tying him with his predecessor, Jason Hughes, who played DS Benjamin Jones for eight seasons. (OG bagman, DS Gavin Troy, played by Daniel Casey, left after seven.) Season 26 will also bring back 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.
Season 25 writers Julia Gilbert, Jeff Povey, Helen Jenkins, and Maria Ward are all expected to return to pen the four feature-length episodes of Season 26, with regular directors Paul Gibson, Roberto Bangura, Gill Wilkinson, and Leon Lopez expected to return to helm installments.
Season 26 of Midsomer Murders is currently filming in the U.K. and is expected to be ready by the end of the year. If the current release schedule stays the same, it will debut first on Acorn TV towards the end of 2026, with the U.K. getting episodes sometime in mid-2027.
Midsomer Murders Seasons 1-25 are streaming on Acorn TV in the U.S. Seasons 1-24 are available on ITVX, with Season 25 expected to be released in the U.K. by summer.
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