The Night of the Stag is the sixth episode of the fourteenth series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired on 21st October 2011.
A VAT inspector goes missing as he hunts for an illicit cider still responsible for brewing The Beast, a potent local hooch. At the Midsomer Abbas spring fayre which celebrates its friendship with Midsomer Herne, DCI Barnaby and DS Jones sample the local cider, while fervent temperance preacher Norman Grigor, a recovering alcoholic, calls on residents to repent of their drunken ways. Suddenly, Barnaby is violently ill as the body of missing man Peter Slim is found floating in the cider vat. The murder weapon, an apple tree harvester which shook him to death, belongs to boozy cider mill owner Anthony Devereux, a man with something to hide though he denies murder. Then Barnaby discovers a secret connecting Slim to a village girl and a party to that secret, the Reverend Conrad Walker is murdered. As pub landlord Samuel Quested leads the villagers in the revival of an old fertility tradition and after discovering Rev. Walker’s badly beaten body in his church, Barnaby and Jones find themselves in peril during the night of the stag.
Tropes:
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Samuel Quested wants to restart an ancient tradition where one night a year, the men of one village would descend on the neighbouring village and ravish the women, thereby ensuring genetic diversity in the villages. One of the women in the neighbouring village is very keen on the idea and says she will leave the door open for him. However, she is not happy when he ignores her and goes for her unwilling daughter instead.
- Badass Bystander: Downplayed with Jonathan Oak who knocks Smudgepot on his ass and then speaks up in defiance of Quested's plan to kill Barnaby and Jones.
- Big Damn Heroes: Byron Street almost pulls this off when he arrives on scene as Quested, Smudgepot and Wilberforce prepare to kill Barnaby and Jones.
- Break the Haughty: Norman Grigor, though he does have it coming as he acts so holier than thou even to Barnaby and Jones, that Silas Trout's action of leaving a milk bottle filled of 'The Beast' to tempt him comes across as mild.
- Break Them by Talking / Shaming the Mob: Barnaby has to talk down an angry mob that Sam Quested has whipped into a frenzy and is sending to kill Barnaby and Jones. By revealing Quested's true motivation for the crimes, he is able to buy enough time to regain control of the situation.
- Butt-Monkey: Despite being one of the murderers, Smudgepot gets his ass handed to him, twice on the same night even!
- Cool Old Guy: Byron Street the local beekeeper, is affable and fully prepared to gun down Quested in defence of Esme Baker. he also sports an Eyepatch of Power.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The body of Peter Slim, a revenue inspector investigating illicit stills, is found dumped in a cider vat. The murder weapon; an apple tree harvester which shook him to death.
- Death Glare: John Barnaby and Quested have a glare off in the final showdown in Midsomer Herne.
- Dirty Old Man: Will Green is outright called this by the object of his lust, in a Batman Gambit Quested uses as part of his plan.
- Dry Crusader: Temperance campaigners, led by fervent, recovered-alcoholic parson Norman Grigor, protest against the Midsomer Abbas May Festival.
- Eyepatch of Power: Local beekeeper and resident Cool Old Guy Byron Street has this. He is the only person in the valley not afraid of Samuel Quested and shows up wielding a shotgun in a Big Damn Heroes moment to save Barnaby and Jones from being lynched by an angry mob.
- Faux Affably Evil: A classic example is Sam Quested the main killer, who has the thinnest veneer of Affably Evil charm.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: On Quested's orders, Smudgepot and Wilberforce use billhooks to cut down Reverend Walker in his church in a scene that is a Shout-Out to the murder of St. Thomas Becket.
- Good All Along: A downplayed example with Silas Trout, he brews illegal hooch and successfully breaks Grigor's teetotalism, but isn't a killer and subdues two of the killers in the climax
- Hillbilly Moonshiner: The British equivalent (yokel moonshiner?) in this case, Silas Trout is brewing a particularly potent hooch known as "the Beast".
- Holier Than Thou: Grigor lives and breathes this trope.
- Jerkass: Excluding the murderer(s), Grigor takes the cake, to the extent that he undermines his own temperance movement and message.
- Manipulative Bastard: Sam Quested revels in manipulating people, Anthony Devereux and Will Green are victims of his, and disturbingly as it turns out, his own daughter is used as a pawn in his plans.
- Off the Wagon: Norman Grigor, the fanatical leader of the local Dry Crusaders, is a recovering alcoholic. He falls off the wagon hard when the local Hillbilly Moonshiner leaves him a jar of "the Beast," the exceptionally powerful local brew.
- Pursued Protagonist / They Have the Scent!: The episode opens with Peter Slim being chased through an orchard at night by armed men with hounds.
- Shout-Out: The murder of Reverend Walker is the murder of St. Thomas Becket in all but name. Sam Quested even orders the killing by asking his two henchmen "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?"
- Small-Town Tyrant: Samuel Quested is the mayor of Midsomer Abbas and the Faux Affably Evil landlord of The Stag pub. Quested is a traditionalist who seeks to keep Midsomer Abbas as isolated as possible from the rest of Midsomer; not only so as to not to lose any of the village’s rites and rituals, but also to allow him to maintain his stranglehold on power in the valley.
- Stout Strength: Silas Trout is a hefty wide figure of a man, he effortlessly knocks Smudgepot and Wilberforce on their arses as they attempt to flee arrest after the final showdown.
- Terrible Trio: Quested and his henchmen, Smudgepot and Wilberforce
- Vomit Discretion Shot: John Barnaby ducks behind a stack of barrels before throwing up after drinking a pint of cider from a barrel with Peter Slim's body floating in it.
