Midsomer Rhapsody is the eighth episode of the eighth series of Midsomer Murders and was originally aired on 2nd October 2005.
DCI Barnaby and DS Scott investigate the murder of Arthur Leggott. The man had recently moved into a care home but was found dead in his house. He was a respected music teacher and had been a close friend of Joan Alder the late, great composer. There had been rumours that Leggott may have had in his belongings a rare piece of sheet music from Alder's early years. When such a piece turns up at auction, Barnaby is convinced it was stolen in the first place. Joan Alder's husband, her agent, a young woman who now claims to be her daughter, her putative father and an antique dealer are all suspects. As the death count rises the field of suspects narrows, but the solution lies in a letter handwritten by Joan Alder and the infatuation of someone who loved her in their youth.
Tropes:
- Drunk Driver: At the opening of Joan Alder House, Laura stuns the crowd by introducing a young woman, Sarah, as Joan's long-lost daughter. Reeling in shock outside, local vagrant Hedge is hit by drunken builder Joe Smeeton's car.
- Off with His Head!: A motorcyclist is decapitated by a length of piano wire strung across the road at neck height.
- Razor Floss: A piano wire is strung across a road at head height and decapitates a motorcyclist.
