Midsomer Murders confirms air date as series returns for season 23

So, not very long to wait at all! The acclaimed murder mystery series will once again see plenty of crimes plague the idyllic Midsomer county, but will DCI John Barnaby and DS Jamie Winters be able to crack them all?

Having first aired back in 1997, the crime drama has been a mainstay on our screens, providing gripping storylines, twists and even some cameo appearances.

More recently, presenter Holly Willoughby featured on the show last year, after initially being announced back in 2021.

The Dancing on Ice presenter had previously said that she was a long-running fan of the show, and appeared in the episode The Witches of Angel’s Rise.

Midsomer star Neil Dudgeon said at the time: "Well, she’s sort of a friend of the show, I suppose – she’s a great fan of the show and we’re always looking to broaden our casting net."

He added: "She was great, she was thoroughly professional. I think she was a bit nervous when she first arrived. She’s playing a character called Holly Willoughby, I wouldn’t like to say that it’s herself."

Most interestingly, he also revealed at the time that her appearance was filmed a couple of years prior, due to the shooting schedule for the ITV drama.

So, there's plenty more episodes to come with such future planning in the pipeline.

As of yet, though, there haven't been any announcements made about further cameo appearances from any other well-known faces, but as is often the case, there will be plenty of guest stars to get acquainted with – and suspects in the process.

The cast will once again be helmed by Neil Dudgeon as DCI John Barnaby, the younger cousin of DCI Tom Barnaby, Midsomer Murders' original star. He'll be joined by Nick Hendrix, who features as John's right-hand man, DS Jamie Winter.

We'd be confident that Fiona Dolman will reprise her role as John's wife, Sarah, while we can expect to see a return for Annette Badland as pathologist Fleur Perkins.

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As for what the new season will entail and who else will be joining our lead detectives, we'll just have to wait and see - but the previous season included cases centring on urban myths, an opera society theatre murder and the annual Midsomer Scarecrow Festival taking quite the deadly turn.

While exact episode details are yet to be released, we're sure another trip to Midsomer will only stir up plenty more weird and wonderful cases for the team to tackle – we can't wait!

Midsomer Murders season 23 premieres on ITV1 on Sunday 14th April at 8pm. If you're looking for something else to watch, visit our TV Guide or take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage.

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