Midsomer Murders fans baffled as they discover 'missing scenes' – and why they were cut

Since its debut in 1997, Midsomer Murders has treated fans to an impressive 132 episodes across 23 series, gaining notoriety for featuring some of the most outlandish demises on televisionmost famously in the quaint yet deadly fictional region of Causton.

The ITV series has depicted everything from a character being squashed by condiment cans post-forklift pursuit to being flung into the beyond by wine bottles; it truly stops at nothing when it comes to unique exits.

Yet, as time goes on, certain scenes become elusive, almost mythical, lost to time and notoriously hard to track down even by the most dedicated viewers. But what leads to these on-screen vanishing acts and bite-sized renditions of full episodes?

The truncation of TV episodes is hardly a rare occurrence in the industry. It's a fate that's befallen other beloved series such as Downton Abbey and Auf Wiedershen Pet, which have had scenes snipped from their reruns for a variety of reasons.

Online, die-hard Midsomer Murders fans congregate on Reddit, feverishly debating the curious case of their favourited show's missing fragments. An intrigued Redditor shared: "Probably most of us know infamous cut of Fit for Murder with a good chunk of Tom's final scene removed. But it turns out that there's more similarly altered versions in different broadcasts."

They further discovered: "Recently I stumbled upon a version of The Oblong Murders with a few lines of dialogue removed unfortunately the ones indicating George's retirement, so any casual viewer will be left wondering why Bullard isn't around in the next episode," reports Gloucestershire Live.

Viewers of the show have voiced their theories on why certain scenes were omitted, suggesting it's related to the sequence of reruns ensuring episodes still make sense even if they're not watched in order.

One fan speculated: "I think it had something to do with reruns being broadcast out of order. To avoid, e.g., Tom retiring but then being in the next episode, they filmed a version where it's just his birthday party. Maybe similar with Bullard."

Channels such as Drama may trim episodes to squeeze in additional adverts. If a show is scheduled for a 60-minute slot but only runs for about 50 minutes, some content might be cut to accommodate over 10 minutes of commercials.

A Redditor suggested: "The only thing I can think of is maybe as adverts have got longer and longer, they need to trim episodes for them to fit broadcast? It's just a potential guess though."

Another viewer shared their experience: "I saw MM first on PBS, then on DVD, then on Acorn. Every once in while I felt a bit crazy because I could have sworn there was a scene missing or added."

It's not just isolated incidents; other episodes have been edited too. A user noted that more risque episodes were toned down pre-Watershed to exclude any sexual dialogue before 9pm, specifically mentioning dialogue cuts from the episode Death in the Slow Lane.

Episodes like Echoes of the Dead and Death and Dreams had graphic close-ups of dead bodies removed when shown before the Watershed. Similarly, Shot at Dawn had its profanity altered, substituting "p***" with "buzz".