Murder Most Horrid

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A British Black Comedy featuring Dawn French in many different roles. There were many episodes, each one with their own plots (Completely unconnected to each other) in which Dawn's character always featured prominently. Once an Episode there was usually a murder, sometimes more, very rarely none, with most of the humour being related to the plot, but occasionally some humour is drawn from Dawn's portrayal of her character.

Tropes used in Murder Most Horrid include:

• Celestial Bureaucracy: Described in an episode starring Dawn as The Grim Reaper who is unhappy with her new, less-grim makeover which sees her riding a pale mini and carrying a garden strimmer.
• Couch Gag: The second-to-last line of the theme song changes in every episode to a different lyric rhyming with "horrid."
• The Ditz: Dawn likes these characters.
• Doppelganger: The entire point of one of the episodes.
• Ear Worm: The credits tune.
• Kick the Dog: Played for laughs, in "The Body Politic."
• Obfuscating Stupidity: "We All Hate Granny", Granny appears to be The Ditz, constantly forgetting things, such as taking her pills which were poisoned or constantly sleeping and avoiding whatever Zany Scheme her relatives had thought up to off her. At the end she takes her grandchildren away, while leaving the gas on at the home. Meaning when her daughter-in-law, who was a smoker, takes a cigarette out after "celebrating" another failed attempt at killing Granny, the entire house blows up. It is also implied A. Granny killed every other one of her children, in similar circumstances and B. Granny killed Grandad, who abused her.
• Once an Episode: A murder occurs. Occasionally averted.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Some of the murders are done for rather good reasons, to really horrible people. These murderers usually get off Scot-free, or someone horrid takes the fall for them.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In "A Determined Woman" French plays a scientist who kills her idiot husband in a moment of frustrated rage. After a short jail term she uses her time machine to go back and try to prevent her earlier actions, only to discover that her presence in the past was what caused her husband to apparently act more stupidly than usual.
• Zany Scheme: How the murders occur. Also where a lot of the humour comes from.