Howard Richardson is a character appearing in the episode The Great and the Good of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
He was originally a very wealthy man with a trophy wife, but due to bad business he has lost a great deal on the stock market. He had only one asset left. Because he had paid for the bills and the expenses of the local school, he had the right of ownership of the building, once the school closed. The building was worth a lot of money. But the school teacher, Connie Bishop, was working hard to keep it open and had planned for her sister with three children to move in with her, which would give the school three new students. Howard managed to plant bugs and transmitters in her house and began haunting her with sounds to simulate an intruder while Connie was asleep. His original plan was to frighten her and make her so paranoid or thought to be by the residents of the village, that she would move away, delivering the school a fatal blow by robbing it of both teacher and three future students. However the plan took a deadly turn, when he caught Councilor Hanley spying on Connie. Howard tried to blackmail Hanley into denying Connie permission to expand her house for her family to move in, but Hanley was honourable and refused, so Howard killed him to prevent him from talking.
Next he killed Laurence Mann, who (presumably) figured out who killed Hanley, and was blackmailing Howard.
At the annual Frobisher Night fete, he was cornered and arrested, in front of his wife, wealthy friends and the village.