Death in Paradise (TV series)

British detective Richard Poole (Ben Miller) is assigned to investigate the murder of a British police officer on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.[10] After he finds the murderer, he is ordered by his supervisors to replace the victim and stay on as the head detective inspector (DI) of the island, solving new cases as they appear and being the object of many fish-out-of-water jokes.[11]

At the start of Series 3, Poole is murdered, and clumsy London detective Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) arrives to investigate the death of his deadpan predecessor. He then stays in the job as chief investigator on the island. In the second half of Series 6, he resigns so he can start a new life in London with his girlfriend Martha Lloyd, after forming a relationship with her while she was staying at Saint Marie on holiday for a month. Goodman's replacement on Saint Marie is DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O'Hanlon), a recent widower grieving the loss of his wife, who assisted the team on a case in London. Mooney remains on the island until mid-way through Series 9, when he concludes that he has simply been running away from his real life after his wife's death and decides to return to London with his daughter. His replacement is DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little (who previously played Will Teague in series 2 Episode 6)), who dislikes being on the island and has severe allergies, especially with mosquito bites; he initially came to the island because they needed a British detective to sign off on a case and had to stay longer after a period of illness rendered him unfit to travel for a month.

While Death in Paradise has continued to be in the top three most popular programmes on British television, critics have called the crime drama "unremarkable" and "an undemanding detective show, with nice Caribbean scenery."[14]

The show is known for its formulaic approach to its plots[15] with each episode roughly the same in both style and narrative structure. Each episode begins with a pre-credits sequence showing the events leading up to a murder and often the discovery of the body afterwards; this sequence also serves to introduce that particular episode's guest characters.[16] The Police force of Saint Marie are subsequently informed of the murder, preliminary investigations and interviews take place to establish the suspects, and photographs of the suspects and crime scene are placed on the whiteboard at Police Headquarters.[17]

Often towards the end, the lead DI will have a moment of realisation, perhaps brought on by something that someone says or does, or by some occurrence. In this moment, the how, why and who of the murder are comprehended by the DI, but are not revealed to the audience. The suspects are then gathered and the DI talks through the evidence; often, flashbacks are used to show what happened. The murderer and the motive are revealed in the dénouement of the episode.[18] Gathering the suspects, going through the events and finally identifying, and arresting the murderer is based on the technique Agatha Christie uses in the Miss Marple stories, and some of the Hercule Poirot stories.

Normally, each episode ends with a comedic scene or a celebratory trip by the Police officers to Catherine's bar.[19] The final episode of most series has included a subplot wherein the lead DI is tempted to return to the UK by the prospect of a job offer or personal relationship, but in the end, he decides to remain on the island.

This format was subverted in the sixth series, when the two-part storyline in the fifth and sixth episodes saw the team travel to London to follow up on a current case, resulting in Goodman deciding to remain to be with his new girlfriend, Martha; Mooney travelled back to Saint-Marie, initially as a holiday to help escape the memory of his recently deceased wife, but decided to remain as the new detective inspector of the island. This format was also subverted in the ninth series; Mooney decided to return to Britain mid-way through the series as he felt that he was ready to face the memory of his dead wife, with the new inspector (DI Neville Parker) initially coming to the island just to sign off on a particular body but kept for a few weeks for health reasons before he decides to remain to face a new challenge.

Deshaies' church is right next to the fictional "Honoré police station".

View of the Presbytery at Deshaies (Guadeloupe, c.1850s), which serves as the police station in the TV series "Death in Paradise". Photo Gauvin Alexander Bailey

The series is filmed on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, mainly in the commune of Deshaies (which doubles for the town of Honoré on the fictional island of Saint Marie), with the help of the Bureau d’accueil des tournages de la Région Guadeloupe.[26] The site of the Honoré police station is a church hall in Deshaies (built c.1850s),[27] with the priest's office appearing as the incident room.[28]

Miller left the series at the start of series 3, as he felt he was spending too much time away from his family, since his wife was unable to join him on the island during production. Marshall's family joined him on the island during his first three six-month shoots and his son, Thomas, enrolled at a local school. When his family did not join him during the filming of the sixth series, following the birth of his baby daughter, Elsie, it left him feeling "bereft and empty" and he quit the show.[29]

From episode 7 of the sixth series, the lead role was taken by Ardal O'Hanlon playing DI Jack Mooney, a London colleague.[30] Joséphine Jobert left the series after episode 6 of the eighth series and was replaced by actress Aude Legastelois, who plays Madeleine Dumas. Jobert cited her reason for exiting the show as wanting to "focus on other projects".

In July 2020, the BBC announced the departure of Shyko Amos and Legastelois, along with the return of Jobert and the arrival of newcomer Tahj Myles as Marlon Pryce.[31][32]

In the UK, all series are shown on BBC One. The first series was broadcast in late 2011. The second series was broadcast in January 2013, with subsequent series filling the same January slot; all series were shown in a 9:00–10:00 pm slot.[lower-alpha 1] In France the programme is broadcast on France 2 and France Ô. Death in Paradise is broadcast in 236 territories.[39] The series is available to stream, as of May 2020, on Britbox.[40] In the USA the program appears on a number PBS stations including KBTC TV which serves the Tacoma-Seattle-Centralia, WA market (ref KBTC.org, KTBC programming.org, KBTC Schedule.org)

The creator of the show, Robert Thorogood, signed a three-book deal to write Death in Paradise novels featuring the original characters (D.I. Richard Poole, D.S. Camille Bordey, Officer Dwayne Myers, Sergeant Fidel Best and Comm. Selwyn Patterson). The first of these, A Meditation on Murder (A Death in Paradise novel),[61] was published in January 2015. Early reviews were generally favourable, with the Daily Express in particular being complimentary, giving it four stars.[62] The second book, The Killing of Polly Carter, was released in 2016. The third book, Death Knocks Twice, was released in 2017. A fourth book, Murder in the Caribbean, was published in December 2018.

• All ratings are sourced from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).

• Death in Paradise at BBC Programmes
• Death in Paradise at epguides.com
• Death in Paradise at IMDb