Death in Paradise (TV series)

Death in Paradise
Genre	Crime, drama, comedy
Created by	Robert Thorogood
Starring	Ben Miller (1-2) Sara Martins Danny John-Jules Gary Carr (1-3) Elizabeth Bourgine Don Warrington Kris Marshall (3-)
Composer	Magnus Fiennes
Country of origin	United Kingdom France
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	24 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Tony Jordan Klaus Zimmermann Belinda Campbell
Producers	Matthew Bird Tim Key Tim Bradley
Production location	Guadeloupe (France)
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Red Planet Pictures and Atlantique Production, in association with Kudos for the BBC and France Télévisions
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	25 October 2011 (2011-10-25) – present

Death in Paradise is a crime comedy-drama created by Robert Thorogood and starring Ben Miller (Series 1-2), Kris Marshall (Series 3 -) and Sara Martins (all three series so far). The programme is a joint UK and French production filmed on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe.

After consistently high ratings during the second series, on 12 February 2013, Death in Paradise was commissioned for a third series by Ben Stephenson. The BBC announced on 9 April 2013 that Ben Miller would exit Death in Paradise at the start of Series 3, while a new detective, Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), would be taking over. Series 3 began airing on 14 January 2014. On 28 February 2014, Death in Paradise was renewed for a fourth series.

The third series started a second showing on BBC One on August 4, 2014 and the UK's Alibi channel started rerunning earlier series from August 16, 2014.

Synopsis

The light-hearted crime drama centres around a detective who is assigned to investigate a murder on the paradise island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean. Maladroit London detective Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) is a new arrival at the start of series 3, drafted in to investigate the stabbing death of his predecessor, the strait-laced Richard Poole (Ben Miller), who, at the start of series 1, had arrived to investigate the murder of his predecessor - and stayed on to head the island's detectives, his personal hell on Earth.

Saint Marie

Saint Marie is described in Episode 3.3 as a "pretty island" that is "situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea" and "one-tenth the size of its north-west neighbour Guadeloupe". This would make Saint Marie about 160 square kilometres (62 sq mi) in size, which is slightly bigger than Bromley (the largest borough in London). The location and name of the island suggests it is based on the real-world island of Marie-Galante, which has a matching size and location, although the real-life Marie-Galante is part of Guadeloupe and not independent of it. In the TV show, the fictional Saint-Marie has a volcano, rainforest, sugar plantations, a fishing harbour, and an airport. Honoré, the main town, has a leisure/commercial marina, market, bars, and restaurants, as well as the police station. The island is a British Overseas Territory, but about 30% of its people are of French descent, with the language still widely spoken and its main economic ties are to Guadeloupe, the UK and France. The island's main religions are Catholicism and Vodou, with several Vodou religious festivals.

Characters

• Detective Inspector Richard Poole (Ben Miller): A British inspector assigned to the island to investigate the previous inspector's murder, Poole was instructed to remain on the island as the new police detective. Despite his distaste for the island and inexperience with tropical weather—to the point that he continued to wear his old (wool) suits despite their impracticality—he often showed a useful knack for making deductive leaps based on minimal information and random events. He generally formed a good bond with his new team despite the occasional personality clash (as opposed to his old role in London, where his colleagues threw a party after his departure). In the final episode of Series 1, Poole heard his old job in London was still available; but the commissioner delayed telling him until Poole had only a few hours to apply. He missed the deadline and became the island's permanent detective chief inspector.

In Series 2 he grew slightly more relaxed. He recommended Fidel for the sergeant's exam. Poole briefly returned to London, but in spite of his distaste for Saint Marie, he chose to return.

He sometimes used his modest beach house - shared with a small lizard he named Harry - as a makeshift forensic lab improvising equipment to make up for the island's lack of forensic facilities. However, evidence and bodies normally have to be flown to Guadeloupe for examination, incurring a time penalty of half a day or more in investigations.

• Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), assigned to Saint-Marie after Poole was stabbed in the heart with an ice pick at the start of Series 3 to stop him revealing a case of identity theft But his murder proved ineffective, as clues from his investigation helped Goodman reveal the motive and the killer's identity, adding Poole had 'solved his own murder'.
• Goodman stayed on in Saint Marie in Series 3 after his wife Sally announced she was leaving him via answering machine message shortly after he arrived on Saint Marie. He inherited Poole's beach house home and his position as Saint-Marie's detective inspector. Keener to blend in than Poole had been, he often behaved and dressed like an outsider. He obsessed over small details and was extremely maladroit.
• Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey (Sara Martins): A former undercover investigator before she was arrested during Poole's first investigation, she was assigned to the precinct because her cover was blown when she was arrested at the same time as a minor criminal. She is a as the team's best investigator after Poole, often handling the computer side of things. Initially she and Poole did not get along as a result of a culture clash. Over time their relationship became a friendship, and showed some hints of romance - when he briefly left the island, she admitted she admired him considerably and was pleased when he chose to returns. His murder in the opening scenes of the first episode of Series 3 clearly upset her and she was unsure about his successor.
• Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) — Lacking ambition, but with complete faith seniors and perhaps too-good an understanding of the criminal mind.
• Sergeant Fidel Best (Gary Carr): Young, hard-working and, at the start of series 3, recently promoted.
• Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington): The island's police commissioner, responsible for hiring its accident prone detective inspectors.
• Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine): Camille's mother and owner of a bar, where the team often talked over cases. Poole's relationship with her was strained. She raised Camille as a single mother and is very close to Camille, who spends much of her spare time in the bar.

Note: The only other recurring characters were Aidan Miles, played by Adrian Dunbar - in Episodes 7 and 8 of Series 1, was possible love interest for Catherine until Poole exposed him as a murderer - and Goodman's ex-wife Sally (Morven Christie) - heard in episode 1 of series 3 and seen on the island in episode 8 of series 3 trying to get him back.

Appearances of main and recurring characters

Left-to-right: Sara Martins, Danny John-Jules, Gary Carr and Ben Miller

Character	Actor	Years	Series	Episode Count
DI Humphrey Goodman	Kris Marshall	2014–	3.1–	8
DS Camille Bordey	Sara Martins	2011–	1.1–	24
Fidel Best	Gary Carr	2011–2015	1.1–4.1	24
Dwayne Myers	Danny John-Jules	2011–	1.1–	24
Commissioner Selwyn Patterson	Don Warrington	2011–	1.1–	13
Catherine Bordey	Élizabeth Bourgine	2011–	1.1–	19
DI Richard Poole	Ben Miller	2011–14	1.1–3.1	17
Aidan Miles	Adrian Dunbar	2011	1.7-1.8	2
Sally Goodman	Morven Christie	2014	3.1, 3.8	2
Florence Cassell	Josephine Jobert	2015-	4.2-	2

   Character has a major role in the current series.

   Character who is no longer featuring in the series.

Notes:

• Sara Martins only appeared at the very end in Episode 1.06 due to an injury however she was still credited and therefore was still counted as a main character in the episode.
• Aside from the main cast, the only actor to appear in more than one episode of the programme was Adrian Dunbar, who played Aidan Miles in Episodes 7 and 8 of Series 1, and Morven Christie, who played Sally Goodman, in Episodes 1 and 8 of Series 3.
• Only Sally Goodman's voice featured in Series 3, Episode 1. She did not physically appear until Episode 8.
• Episode count is as of Episode 3.8
• Garry Carr will depart in Series 4 Episode 1, when taking up a job on a neighboring island. Josephine Jobert will replace him, as Florence Cassell. Don Warrington as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson will play a larger role than usual.

Episode list

Further information: List of Death in Paradise episodes

Three series of eight episodes each, airing in late 2011, early 2013 and early 2014, respectively, have been produced so far.

Production

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

The series has been filmed on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, mainly on the site of Deshaies (which doubles for the fictional town of Honoré on the fictional island of Saint Marie), with the help of the Bureau d’accueil des tournages de la Région Guadeloupe. Ben Miller left the series at the start of series 3 as he believed he was spending too much time away from his family, his wife was unable to join him on the island during production as she couldn't bear the heat. Kris Marshall's family have on the other hand joined him on the island during the six month shoot and he is proud his young daughter has enrolled at a local school and is learning French.

Reception

The first episode received final viewing figures of just over 6 million, outperforming ITV’s celebrity reality series 71 Degrees North.

Series 2 started with just over 8 million viewers and a 28.8% share of the audience for the 9-10 pm time slot. This was up by 1.3 million viewers, and 5% audience share, from the opening of the previous series and was, up to that time, the highest-rated episode of the drama on BBC television.

Series 2 enjoyed consistently high ratings, with overnight figures for the first four episodes all passing the six-million figure and the fifth only slightly missing out with an overnight rating of 5.97, which was still the highest-rated broadcast programme for the time slot with an audience share of 25.8%.

DVD release

Series 1 of Death in Paradise was released as a region-2 two-disc set on 8 October 2012.

Series 2 was released on three discs in region 2 on 4 March 2013.

Series 3 was released on three discs in region 2 on 10 March 2014.

US release

Series 1 and 2 are being shown in the San Francisco Bay Area on KQED "Mystery Night" in 2013. Series 1 aired in January and February 2013, Series 2 aired in April and May 2013, and then Series 1 began repeating on October 6, 2013. In the New England area, WGBX started airing Series 1 and 2 in 2013.

Theme song

The theme song is a Jamaican song from the 60s called "You're Wondering Now" written by Coxsone Dodd, originally recorded by The Skatalites and Andy & Joey in Jamaica. Later made famous in Europe by ska band The Specials and later still by Amy Winehouse as featured on some editions of the deluxe version of her album Back to Black. In the first episode of the third series, the original song recorded by The Skatalites is played at the bar.

References

• All ratings are sourced from the BARB.

External links

• Death in Paradise at BBC Online
• Death in Paradise at IMDb