Death In Paradise Series 11 Episode 3
Shawana Messerli
The programme is filmed on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and is broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom, France 2 in France, PBS in America, and Prime in New Zealand (with repeats on BBC UKTV), and on Foxtel's BBC First channel, ABC and 9Gem in Australia.
Death in Paradise has enjoyed high viewing figures and a generally positive critical reception since its debut, leading to repeated renewals.[1] The most recent series, series 13, began broadcasting in the UK on 4 February 2024 and ended on 24 March.[2] The show is currently commissioned for one more series, ensuring the programme will run until at least 2025.[3]
Detective Inspector Richard Poole (Ben Miller) is sent from the Metropolitan Police in London to investigate the murder of a British police officer on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, a British Overseas Territory with a French colonial history.[5][6] After he finds the murderer, he is ordered by his supervisors to replace the victim and stay on as the detective inspector (DI) of the island, much to his dismay, solving new cases as they appear and being the object of many fish-out-of-water jokes.[7]
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 on the island permanently as the new detective, after his wife informs him she is leaving him. 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. Goodman's replacement on Saint Marie is DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O'Hanlon), a recent widower who is grieving the loss of his wife and who assisted the team on a case in London.
Mooney remains on the island until mid-way through Series 9, when he decides he is ready to face the memory of his deceased wife and returns to London with his daughter. His replacement is DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little), who initially dislikes being on the island and has severe allergies, especially to mosquito bites. He comes to the island only because they need a British detective to sign off on a case, and is forced to stay longer after a period of illness renders him temporarily unfit to travel. However, he decides to remain on the island until he eventually warms to the island lifestyle. He stays on the island until Series 13, where he departs on a yacht to travel and be in a relationship with former DS Florence Cassell.
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."[10]
The show is known for its formulaic approach to its plots[11] with each episode roughly the same in length, 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.[12] The police force of Saint Marie is 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.[13]
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. At 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 dnouement of the episode.[14] 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 ones.
Normally, each episode ends with a comedic scene or a celebratory trip by the police officers to Catherine's bar.[15] 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 decided to remain to face a new challenge. Parker remains the DI on the island until the end of Series 13, when he departs the island to go travelling alongside his former DS Florence Cassell.
Death in Paradise is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, described in episode 3.3 as a "pretty island" that is "situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea". In episode 4.5, it is mentioned that Martinique is "a good 70 miles". Saint Marie is "one-tenth the size of its north-west neighbour Guadeloupe"; this would make Saint Marie about 63 square miles (160 km2) in size. Saint Marie is a British Overseas Territory, but about 30% of its people are French, due to previous history, with the language still widely spoken.
The back-story appears to be a blend of two real-world islands near Guadeloupe, with size and location aligning with Marie-Galante and history and language aligning with Dominica. In the TV show, the fictional Saint Marie island has a volcano, rainforest, sugar plantations, a fishing harbour, an airport, a university, a convent, approximately 100 public beaches and a Crown Court. It also has its own newspaper, The Saint Marie Times, a radio station, Radio Saint Marie, and a television station, SMBC. Its vehicles have French number plates, and motor vehicles drive on the right. Police uniforms are also French, not British.
Honor, the name of the main town, is a reference to St Honor, the setting of A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. The town has a leisure/commercial marina, market, bars and restaurants as well as the police station. The neighbouring town to Honor is named as Port Royal. Saint Marie's main economic ties are to Guadeloupe, the UK and France. The island's main religions are Catholicism and Voodoo, with several religious festivals featuring in the programme, including the Saint Ursula Festival (in reality, a major festival of the Virgin Islands) and some Voodoo festivals.[citation needed]
Series 3, episode 7 is largely set on an islet just off Saint Marie; it is privately owned and relatively small. This episode was actually filmed on the island of Kahouanne, around 1.2 miles (1.9 km) off the northwest coast of Guadeloupe where the series is normally filmed. It can often be seen in the background from a beach on Saint Marie. Series 6, Episodes 5 and 6 are largely set in London, when Goodman, Cassell and Officer Myers form a liaison team with Mooney in order to track down suspects in a murder investigation in Saint Marie and later to investigate the murder of one of the suspects.
Danny John-Jules, the longest-tenured actor in the series other than Don Warrington and Elizabeth Bourgine, did not return for series eight and was replaced by Shyko Amos, who plays Commissioner Selwyn Patterson's niece, Ruby.[17] John-Jules cited his reason for exiting the show as wanting to leave "on a high".[18] Both Shyko Amos and Aude Legastelois-Bid left the show at the conclusion of series 9.
In addition to the human characters, a recurring animal character is "Harry", a lizard who lives at the Detective Inspector's bungalow. He appears in almost every episode and acts as a sounding board for the Detective Inspector to discuss the status of the current case and his life experiences. Harry is CGI generated.[22]
Filming series 1 was particularly difficult, due to the lack of infrastructure in Guadeloupe for long-term filming, as well as the fact that Sara Martins, the actress who plays DS Camille Bordey, broke her leg in the middle of filming, causing her to be almost entirely written out of Episode 6 of Series 1 and causing difficulties during the filming of episodes 7 and 8.[26]
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 could 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 subsequently decided to leave the show.[27]
From episode 7 of the sixth series, the lead role was taken by Ardal O'Hanlon playing DI Jack Mooney, a London colleague.[28] Josphine 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". O'Hanlon confirmed he had left the show in October 2019, with his last appearance coming in Series 9, Episode 4.[29] His replacement, Ralf Little who plays DI Neville Parker, was revealed the same month.[30]
In January 2022, in the fourth episode of series 11, Jobert left the show for the second time after her character left the island. Her departure had not been previously announced. She returned again for the third time in series 13, episode six, broadcast in March 2024. Meanwhile, Tahj Miles departed the island as Marlon Pryce the episode beforehand.[33]
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