As Benidorm is Murder ended with a cliffhanger — we ask if that justifies a second series

The show finished its first series on Thursday with its sixth episode.

What is Benidorm is Murder

At least “inspired” by Death in Paradise and provisionally titled Death in Benidorm at one stage, it’s a 6×60′ Channel 5 show led by John Hannah. Hannah plays former detective Dennis Crown, who left the UK for a quieter life running a bar in Benidorm. In this case, running is more like using it as a venue to watch TV sports and drink all day. His backstory (slowly revealed) includes a separated wife Tiff (Tamzin Outhwaite) who left him for Eddie (Alan McKenna) who framed Dennis to take Tiff from him and this is why he both moved to Benidorm and has little interest in almost anything.

It wouldn’t be much of a show, fortunately for the show tourists start turning up dead. Dennis is drawn back into detective work, encouraged on by his barmaid Rosa (Carolina Bécquer), a cozy crime aficionado.. With Dennis’s real-world experience and Rosa’s encyclopaedic TV knowledge, each episode sees the duo tackling a new murder in paradise, whilst trying to remain on the right side of the local Spanish cops. These are love interest (to an extent) DS Maria Hernandez (Ariadna Cabrol) and hapless PC Jesús Ballesteros (Damian Schedler Cruz).

Is it a good watch

It very much breaks down into the first four episodes and the last two. The first episode introduces everyone, shows lots of Benidorm and brings the world of Take That tribute acts. The next few episodes bring plenty of shots of Brits Abroad in front of concrete towers, a hen party, bingo and comedian night clubs. A decent guest cast works well as we get murder of the week and very little else. The local police become very one-dimensional and, some language aside, it could easily pass for afternoon viewing (for which there is a large market).

Then we get the final two episodes, the arrival of Tiff and Eddie, a morally challenging episode exploring the justice vs the law and then the dark finale.

Without giving too much away, Eddy has a private party to which a group of stereotypical Villains turn up (yes, they have a capital V). As the premonitions of doom mount, who arrives but a crook Dennis was responsible for putting behind bars.

Not only do we get tension, but also depth added to the local police characters and a strong cliffhanger with Dennis going to jail charged with murder.

Is it popular and would we watch a second series

BARB ratings tend to only pick up the flagship Channel 5 shows, such as All Creatures Great and Small. The first episode sneaked into the overall top 50, so far (at time of writing) none of the others have. We assume Benidorm is a cheaper location to reach than Guadeloupe so cost of a second series should be relatively manageable. Would we watch a second series of Benidorm is Murder? There’s the cliffhanger, but more relevant the strength of the final two episodes. If they are the template, then yes. If it’s more the first few episodes then maybe not. There’s been no announcement. Until then, if you haven’t tried you can watch the series here. No straw hats or sunscreen required!