While St. Marie adjusts to a new lead detective, Beyond Paradise has its own Christmas Special too.

Don Gilet has just kicked off his tenure as DI Mervyn, leading the team in Death in Paradise.

However, back in Blighty, there’s another Paraverse Christmas Special for the West Country-set Beyond Paradise. The spin off which follows the post-Caribbean investigations of Kris Marshall’s DI Humphrey Goodman, who has relocated to the hometown of his partner Martha.

This Christmas we find Humphrey and his sergeant Esther investigating a potentially supernatural case.

Asked whether his DI believes in ghosts, Kris Marshall told the BBC:

Humphrey doesn’t rule anything out, but he’s always up for a challenge. He loves unusual cases – anything out of the ordinary, whether it’s ghosts, or just something strange. He enjoys getting stuck into these mysteries and picking them apart. As a policeman, he’s naturally sceptical and doesn’t believe in coincidences. But for him, the thrill comes from unravelling the mystery, which is what gets him excited about the job.

However, Zahra Ahmadi (DS Esther Williams) is not quite so open minded:

Esther is 99% sceptical, but there’s a tiny part of her that is open to the possibility. She tries to convince herself that she doesn’t believe in ghosts, but after losing Zoe’s dad, she’s become more willing to consider the supernatural.

Here’s the synopsis for the Beyond Paradise Christmas Special 2024:

It’s Christmas time in Shipton Abbott, where Humphrey (Kris Marshall) and the team find themselves wrapped up in two festive cases.

When recently widowed Bob Holland (Mark Heap) is ordered to leave his home by a vision of his late wife Linda (Rosalind Adler), he is thrown into emotional turmoil, a vivid reminder of his harrowing grief. Deeply disturbed by this series of troubling events, he turns to his friend Anne (Barbara Flynn) for comfort, who shares his encounters with the Shipton Abbott police team. Unsure whether Bob’s ghostly visions are a manifestation of grief or something more sinister, Humphrey and Esther (Zahra Ahmadi) get to work unravelling the mystery. Bob’s daughter Fiona (Tamla Kari) and her husband, a maverick inventor Colin (Seann Walsh), appear stumped and concerned when deliberating who could be behind this ghostly apparition. Is Bob simply struggling with the pain of the first Christmas without his wife, or is there a darker force at play?

Meanwhile, Kelby (Dylan Llewellyn) and Margo (Felicity Montagu) are on the case after a break-in at the church leaves the nativity scene incomplete. With the Christmas service fast approaching, and CS Charlie Woods (Jade Harrison) due to attend, can Kelby solve the mystery of the missing Virgin Mary and impress the Chief Superintendent?

Away from the station, Humphrey and Martha’s (Sally Bretton) fostering journey continues as they open their home to introverted teenager Jaiden (Austin Taylor) over the festive period. Struggling to connect, and with Humphrey otherwise occupied at work, Martha feels out of her depth. Can she overcome her self-doubt and find a way to bond with Jaiden? And will he open up and let her in before the holidays arrive?

You can watch a clip on the BBC website.

The Beyond Paradise Christmas Special 2024 is on BBC One and iPlayer from 9pm on Friday 27th December.

It follows the first series finale of the fellow Paraverse show Return to Paradise.