Coming to BBC One this autumn, Death in Paradise is a fish out of water story about a quintessential English cop posted to the Caribbean island of Sainte Marie.
Written by Robert Thorogood, the eight-part series stars Ben Miller (Primeval) as DI Richard Poole, Sara Martins as Camille Bordey, Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf) as Dwayne Myers, Gary Carr as Fidel Best, Lenora Crichlow (Being Human) as Lily Thomson, Hugo Speer as DI Charlie Hulme, Don Warrington as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson and Sean Maguire as Marlon Collins.
Episode 1
Tuesday 25th October 2011, 9pm
On the small paradise island of Saint-Marie, DI Charlie Hulme is loved and respected by all, including his team: smart, savvy Sergeant Lily Thompson; fun, laid-back police officer Dwayne Myers; and diligent hard working police officer Fidel Best. When Charlie is found murdered in a locked panic room during a party at a local mansion, they are all devastated. Commissioner Selwyn Patterson reveals that as Charlie was a British cop, a British cop must lead the investigation into his murder.
Enter quintessentially English DI Richard Poole, the perfect man to solve the case – he’s blisteringly intelligent and extremely observant with a unique approach – if only he didn’t hate sun, sea and sand…
Aided by Dwayne, Fidel and Lily, Richard diligently reviews the evidence of Hulme’s murder: a smashed vase, a travel book found in Charlie’s hand, a loud gunshot fired from a quiet gun and, most puzzling of all, how the murder could have taken place in a locked steel room.
With the support of his team, Richard is determined to solve the case, escape the heat and get back home. But others have different plans and, surprisingly, rather take to this fish out of water and his inspired detective skills…
Episode 2
Tuesday 1st November 2011, 9pm
Richard is trying to acclimatise to his new surroundings. In desperate need of a decent cup of tea, he abandons his search when bride Lisa Moore is discovered murdered on her wedding day. Shot through the heart with a spear gun she was dead before her body hit the rocks beneath the balcony she fell from at the Bay Cove Hotel.
Working their first case together, Camille and Richard are shown around the fifth-floor murder scene by dedicated butler William. They interview the devastated family: Mike Watson, Lisa’s father, is broken by the death of his daughter; Diana Watson, Lisa’s stepmother, tries to console him; while Sally Watson, Lisa’s jealous stepsister angrily looks on, unable to resist revealing that Lisa wasn’t Diana’s daughter.
She also informs them that they were all in their rooms when the murder happened, including Adam Fairs, the best man to the groom, and Darren Moore – who is understandably devastated by the loss of his new wife.
With evidence that no one else came or left the fifth floor, one of them must be the killer. It is up to Richard and his team to discover why Lisa was murdered and mostly importantly the identity of the killer…
Episode 3
Tuesday 8th November 2011, 9pm
Dwayne looks like he’s seen a ghost when the team is called to a local school to deal with the murder of Angelique Morel. The previous night Angelique had predicted her own murder by a scarred man – now she is found dead on the floor of the headmaster, Nicholas Dunham’s, classroom.
Angelique was known as a local voodoo priestess, but DI Richard Poole struggles to understand his team’s belief that her prediction must have come true. Insisting it’s nothing to do with voodoo, he thinks it’s just a good old fashioned murder by cyanide poisoning.
A visit to Camile’s mother, Catherine, reveals that Father Charles Dean – now the school’s priest and the man who found Angelique dead that morning – had an affair with Delilah Dunham, Nicholas’s wife, years ago. When the affair was revealed Delilah disappeared and Angelique suspected foul play.
In the end it takes a unique experiment involving a fish tank, super glue and a local cocktail to solve the case – although Richard isn’t satisfied with solving just one case, as he also manages to finally explain the mystery surrounding Delilah’s disappearance.
Episode 4
Tuesday 15th November 2011, 9pm
A mysterious shooting proves a tough puzzle for DI Richard Pool. Megan Talbot confesses to shooting dead her husband, Lucas Talbot, but when Richard and the team go to find the body it’s nowhere to be seen. Convinced there’s more to the case than Megan is telling him, and without a body, Richard releases Megan – offering her a lift to her villa.
At the villa, Richard and Camille meet Lucas’s friends Astrid Knight and her husband, Patrick – and quickly discover there is no love lost between Megan and Astrid. However, Richard insists nothing is definite until they find Lucas’s body.
But when Lucas’s body is found by a local boat crew and brought back to the harbour – with two gunshot wounds to his head, just as Megan said in her statement – Richard reluctantly arrests Megan for murder.
However, even with a full confession and a body, something still doesn’t sit right with Richard, who is desperate to understand how a button got lodged behind Lucas’s watch, why the stopwatch on the watch was going and what was on the mobile phone found with his body. With the help of Camille and the team, Richard finally sees what’s been staring him in the face the whole time…
Episode 5
Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 9pm
A simple task of transporting a prisoner back to Saint-Marie on the local ferry ends in disaster when the prisoner, Leon Hamilton, is murdered en-route – it wouldn’t be so bad for Richard if he hadn’t been handcuffed to the victim when he was stabbed in the back.
Commissioner Selwyn Patterson can’t believe neither Richard nor the prison guard Vincent Carter saw anything. Richard tasks the team with looking into who exactly Leon Hamilton was – they discover he had many enemies as he defrauded many people out of money when he sold them a piece of Paradise Beach.
With Leon having so many possible enemies Richard decides to start with the one investor who lost the most when Leon’s business went bust – Gordon Foster. They discover Gordon lost more than money – his wife also left him but he does have an alibi for the time of the murder. Then there’s murder mystery enthusiast, Suzie Park, who is a little too keen to be considered as a suspect for Richard’s liking.
Another complication is thrown Richard’s way when Leon’s wife, Ann Hamilton, books herself on to a flight immediately after having Leon cremated. Richard is convinced she has something to do with his murder but when they go to question her they make a startling discovery…
Episode 6
Tuesday 29th November 2011, 9pm
With Richard struck down by a tropical disease and Camille in Paris, it is left to Dwayne and Fidel to solve the murder of a local diver, Benjamin Lightfoot. After a night of heavy drinking with his brother, Mark, Benjamin is seen by his boss Phil Owen and Dwayne going diving the following morning.
When Benjamin is still not back after a couple of hours, Mark raises the alarm with Phil – and helped by Phil’s wife, Alex Owen, they search the water. Alex finds Benjamin’s dead body in unusually shallow waters. This isn’t the only thing that doesn’t make sense, as Dwayne notices odd markings on Benjamin’s chest. When he then tests Benjamin’s air gauge and discovers the tank is still full of air it’s clear that it must be murder.
Dwayne and Fidel begin their investigation but, as if their job wasn’t tough enough with the crime scene the open sea, they then have to contend with holidaying British cop DS Angela Young, who Commissioner Selwyn Patterson reveals will be helping out whilst Richard and Camille are absent.
Angela deduces Phil is the killer but Dwayne and Fidel aren’t convinced and head to Richard’s bungalow – only to discover they’ve both been giving him information about the case. With Richard still delirious will this be the one case he can’t crack?
Episode 7
Tuesday 6th December 2011, 9pm
Episode 8
Tuesday 13th December 2011, 9pm
Following a fun night at Catherine’s bar Dwayne meets a girl, Nadia Selim, and they immediately hit it off leading to coffee at her house.
However, the next morning Dwayne’s good mood is short lived when Richard reveals that his police warrant card was found at the scene of a murder crime – Nadia has been found dead with silver coins spilling out of her mouth. Nadia’s neighbours didn’t see anything suspicious – but Richard spots Georgie spying on them from her house…
Georgie reveals Nadia asked her to look after a package the day she was murdered. The package contains a passport, money and a vet bill – a guaranteed way to make sure her dog was looked after, should anything happen to her. Checking the passport the team discover Nadia Selim’s real name was in fact Rose Duchamp. Rose’s file has been flagged on one of the intelligence lists, with the case officer, much to Richard’s surprise, already on the island.
Ricketts reveals Rose came to him with information about a money laundering ring – but before she could hand over the incriminating evidence she disappeared – until two days before when Ricketts got a call from her, leading to his arrival just before she was murdered…
As Richard and the team struggle to solve the case, Richard is utterly delighted when Selwyn reveals his old job back at the MET is available if he wants it – will Richard leave the case unsolved and more importantly his new team in Saint-Marie?
Have you been enjoying Death in Paradise? Let us know below…