Now fully established, the West Country spin-off is proving more popular than the original Caribbean series
The West Country is somehow a perfect setting for a cosy Christmas story; there’s certainly more chance of spotting a donkey and a manger in Devon than, say, Dagenham. And now that Doc Martin is extinct, Beyond Paradise’s picturesque Shipton Abbott is the place to be.
The Christmas special for the Death in Paradise spin-off duly delivers a bulging stocking of seasonal sentiment – a heart-warming assortment of Love Actually, Long Lost Family and A Christmas Carol, along with its very own Father Christmas. Well, Selwyn Patterson, at least.
Humphrey’s former boss from Saint Marie (played with his resting-face scowl by Don Warrington), now retired and visiting his daughter in the UK, is the guest of honour at Humphrey and Martha’s wedding. After so many thwarted attempts at matrimony, Martha (Sally Bretton) had decided to spring surprise nuptials on Humphrey (Kris Marshall), with Selwyn smuggled in as Humphrey’s best man.
The Scrooge of the piece is played by Ted Lasso’s James Lance, a larcenous wine bar owner called Mr Finch, who stages a robbery at his premises and lays the blame on his barman, Margo’s sweet-natured nephew Robert.
“Finch the Grinch”, as he’s soon dubbed, is such a panto villain that his guilt is never in doubt, and Humphrey duly has another of his eureka moments that prove Finch’s culpability (this one involving wine bottles and melting ice cubes triggering a burglar alarm; don’t try it at home).
Other storylines include a young man, Seb, stuck in a snowman costume and hanging around the police station like a bad smell, while Kelby (Dylan Llewellyn) finds a way to unglue him.
But the central story features Ade Edmondson as David, who was discovered slumped on the police station steps by Esther (Zahra Ahmadi). All they gather from this largely mute stranger (we later discover he has dementia) is that he’s carrying a photograph of Humphrey. He hardly had to learn a line, but Edmondson manages to express quite a lot through a forlorn countenance.
It eventually transpires that David is looking for the sister from whom he was separated in 1968, and that sister is the stepmum of Seb, the lad stuck in the snowman costume. Well, it’s Christmas, and ’tis the season for such corny coincidences.
Humphrey and Martha’s joyful wedding party eventually makes an ideal finale, and – in a nice touch – they even hire Bellowhead, the folk band who play the programme’s theme tune, to provide the live music. Shipton Abbott police pay must be more than we thought.
Much more than the Australian Death in Paradise spinoff, Return to Paradise, the world of Beyond Paradise now feels fully established and ready to supersede the mothership. Indeed, some episodes from the previous series proved more popular than those of the Caribbean-based original.
It has a family of endearing regular characters, including the motherly Margo (Felicity Montagu) and the office dunce, Kelby. Fortunately, from a typecasting perspective, Llewellyn’s role in the Channel 4 sitcom Big Boys proves he has a greater range than Kelby and his somewhat spare-part character in Derry Girls.
In the meantime, Selwyn Patterson, having retired from his post in the Caribbean, now appears to be taking a roving ambassadorial role for the whole franchise. As he intimated during Humphrey and Martha’s wedding, when he took a call from DI Mervin Wilson in Saint Marie, the ex-commissioner will also be involved in next week’s Death in Paradise Christmas special.
Perhaps he could also pop up in Dolphin Cove. The relatively lacklustre Aussie spinoff could certainly do with some Patterson power.
The Beyond Paradise Christmas special is streaming on BBC iPlayer
