Beyond Paradise season 4 will see Kris Marshall back as DI Humphrey Goodman.

While the BBC hasn't officially confirmed we're getting a fourth series of the Death in Paradise spin-off, fans have already spotted the cast filming scenes in and around Looe in Cornwall, which doubles for the fictional town of Shipton Abbott, where the show is set.

Here's everything we know about the new series. Be warned, the plot section contains spoilers if you've not finished watching Beyond Paradise season 3!

Beyond Paradise season 4 release date

With shooting taking place in the summer of 2025, we'd expect Beyond Paradise season 4 to begin in spring 2026. We're also expecting a Christmas special before that. When we get an official release date, we will add that in here.

Beyond Paradise season 4 cast

Kris Marshall and Sally Bretton star again. Also in the cast are Zahra Ahmadi (The Bay, Tracey Ullman's Show, EastEnders) as DS Esther Williams, Dylan Llewellyn (Big Boys, Derry Girls) as PC Kelby Hartford and Felicity Montagu (This Time with Alan Partridge, Landscapers, Vanity Fair) playing office support civilian, Margo Martins.

Plot

Will Humphrey and Martha finally get married?! The pair really need to get their skates on, they're taking forever! Having previously attempted to wed and failed, we wonder if this will ever get back on their agenda. But surely the producers know the fans want to see a wedding?

Esther had her own romantic woes in the last series with Martha's ex Archie Hughes (Jamie Bamber). It's unclear yet if Archie will be back, but it didn't feel like that plot line had ended. On the other hand, we can't blame Archie if he's moved on because Esther was messing him about. Meanwhile, might Kelby finally enjoy a romance? He also seemed to grow as a cop in the last series, so might he be after promotion?

And what about Martha's poor mum Anne, who's still stuck on the boat while Humphrey and Martha use her house? How can Martha and Humphrey not afford their own house? He's a DI, and she owns her own business! What are the house prices like in Shipton Abbott?! You'd think with all the crime, it wouldn't be too bad.

Barbara Flynn, who plays Anne, told us: "The general public seem to be very worried about me living in the boat! They say, 'why don't you get your house back, Barbara?'"

As to the cases Humphrey will get to investigate, we don't have any information as yet. But we will update this article when we get some.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

The makers of Death in Paradise have revealed that filming has started on the new series.

Yes, the cameras are rolling on Death in Paradise season 15 right now in Guadeloupe, which doubles for the fictional island of Saint Marie, a beautiful island when you don't consider all the hideous murders that take place! On Instagram, the BBC put a photo out of the clapperboard for scene 1, take 1 of the new series. Adding: "Filming has begun this week in Guadeloupe on the brand new series of Death in Paradise.”

Don Gilet will return as DI Mervin Wilson, having made his debut in the Christmas special before continuing to lead the show in Death in Paradise season 14, which recently came to a close on BBC One.

Mervin was initially loathed by his colleagues as he belittled Saint Marie and upset everyone by being rude. However, the team began to warm to him when they heard he’d come to the island to find out the truth about his mother. Spoilers ahead if you’ve not seen the end of series 14…

So, Mervin eventually discovered his mother had been murdered! But just as he was about to go back to the UK, he found out he had a brother called Solomon Clarke.

Death in Paradise season 15 will then see Mervin most likely get to know his brother Solomon. We will also get a new commissioner after Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) decided not to continue in the post.

It continues to be an exciting time in the so-called Paraverse. After a long wait, it was recently revealed that we would be getting a second series of the Aussie spin-off Return to Paradise. That show follows ex-Home and Away star Anna Samson as DI Mackenzie Clarke, a London cop who’s forced to return home to Dolphin Cove in Australia when she’s put under investigation.

Meanwhile, Beyond Paradise season 3 is currently being shown on BBC One, featuring DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), who’s swapped Saint Marie for Devon.

Return to Paradise season 2, the latest Death in Paradise spin-off, is filming now in Australia.

The crime drama will again star former Home and Away actress Anna Samson as DI Mackenzie Clarke, a London cop who was forced to return to her hometown of Dolphin Cove in the first series.

Mackenzie had trouble getting on with her team, who included Detective Senior Constable Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith), who's also back for the second run.

Mack's cases in season 2 will take her "from the literary world to state-of-the-art shark labs, dating apps and rock concerts".

Tim Key, Executive Producer, Red Planet Pictures, who makes the show, says: "We were delighted that the world took Mack and the rest of the Australian team to their hearts and it’s a pleasure to be back on the beat with the wonderful cast and crew Down Under.

"We can promise another series full of ingenious murders, romantic complications and glorious Australian locations, all infused with the unique warmth and humor of the Paradise shows."

Here's everything we know about season 2...

Return to Paradise season 2 release date

With the second series filming now, we'd expect Return to Paradise season 2 to air in the winter of 2025 on BBC One.

It will be shown on ABC in Australia and will head to BritBox in the US.

Return to Paradise season 2 plot

Spoilers ahead if you've not seen the end of Return to Paradise season 1! So, the big twist was that Mackenzie was about to leave Dolphin Cove for London when she heard her ex, Glenn, confess to their dog that he was still in love with her. Mackenzie, that is, not the dog!

Mackenzie looked dumbfounded, and we know that she still has feelings for Glenn. So that plot is sure to develop in series 2.

The makers tease; "Series two will reunite us with Detective Sergeant Mackenzie ‘Mack’ Clarke (Anna Samson), who's longing to get back to the UK and the life she’s always craved. But for now, she's stuck in Dolphin Cove, dodging her ex-fiancée Glenn's (Tai Hara) upcoming wedding after overhearing his unexpected declaration of love in the series one finale — a confession that she can’t unhear.

"Luckily for Mack, her compulsion to solve impossible cases serves as a great distraction, and there’s no shortage of murders to investigate. From the literary world to state-of-the-art shark labs, dating apps and rock concerts, Mack and her team face challenging mysteries with their unique blend of humour and tenacity. But Mack’s biggest challenge of all? Finding a way to exist in Dolphin Cove as the ultimate outsider."

Return to Paradise season 2 cast

As mentioned, Anna Samson returns as DI Mackenzie Clarke and Lloyd Griffith as Detective Senior Constable Colin Cartwright. Also back are Tai Hara (Home and Away, Colin From Accounts, Austin) as Glenn Strong, Catherine McClements (Total Control, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries) as Senior Sergeant Philomena Strong, Celia Ireland (Wentworth, Total Control) as Reggie, Andrea Demetriades (Mother and Son, The Artful Dodger) as Daisy and Aaron McGrath (Gold Diggers, Preppers) as Constable Felix Wilkinson.

It has also been confirmed that Ardal O'Hanlon will again guest star as DI Jack Mooney. Plus Australian screen stars Danielle Cormack, Meyne Wyatt, Roz Hammond, Justine Clarke, Michelle Lim Davidson, Greg Stone, Zoe Carides, Simon Lyndon and Miah Madden also guest. Tim Rogers, the iconic lead singer of rock legends You Am I also guest stars.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Return to Paradise season 2 behind the scenes and more

Return to Paradise is shot in Australia's idyllic Illawarra coastal region, Sydney’s northern beaches, and across the city. The show is commissioned by ABC in Australia in association with the BBC and produced by BBC Studios Productions Australia and Red Planet Pictures.

The series is co-created and executive-produced by Peter Mattessi, James Hall and Robert Thorogood. Di Haddon is producer. Executive producers for BBC Studios Productions Australia are Kylie Washington and Sophia Zachariou, for Red Planet Pictures are Belinda Campbell and Tim Key and for the ABC are Rachel Okine and Brett Sleigh.

Return to Paradise season 2 has at last been officially confirmed after fears that the Aussie Death in Paradise spin-off had been axed.

Return to Paradise aired last year, and fans had hoped for a swift recommission. However, as the months went by, viewers wondered if they'd seen the last of DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson) and Detective Senior Constable Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith). However, Lloyd has tweeted out the news that the show is returning, and even more excitingly, he added that filming had already started.

Lloyd also revealed that fans are likely to see Return to Paradise season 2 on screen later this year on BBC One, while US fans will probably have to wait a little longer for it to hit BritBox.

The first series of Return to Paradise saw DI Mackenzie Clarke have to reluctantly return to Australia to her hometown of Dolphin Cove while she was under investigation in the UK. She wasn’t exactly popular in Dolphin Cove after ditching popular local boy Glenn Strong (Tai Hara).

However, her team eventually warmed to her as she solved a string of outlandish murders, including a killing at the bowls club. Spoilers ahead if you've not finished season one!

But at the end of series one, she was ready to head back to the UK after being cleared. However, season 2 has been set up perfectly because in the final moments of the last episode, she heard her ex Glenn say to their pet dog that he still loved her. It also seems clear that Mackenzie still has feelings for Glenn, so we expect their relationship to develop in the second series.

We also hope to see more of Death in Paradise legend Ardal O’Hanlon, who reprised his character, DI Jack Mooney, for the series. Mooney is Mackenzie’s boss back at New Scotland Yard, might be put in an appearance?

Return to Paradise season 2 will return later this year.

Beyond Paradise is a spin-off from Death in Paradise and the BBC has teased that it's about to follow its sister show by having a main character become a prime suspect.

While the final episode of Death in Paradise season 14 saw DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) briefly become a suspect when a body was found in his shack, Beyond Paradise will see Humphrey's fiancée Martha Lloyd, become a suspect in a spiking case.

Martha (Sally Bretton) will face accusations of poisoning a victim in episode four of the new series. The BBC teases: "It's the final day of the regatta, and rival sailors Francine and Polly are neck-and-neck for the top spot. But just as the race gets under way, disaster strikes: Polly collapses and plunges into the sea, throwing the entire race into chaos.

"When it's discovered that Polly’s smoothie had been tampered with, suspicion starts to grow. All eyes turn to Martha, the seemingly innocent smoothie maker, who now finds herself in the spotlight as an unlikely prime suspect. Martha and Humphrey, already juggling the demands of work and childcare, struggle to stay composed under new pressure.”

It's not clear whether the victim is dead or not, but it means Martha is facing very serious accusations either way. Is Beyond Paradise about to throw in the ultimate twist by seeing Humphrey proving his fiancée is a criminal? Could this be the end for the couple?

Or can Kris Marshall's character prove that someone else was behind the attack? Death in Paradise fans will remember that lead characters have faced murder accusations in the show, including Mervin, as mentioned, but also DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little), who was stitched up by his evil girlfriend Sophie.

Neville eventually proved his innocence. Interestingly, in the first ever episode of Death in Paradise one of the leading characters did end up being the killer! DI Richard Poole (Ben Miller)investigated the murder of DI Charlie Hulme (Hugo Speer) and eventually proved that one of his officers, Lily Thomson (Lenora Crichlow), was the killer.

We suspect that Humphrey will prove that Martha isn't behind the spiking but you never know! It will certainly be a great twist if she turned out to be evil!

Beyond Paradise season 3 continues on Fridays. Episode 4, where Martha is accused, will air on BBC One on Friday, April 18 at 8 pm on BBC One.

Death in Paradise season 15 will see Don Gilet return as DI Mervin Wilson for a fresh set of murder cases.

Mervin has done little but complain since he arrived in Saint Marie, but he has been slowly warming (well, a little!) to island life. The crime hit, which started in 2011 and is one of the BBC's best dramas, continues to be a huge success globally for the broadcaster.

There's good news as the BBC has revealed that filming has started in April 2025. Shooting will take place in Guadeloupe, which doubles for the fictional island of Saint Marie, over the next few months.

Here's everything we know about Death in Paradise season 15. Please note the plot sections contain spoilers if you've not seen the final episode of Death in Paradise season 14 yet…

Death in Paradise season 15 release date

Death in Paradise season 15 is filming now, and the BBC has confirmed via the show's official social media account that it will be back next winter. So it's highly likely that Death in Paradise season 15 will begin in January 2026 on BBC One. US viewers will have to wait a little longer for it to arrive on BritBox.

There will also be a Death in Paradise Christmas special again, which will, of course, air over the Christmas period.

Death in Paradise season 15 plot

The big bombshell in the final moments of the latest series of Death in Paradise was The Commissioner telling Mervin he has a brother called Solomon Clarke. Mervin was intrigued when a mystery person called "S" left flowers at his mother's grave, and the Commissioner discovered that "S" was Solomon.

Mervin had wanted to leave Saint Marie, but he's obviously going to have to stay now to meet his brother and find out more about him.

Beyond that, the big news was The Commissioner's decision not to take his old job back. So he's just Selwyn now. He’s off on his travels, and that obviously leaves the job of The Commissioner open. After the debacle with Sterling Fox, the bosses know they need someone to look after the island's policing, so this opens the way for a new person to join the show.

We're hoping the new series might give a bit more for Naomi to do. Naomi and Mervin enjoyed some great scenes together in the latest series but it would be good for the character to be developed further. Meanwhile, Seb has passed his probation and is now a firm member of the team, mentored by Darlene.

Death in Paradise season 15 cast

While no official casting has been announced as yet Don Gilet will clearly be back as DI Mervin Wilson. Shantol Jackson is also expected back as DS Naomi Thomas, along with Ginny Holder as Officer Darlene Curtis and Shaquille Ali-Yebuah as Sebastian Rose. Plus, Elizabeth Bourgine will return as Catherine Bordey. However, it’s unclear if Don Warrington will feature at all as Selwyn Patterson. It's also unknown if Danny John-Jules will return as Officer Dwayne Myers.

The guest cast will be announced much nearer the time. It will be interesting to see who is cast as Mervin's brother.

Will we get a crossover with Beyond Paradise or Return to Paradise?

We don’t know at this stage, but fingers crossed. There wasn’t a crossover in the previous series, but as the makers have now made a thing saying the three shows are part of the Paraverse, we're hoping there might be some overlap.

Return to Paradise season 2 is officially happening, so perhaps DI Mackenzie Clarke could hop over from Dolphin Cove and turn up at Catherine's Bar? Maybe Humphrey from Beyond Paradise could show up too? Perhaps they could all solve a case together!

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 8 sees a number of characters at a crossroads, as DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) attempts to leave Saint Marie once again, only to find yet another obstacle keeping him on the island just a little longer — perhaps long enough to consider making his stay a more permanent one.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington), having officially been offered his job back, considers what his future holds — but what will his decision be?

Read on to discover what happened in the finale of Death in Paradise season 14...

As a paperboy rides through Saint Marie delivering the latest edition of the local paper (front page headline: NEW COMMISSIONER ALMOST LETS KILLER WALK FREE, while an editorial inside asks IS STERLING FOX UP TO THE JOB?), DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) talks in voiceover to his late mother Dorna (Judith Jacob), saying that he finally caught her killer, and he wonders if he might even have been able to save her if he'd got here sooner.

We see DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) and Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) officially closing the Dorna Bray case file and putting it into the filing cabinet at the police station, before we finally get to Mervin at his mum's grave, telling her he's heading back home to London. He places some flowers on her grave and tells his mum that he hopes she can find some peace now, before popping his hat back on and walking away.

Back at the beach shack, Mervin is packing up his cases and loading them into a cab while talking to a friend back in London, seeing if he wants to meet for a curry when he gets back — although his friend seems to have a fairly busy social calendar. Mervin closes and locks all the doors and shutters, says goodbye to Harry the lizard, ends his phone call, and takes one last look at the shack before closing and locking the door.

At the police station, Mervin says goodbye and thank you to the team — and Darlene and Naomi affectionately tease him that they're not used to hearing him say "thank you". Mervin confirms he is genuinely grateful for their help in solving his mum's case, and Naomi tells him she's glad they could help. Mervin asks if there's any news about the Commissioner's job, and Darlene says that he's gone to Jamaica today to have lunch with the chief, which Mervin perceives as a good sign. He hands over his keys, just as Sadie Jones (Insomnia's Lyndsey Marshal) walks in saying that she needs to report a missing person. Mervin leaves, looking slightly bereft that there's a case kicking off that he won't be a part of. (A true case of be careful what you wish for, there.)

At the airport, Mervin is on the phone to his boss, saying how much he's looking forward to starting back at work, when an announcement comes over the PA system asking him to report to the information desk. There's a call for him, from Naomi, informing him that a body has been found... on the floor in the beach shack.

When Mervin returns to the shack, his first question is who this person on the floor is. Naomi says that they're still waiting on a formal ID, but they believe she's Rosa Martinez (The South Westerlies star Lily Nichol), a volunteer at the Marabar Turtle Conservancy, which is 12km away. Sadie, who runs the conservancy, took all the volunteers out for work last night, and Rosa didn't turn up for work this morning, nor was her bed slept in. She thought it was out of character, which is why she came to the police station to report Rosa missing.

There was no answer when she tried calling Rosa's phone, and it doesn't seem to be anywhere in the shack either. There's bruising around Rosa's neck, implying that she was strangled. Her body was found by the cleaner, who picked up the keys from the station. Mervin's befuddled: he locked the shack thoroughly before he left and there was no one here at the time. Naomi asks him if he's sure about that, and Mervin insists that he's positive. Darlene says that there are no signs of forced entry, and Mervin starts to inspect the body before Naomi firmly tells him to stop — since Mervin was the last person in the shack before the body was discovered, he's officially a suspect.

A little while later, Mervin is sitting outside the shack being questioned by Naomi — and it's not a huge surprise that he doesn't adapt especially well to being on the other side of the table for once. He says that his cab driver came in and picked up Mervin's bag before he locked up at 9:30 am, so will be able to confirm that nobody else was there, that he and Naomi saw each other when he came to the police station to drop his keys off immediately afterwards, and then he went straight to the airport.

Naomi says that the cleaner got to the shack at around 10:30 am, so we're looking at about an hour's window in which the body turned up. Mervin's brain is already racking through all the potential scenarios: Rosa was killed either inside the shack, or killed outside and then left in the shack — but the bit that doesn't make sense in either scenario is that the door was locked from the inside, so how did the killer get out? Mervin says that "we" need to speak to the cleaner to check her story out, and Naomi informs him that there is currently no "we" in this situation, not until Mervin has been properly eliminated from their inquiries. Mervin's frustrated at the prospect of a murder that he's not allowed to investigate — almost as much as when he had to take down his satellite dish and wasn't able to watch Day Of The Match (thanks, Naomi!) any more.

Inside, Darlene and Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) are processing the crime scene, and Seb tentatively brings up the matter of him nearing the end of his probation period — tomorrow, in fact. Darlene admits that the fact slipped her mind, since there's been so much going on recently, but promises to speak to Mervin about it, since he's still technically their boss while he's on the island. Seb's taking photos of the corpse when he notices something on Rosa's hand.

Naomi confirms Mervin's alibi with the cab driver, officially eliminating him from the inquiry. She assumes he'd want to get the next flight back to London, but Mervin's already full of excitement for the unsolved case; besides, he's already missed his flight. (Really starting to think that Saint Marie is like the Village from classic 1960s TV show The Prisoner; I wouldn't be the least surprised to see Mervin being pursued by Rover the balloon next time he tries to get to the airport.)

Mervin and Naomi head to the Marabar Turtle Conservancy to speak to Sadie and her husband Callum (Bridgerton's Rupert Young). Sadie says that Rosa had been with them for about three months, and she thinks Rosa was from Belize; Callum admits that they have around 30 volunteers at any time, and it's not always easy to keep track of them.

Sadie says that Rosa was quiet and diligent, and spent most of her time at the conservancy — she doesn't think she knew anyone else locally. Sadie explains that they went for some drinks at Stingrays the previous night for one of the volunteers' birthdays, and the next morning the girls in the hut saw that Rosa's bed hadn't been slept in — and that she'd also missed her morning beach patrol. Mervin asks what exactly that involves, and Sadie tells him that they closely monitor the turtle nests around the clock to protect the eggs from poachers and predators. Callum adds that they've been here around 10 years — he was in the UK before that, but felt that he could make more of an impact in Saint Marie. It seems he was right, because since arriving, there's been an increase of 27% in Saint Marie's turtle population. (Although there's just been a decrease of approximately 3% in the number of alive volunteers at the conservancy, which isn't great.)

After finishing with Callum and Sadie, Mervin and Naomi catch up with Seb and Darlene, and Seb tells him that he found something interesting: the number 4431C was written faintly in biro on Rosa's hand. Mervin sends Seb and Darlene to Rosa's room to see if they can find what the number refers to, while he and Naomi will go and speak to the other volunteers. On the way to Rosa's room, Seb is stopped by one of those other volunteers, Estelle Laroche (Magpie Murders' Nia Anisah), who's kind of flirty. Seb gets very shy around her pretty quickly, but Darlene has no time for any of this nonsense.

Meanwhile, Naomi's got something that could be a lead: one of the catering staff heard Rosa and Estelle arguing yesterday, after Estelle found Rosa in her room. Rosa claimed she was there to ask about swapping shifts, but Estelle accused Rosa of stalking her. That ties in with something that Darlene found while searching Rosa's room: a copy of the rota with circles around Estelle's name every time she's on the list.

Mervin and Naomi check in with Estelle, who says Rosa was "weird" — she asked lots of questions but gave nothing away. She admits that the stalking accusation might have been a little extreme, and explains that Rosa seemed lonely when she first arrived, so Estelle took her out a few times, but she became a bit too attached. and then she found Rosa in her room, so she was obviously alarmed. However, Estelle claims they quickly made up after that fight, with a little help from tequila.

The team review a video taken by Callum featuring the Marabar volunteers (and some very cute baby sea turtles!), where he's explaining that the baby turtles imprint on the beach so that they can find their way back when they're fully grown to nest their own eggs. Rosa's impressed — except she's not Rosa, apparently. Naomi and Darlene have discovered that there's no record of a "Rosa Martinez" entering or leaving Saint Marie in the last year, and none of the Rosa Martinezes from Belize that they've found are a match for the victim.

Mervin and the team review the suspects so far, and Darlene insists that she knows Valerie, the cleaner who found the body, and that she wouldn't hurt a fly. (I love that a character witness from Darlene is apparently enough to completely eliminate you from the inquiry, even though she's been wrong before.) Callum, a marine biologist from Bristol, set the conservancy in 2012, and apparently the organisation's finances are in poor shape. Sadie grew up in Manchester, originally came to Saint Marie as a volunteer, and ended up staying. She does have a criminal record, and spent time in prison for fraud in 2008. Estelle was born in Saint Marie, has been working at the conservancy for a couple of years, and looks after her father who has Parkinson's. Seb's charmed by this revelation and, it seems, by Estelle in general. Mervin says they still need to know who wanted to kill Rosa, how her body ended up in the shack, and why her body was there. Naomi wonders if it was intended as a message to Mervin, or to the police in general, but there's no indication of a connection between Rosa and any of them. She also raises another important issue: where's Mervin going to sleep tonight? Mervin seems alarmed the offer to stay at Seb's mum's house, so Naomi suggests an alternative.

Of course, she's booked him in at Catherine's Bar, where Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine) is checking to see if Mervin's settled in. He asks if she has an ironing service, and she warns him not to push his luck. She tells Mervin that she's pleased he's still around, and she's here for anything he might need — bar the ironing. Mervin thanks her, and says he won't forget what she did for his mother's case. Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) arrives, in casual clothes with a big smile on his face, and says that he's been offered his job back.

Catherine gives him a hug, and he asks Mervin if he still intends to leave Saint Marie once the case is solved. Mervin says that "short of a hurricane", there's nothing to keep him here (bit unwise of him to tempt fate like that, given how all of his previous attempts to fly home have gone). Catherine ushers Mervin over to the seating area, and asks Selwyn if he would like some champagne to celebrate. Selwyn declines, and Catherine reminds him that the Chief Commissioner treated him very badly — but he won in the end.

The next day, Mervin returns to the shack, which is still cordoned off with crime scene tape. He heads inside to inspect it with a torch, and notices something of interest on the bookcase: a postcard sent to DI Neville Parker from his sister Izzy. (If anyone's collecting Death in Paradise trivia, the shack's address is 1 Beach Road, 1450 Honoré, Saint Marie.) A little while later, Naomi arrives at Catherine's, where a somewhat disgruntled Catherine informs her that Neville is currently in the kitchen, instructing her chef how to make a full English. Right on cue, Mervin emerges with his breakfast and he tells Naomi about the postcard: when he left the shack, the picture of Manchester on the front was facing outwards, but when he went back, it was the other way around. It's the only thing in the shack that seemed to be out of place, so Naomi plans to dust it for prints and see what comes up. Naomi, meanwhile, did a search for Rosa Martinez with all the travel agencies, and discovered that she was booked on a plane to Belize last week — and Sadie was the one who booked the ticket.

Over at the station, Seb is still trying to work out the relevance of "4431C": he's ruled out it being a postcode or a telephone number, and it's unlikely to be the number of one of the turtle nests since Marabar only log them with numbers, not letters. Darlene tells him that she has spoken to Mervin about his probation review, and he said that they will discuss it once the case is solved. Mervin and Naomi arrive, and Darlene hands Mervin the post-mortem that confirms strangulation as the cause of Rosa's death, with a time of death somewhere between 9am and 11am. There were lacerations to her head, caused by a blunt object, which show traces of orange fiberglass. Darlene says that fiberglass is used to make things like surfboards and hot tubs. She also adds that she paid a visit to Stingrays bar, where Rosa was having drinks with the other volunteers the night before she died; upon checking the CCTV, she saw Rosa in a clinch with Callum.

Callum turns up at that moment, and explains that he and Rosa were freeing a turtle named Dorothy from some netting one night, and got unexpectedly close, which led to the two of them sleeping together. He says that he and Sadie have an open marriage (or, in his words, "we go by the rules of the animal kingdom"), and the fact that he was sleeping with Rosa wasn't particularly a secret. Naomi asks if this was the reason Sadie wanted Rosa to leave, and Callum says no; it was a financial issue arising from Rosa not having paid for her stay at the conservancy. Mervin decides that they need to go and check Callum's account of events against Sadie's.

As it turns out, Callum wasn't lying: Sadie knows he sleeps with the volunteers sometimes, and she does it as well. Although she bought a ticket for Rosa to go back to Belize, it had nothing to do with Callum: Rosa hadn't paid for her accommodation, and she refused to hand over her passport for an ID check, so Sadie asked her to leave. When Rosa said she didn't have any money, Sadie paid for her plane ticket home — but Rosa told her a story about a bad ex who would make it dangerous for her to go home, so Sadie relented. She insists that Rosa's murder has nothing to do with her or Callum, but Mervin and Naomi aren't convinced. Naomi wonders why Rosa was so keen to hide her identity.

Mervin gets a brainwave, and Naomi finds him in Rosa's room, under the bed. He explains that when he was growing up in care homes, the other kids were always nicking his things, so he would hide anything precious between the slats and the mattress. Sure enough, that's where he finds "Rosa"'s passport, which reveals her real name as Leah Francis, as well as the fact that she's from Dominica, not Belize. This helps the team to pull together a clearer picture of her: she's 28, an only child whose parents are both dead, and worked as a journalist for a news website called Project Classified, focusing on investigative stories. She told her boss that she was here working on a story, so could that be why she was killed?

Meanwhile, Seb's had a breakthrough with the number written on Leah's hand: part of it had been rubbed off, so it was actually 44310, not 4431C. He read Callum's research proposal that he submitted to the council, and noticed that there was a map of the coast inside — and 44310 refers to one of the buoys just off Saint Marie. But what was the significance of that particular buoy to Leah? Mervin adds that now that they know Leah was a journalist, they can assume she wasn't stalking Estelle but trying to get information out of her. Seb thinks this has to be a coincidence, because Estelle doesn't seem like the type to be involved in anything dodgy. (His eyes don't actually turn into giant love hearts when he says this, but they might as well.) Mervin suggests that Darlene and Seb go down to the beach when Estelle is on duty again tonight and see what they can find out, and Darlene offers to speak to the coastguard about the buoy on the way.

Mervin's staying late in the office, rewatching the video of Leah, when Selwyn comes to see him and suggests that a break from the case might help him to see things more clearly. They head out onto the veranda for a beer and "one of Winston's accras", which Selwyn offers from a paper bag.

Mervin tries one and is moderately impressed, which is pretty high praise coming from him. Selwyn mentions that Winston, the current operator of the accra stand, is part of a long dynasty, and Mervin admits he was always jealous of families like that when he was growing up. Selwyn asks Mervin why he decided to look for his mother, and Mervin says he spends his working life trying to solve problems — but outside of work, there's always been a big question mark about who he was. When he was little, he'd wonder about his parents, and whether they had anything in common, but there was always an emptiness inside him that never went away. He came to Saint Marie to try and resolve that, and feels that he has, "in some ways". Selwyn gently notes that Mervin has opened the door onto his past, but seems to be closing it again and walking away. Mervin explains that he knows where he comes from now, and why his mum gave him up — now he's planning to go back to how things were before. He says his life is predictable — eat, sleep, work, repeat — but Selwyn suggests that it doesn't have to be. He asks Mervin to reconsider his decision to go back to London, because he thinks he's at the beginning of his journey, not the end.

Darlene and Seb are carrying out their late-night stakeout, when Seb spots lights down by the water. He goes to investigate, and the light is coming from a torch held by Estelle (not nearly as bright as the torch Seb is carrying for her, eh? Eh?), who says she saw lights on down here and came to check for trespassers, since they've had a few of them recently. She says that the barrier has come loose, and asks Seb to hold her torch while she goes to get some wires to fix it. Except that's not what she's planning at all: she disappears and doesn't come back.

The next day, Mervin goes back to his mother's grave to ask her for some advice, since he's thinking about staying in Saint Marie on a more permanent basis, since he thinks it's probably a bad idea. He notices some fresh flowers that have been left there, and fishes out the card that's with them. It reads, 'Rest in peace. S."

Mervin arrives at the police station, telling Naomi about the mysterious "S" — he says there's no one in his mum's address book who fits the bill, and he's confirmed with Selwyn that the flowers weren't left by him either. Naomi suggests looking into Dorna's life in Antigua to see if that explains who "S" is, but Mervin admits he's reluctant to open another whole can of worms just when he thought he'd tied everything up. Darlene emerges from inside and says that Seb hasn't shown up for work, and isn't answering his phone. She's just spoken to her niece, who spotted him at a bubble tea café in Port Royale. She thinks Seb's upset about letting Estelle escape last night, because he thinks he's let Mervin down. Mervin tells her to wait there, and that he'll go and speak to Seb.

At the bubble tea café, Seb says he knew it would only be a matter of time before he messed up again: he's been trying and trying, but he's still getting things wrong. Mervin asks him why he wanted to be a police officer in the first place, and Seb says that his mother was always on at him to get off the sofa and make something of himself. Of all the jobs that existed on the island, he thought being a police officer looked cool — and he has been enjoying it, because for the first time in his life he's doing something important, but he thinks he doesn't fit in. Mervin assures him that that's not true — he tells Seb that he just needs to give it time. Mervin adds that Seb deserves to pass his probation, and that he believes Seb has the making of a great police officer, because he's hard-working and he really cares. Seb thanks him, and Mervin suggests they work on recovering last night's mishap. Seb says that the conservancy's boat wasn't moored on the beach last night, so maybe they can get a search warrant, look for evidence, and bring Estelle in for questioning. Mervin's impressed with his thinking.

Seb and Darlene are searching the boat, but haven't found anything useful. Seb attempts to apologise for what happened earlier, and Darlene tells him there's no need: he just needs to promise it won't happen again. Then she spots an orange fiberglass boat hook on the deck, just like the shards that were found in the wound on Leah's head, and tells Seb that they need to speak to Estelle — fast.

Back at the police station, Mervin has just finished speaking to his mum's old neighbour in Antigua, who said a man named Solomon Clarke was looking for her a few months ago; he was an ex-pupil, who wasn't aware that she'd died. So presumably he came to Saint Marie to pay his respects for the final time — case closed, unusually quickly. Seb and Darlene arrive with Estelle, who's a little bit reluctant to co-operate — but when Naomi warns her that means she's looking at a harsher sentence, Estelle cracks and reveals that she's been helping Sadie sell turtle eggs on the black market.

Mervin and Naomi go to speak to Sadie, who admits that she's been secretly shipping the turtle eggs out on the boat and selling them to traffickers who take them to Dominica and then export them all over the world to be eaten, kept as pets, or even used as ingredients in cosmetics. (Blee.) It's all connected to the conservancy's financial issues: she started it six months ago as a way of making some quick cash to keep them afloat, but once she got into it, she couldn't stop. You might think that selling turtle eggs on the black market in order to keep your turtle conservancy running rather defeats the point, but it seems it was about more than that for Sadie: she was in a bad place before she came to Saint Marie, and she didn't want to lose what she had there with Callum.

Sadie was out at sea doing a drop-off (by buoy number 44310, the regular meeting place) when she heard a noise and found Leah on the boat taking photos. Leah admitted to being a journalist, and Sadie tried to grab her phone. Leah went to dive into the ocean and Sadie grabbed the boat hook, intending to use it to block Leah and keep her on the boat, but accidentally hit her on the head. She tried to save her, but couldn't, and had assumed Leah had drowned. She doesn't know how Leah ended up in the shack, and insists she isn't a murderer. Naomi tells Sadie that she and Estelle will both be charged with illegal trafficking, and Sadie will also be charged with illegal assault.

The team are still puzzled by how Leah ended up in the shack, 12km away from where the boat was when she was hit on the head — especially when it was locked. And there's the matter of the postcard, which didn't yield any leads because they were only able to draw partial prints from it. Mervin goes for a walk to clear his head, and runs into Selwyn outside, who asks about "S". Mervin tells him that "S" is Solomon Clarke, his mum's ex-pupil from Antigua, and Selwyn asks if Mervin spoke to him. Mervin says he didn't have time to listen to some random's stories when he's leaving for London soon. Selwyn confirms that Mervin has definitely decided to leave the island, and Mervin tells him that he just doesn't fit in there, just like how nothing fits in this case, where all the pieces are there, but back-to-front.

The words "back-to-front" make him think about the postcard, and consider the possibility that he's been looking at it all wrong. He assumed the killer looked at it — but what if it was the victim? He wonders what she might have been looking at, and Selwyn suggests she was looking at the address. Suddenly, everything clicks into place in Mervin's head, and he tells Selwyn that he's a genius. "It has been said," muses Selwyn.

Mervin and Naomi gather Callum, Sadie and Estelle together at the conservancy, and Mervin wastes no time in exposing Callum as Leah's killer. After Sadie hit Leah, she fell off the boat and into the sea and lost consciousness, waking up the next morning, having been washed 12km up the coast by the tide to the beach where the shack is. Dehydrated and disoriented, she wandered into the shack, entering through the open veranda doors while Mervin was carrying his suitcase out to the taxi. Mervin assumes that when he came back in to close and lock the veranda doors, Leah must have been in the bathroom, getting water. When she emerged to find the shack locked up and deserted, she looked at the postcard to find the address of the building she was in, and called Callum — the one person she still trusted — to let him know where she was. That's why there was no sign of forced entry at the shack: Leah let Callum in voluntarily.

Darlene has checked Callum's phone and discovered lots of texts between him and Leah confirming their affair, as well as the call from Leah's phone the morning of her murder. Callum reluctantly admits that when he went down to the shack to pick Leah up, she told him who she really was, and that she'd been working on a story about the conservancy. Leah was going to go public with the story, and even though she promised to keep Callum's name out of it, he knew he couldn't let it happen. Naomi posits that Sadie knew Callum's relationship with Leah was more than just the casual flings he had with the other volunteers, and that's why Sadie tried to make her leave — but Callum refused to get rid of her. Callum says that he asked Leah not to publish the story if she truly cared for him, but she told him she had to do it.

At that point, he started thinking that she wasn't really interested in him, and was only getting close to him in her pursuit of the story. Enraged, he strangled her to death, and then went to lock the front door so that nobody would catch him clearing up the crime scene to remove any traces of his prints. He took Leah's phone, and hid behind the front door when Valerie the cleaner opened it. Valerie was so horrified at the sight of Leah's body that she didn't notice Callum quietly slipping out of the shack through the front door. Darlene cuffs Callum and arrests him. (Arresting three people as a result of one investigation must be doing wonders for Honoré Police's crime-solving figures.)

The team retreats to Catherine's Bar to celebrate a job well done — and Seb passing his probation — with one of her special cocktails. Selwyn arrives in a taxi, and Catherine realises almost instantly that he's there to tell her he's not accepting the offer of his old job back. She asks why not, after he fought so hard to get it back, and Selwyn says he's not entirely sure, but it felt wrong: too much has happened, and he couldn't see a way to getting things back to how they were before. He's taking some time to go and visit his daughter Andrina, and then he's going to see what happens after that. He asks Catherine to promise him that she'll look after herself, and his team, and Catherine in turn makes him promise that this isn't "farewell", but "au revoir".

Selwyn gets back into the taxi and heads to the police station, where Mervin is just locking up. Mervin goes to hand back his keys to Selwyn, ready to return to London, but Selwyn has some news for him: earlier today he called Solomon Clarke, because he thought it was too important an opportunity to pass up. Mervin insists that he's done with Saint Marie, but Selwyn gives Mervin Solomon's phone number and drops a bombshell: Solomon is Mervin's brother. Selwyn departs in his taxi, leaving Mervin on the veranda of the police station, taking in everything he's just learned.

So, that's it for Death in Paradise season 14, but there's so much left to explore if the show returns for a 15th season: will Mervin reach out to his long-lost brother? Who will be the new Commissioner? How will Seb fare as a fully-qualified police officer? And just what does Catherine put in those potent cocktails of hers? Let's hope we find out...

The long-awaited finale of Death in Paradise season 14 will see DI Mervin Wilson accused of murder, just like his predecessor DI Neville Parker.

Neville (Ralf Little) was infamously set up by his revengeful girlfriend Sophie (Chelsea Edge) before eventually clearing his name towards the end of series 12.

Now, history seems to be repeating itself on Saint Marie as Mervin finds himself becoming a murder suspect just as he prepares to leave the island. But unlike Neville, there's no revengeful girlfriend involved.

Instead, the body of Rosa Martinez (Renegade Nell's Lily Nichol), a volunteer at the Marabar Turtle Conservancy, is found in Neville's beach shack. With Mervin being the last person in the shack, he becomes an obvious suspect, and he is strongly told by his colleagues that he can't get involved in the case until his name is cleared.

Don Gilet says: "He naturally clicks into detective mode — not realising that he can't do that because this is his house, he was the last one to leave it, and he is at this very moment a suspect!"

Obviously, Mervin struggles to sit out the investigation. "Yes, he doesn't want to do it! First there was the whole thing of him trying to find his mum, then the next thing you know, he's looking for her killer, and now he's tied up with another crime," explains Don. "It's great the way they've intertwined the cases with his personal life, and there’s nothing more personal than somebody turning up dead in his house!"

The other big mystery in the finale is whether Don Warrington leaves as The Commissioner. The Commissioner ensured that Mervin managed to find his mother’s killer, seeing off the attempts made by his replacement, Sterling Fox, to block the case. Fox's future is in doubt after his mistakes over the case, but will that mean The Commissioner will be asked to stay? And even if he is asked, will The Commissioner want to carry on?

The picture above of Selwyn and Catherine hints at The Commissioner possibly departing, but you will just have to watch the finale to find out.

The Death in Paradise finale airs on Friday, March 28 at 9.00 pm on BBC One. Also, on Friday, Beyond Paradise season 3 begins on BBC One at 8 pm.

The finale of Death in Paradise season 14 has been cancelled tonight due to the BBC screening Comic Relief instead.

In huge frustration for Death in Paradise fans awaiting the final episode of the series, the BBC has given over the whole evening to Comic Relief.

It all means a long wait to find out what's happening to DI Mervin Wilson. We know from teasers that Mervin is just about to fly home when he finds himself at the heart of a murder case when a body is discovered in the shack. Mervin insists he's innocent and the team must work out how the victim ended up inside a locked building with no sign of forced entry.

Explaining how Mervin reacts, star Don Gilet tells us: "He naturally clicks into detective mode — not realising that he can't do that because this is his house, he was the last one to leave it, and he is at his very moment a suspect!

"I think it's a very delicate line to straddle the comedic quirks in a show where people are being killed, but these moments are really rewarding if they're played out right. It’s great to see him suddenly go from one side of his job to the other."

And of course, Mervin struggles to sit out the investigation. "Yes, he doesn't want to do it! First, there was the whole thing of him trying to find his mum, then the next thing you know he's looking for her killer, and now he's tied up with another crime. It's great the way they’ve intertwined the cases with his personal life, and there's nothing more personal than somebody turning up dead in his house.”

The body found in the shack is that of Rosa Martinez (Renegade Nell's Lily Nichol), who has been volunteering at a turtle conservancy. So, who murdered her and why? We should also discover if Don Warrington is leaving Death in Paradise as The Commissioner. In episode seven he came to the rescue when Sterling Fox tried to block Mervin's investigation into his mother's death. But The Commissioner's job on Saint Marie is still no more and that could spell the end for the character on the show. The makers have teased that Selwyn will deliver some personal news to Mervin that turns everything on its head but we don’t know what that is.

Death in Paradise season 14 concludes on Friday, March 28 at 9 pm. Meanwhile, Beyond Paradise season 3 begins on Friday, March 28 at 8 pm (see our TV Guide for full listings).

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 7 will go down as one of the show's best-ever episodes largely due to Don Gilet's brilliant performance as DI Mervin Wilson.

The 58-year-old joined the cast at Christmas and ever since the long-running BBC hit has felt like it's been building up to something great and episode 7 saw it deliver on that promise. I will certainly be adding it to our best Death in Paradise episodes list.

Initially, when Mervin turned up on Saint Marie he came across as just a bit of a grouch who enjoyed taking a swipe at the island whenever he could much to the frustration of his colleagues.

But slowly we learned about Mervin's past and that he was on the island to find his mother, Dorna Bray (Judith Jacob). Discovering she had died, he then started to suspect she'd been murdered and in episode 7 he set about finding her killer. I won't spoil what happened but Don gives a superb performance, giving real depth to the character and making this normally gentle series very emotional especially when he discovers Dorna's true feelings about him. Imagine never knowing if your mother loved you or not and then finally finding out.

But it was more than just that. The whole episode felt like a series back on song. At times Death in Paradise has been drifting along merrily in the Caribbean, enjoyable enough but perhaps not reaching the heights it once did. Personally, I fell in love with the show right at the start, with Ben Miller's grumpy DI Richard Poole and Mervin is certainly like Richard in many ways.

What makes a good Death in Paradise episode?

There's the essential question of what actually makes a great Death in Paradise episode? Well, firstly you need a good murder mystery. And episode 7 certainly gave us that. How on earth could Mervin's mum have been murdered when she went out to sea on her own in a boat during a storm? In a nice twist, the episode switched up the normal format of the detective having four or five suspects, to instead having just one, Roy Palmer (Gerard Horan). But was Mervin right or could someone else have done it?

Secondly, Death in Paradise thrives on humor, and in between all the emotional scenes, the episode had a lot of laughs mainly provided by Sterling Fox, The Commissioner's replacement. There was a nice early scene where Naomi spots Sterling and says: "Oh no, please not him." When hearing Sterling's going to be in Saint Marie for the next few days, Mervin quips: "Well, aren't we the lucky ones". But the funniest scene occurs after Sterling shuts down Mervin's investigation.

Selwyn, fully dressed back up in his Commissioner's gear, marches up to Sterling outside the police station and promptly arrests him for criminal damage to his car, thus giving Mervin a chance to find his mum's killer. Sterling has been a great addition to the show and I hope we see more of him.

Thirdly, Death in Paradise needs a great support cast and one of the beauties of Don Gilet's performance is it's lifted the rest of the cast. Shantol Jackson's character Naomi has become more interesting now she can react to Mervin's rudeness and the pair have a spark. We should mention that guest actor Gerard Horan, best known as Terry in the comedy Detectorists, also gave a fine performance as Roy Palmer, leaving you wondering right until the end what his true motives were.

Death in Paradise has been a remarkable success, but to survive it needs to reinvent itself and thankfully for fans Don Gilet's arrival has given it new life and purpose.

We can't wait until the season finale, although on that note it's been delayed a week due to Comic Relief airing. Instead, it will air on Friday, March 28. And it sees Mervin prepare to fly home when a body is found in the shack making him a possible suspect...

Death in Paradise season 14 and the past seasons are available to watch now on BBC iPlayer. You can watch the series in America via BritBox.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 7 finally brings us closure on the mystery that's been plaguing DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) all season: what happened to his mother, Dorna Bray (Judith Jacob), before he came to Saint Marie?

It's a tough, intensely personal case — made harder by the fact that new boss Sterling Fox (Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge), with his eye primarily on the departmental finances, thinks the investigation is unnecessary and wants to shut it down, so the team is facing a race against time. But luckily an old ally is on hand to keep Sterling at bay for as long as possible...

Here's what happened in Death in Paradise season 14 episode 7...

We begin six months in the past, on what seems like a normal morning for Dorna Bray. She gets up, sweeps the porch, leafs through the post and talks to the urn containing her father's ashes, wondering if it's finally time to scatter him. She checks the weather report and spots that there is a storm forecast, but she thinks they'll be all right. She gets into her car with the urn and drives away.

Some time later, there's a storm in full swing and Dorna makes a panicked phone call to the coastguard, saying that she's out at sea and doesn't know where she is. Later still, after the storm passes, we see Dorna's body being zipped into a body bag at the harbour, as Roy Palmer (Gerard Horan) watches from a distance, before turning and walking away.

At the police station, DI Mervin Wilson sets up an incident board for his mother's murder, while Officers Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) carry out a search of Dorna's house. Given that they currently have no weapons, suspects or any motive for Dorna's killing, Seb wonders what exactly they're looking for, and Darlene admits she doesn't know, but perhaps they'll know when they find it.

Meanwhile, DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) is speaking to Dorna's friend and neighbour, Brianna Clemetson (Joy Richardson), who's surprised that Dorna's death is now being treated as a suspected murder, but is happy to answer any questions. Mervin calls Naomi's mobile, and she sends him to voicemail while she's finishing up with Brianna, only for Mervin to then call Darlene and Seb trying to get hold of her. "How is he even doing that?!" Naomi wonders.

The answer: Mervin's at the station, using the landline with one ear and his mobile with the other. He tells Naomi he needs her at the station because he's found something of interest, and hangs up while she's still talking. Naomi returns to the station, where Mervin shows her Dorna's phone records showing a lot of calls and texts to Roy Palmer. Mervin and Naomi recognise him as the owner of the Fishing Net bar they were at the previous night, and Mervin says that he's had transcripts of the text exchanges between Dorna and Roy sent over. The messages suggest that they were friends, but the last message from Dorna to Roy particularly caught his eye: "Thanks for coming by. It was good to talk" - sent two hours before she drowned, meaning Roy's a potential new witness.

Another flashback to six months previously: Roy Palmer is waking up and opening a lot of final demands that came in the mail. He listens to the radio, which warns of the Category 4 storm coming and advising everyone not to go out to sea today. He goes round to Dorna's house, saying that he woke up thinking about her dad and wanted to check in to see how she was doing. Dorna invites him in for iced tea.

Back in the present, Mervin is speaking to Roy about Dorna: Roy says that Dorna's dad Ervin was a regular at his bar, and when Ervin developed dementia, Dorna moved back in with him. He used to check in on Ervin regularly and tried to be there for Dorna too after Ervin's death.

Mervin asks him about the text, and whether Dorna mentioned her intention to scatter her father's ashes that day. Roy says Dorna said that it was playing on her mind that she hadn't done it yet, but that was all. He adds that if he'd known she was planning to do it that day, he'd have warned her against going out to sea with a storm coming.

Mervin clarifies: did Dorna specifically say she was going to scatter her father's ashes at sea? Roy's vague on the details, but assumes she must have. Mervin points out that Dorna applied for a permit to scatter her dad's ashes on the beach two days before she died, so he's wondering at what point she changed her mind. Roy says that now he thinks about it, he suspects it was in that last week. As Mervin gets up to leave, Roy asks why he believes that Dorna going out to sea and drowning in a storm was anything other than a terrible accident. Mervin leaves the bar, clearly suspicious of Roy.

Six months earlier, Dorna is pouring some iced tea for Roy and telling him that she doesn't know if she's ready to say a final goodbye to her father. He tells her he felt the same when his mother passed, but when he finally scattered her ashes, it felt like it was a release for both of them. They sip their tea, and then later we see Dorna getting into her car with the urn and driving away, while Roy follows behind, unseen, at a slight distance in his own car. Dorna arrives at the harbor and gets out of the car with Roy watching on, encouraging her to keep going.

In the police station, Mervin is listening to Dorna's distress call again when Darlene returns. He asks her to check the GPS on Dorna's phone to confirm the call did indeed come from where they think it did. Darlene says that she and Seb didn't find anything of relevance to the case, but she found some letters that Dorna wrote not long after giving birth to Mervin, and she thinks they were sent to his father.

Mervin tells her that he reached out to his dad, Charlie Wilson, shortly become coming to Saint Marie, but Charlie didn't want to know. Darlene says it looks like the letters were returned to Dorna unopened, and adds that she started to read them, but realized that they were very personal, so she gives Mervin the letters and leaves. Mervin can't quite bring himself to read them yet.

The next morning, Mervin and Naomi are pulling up to the police station when Naomi spots Sterling approaching. Sterling offers them what would pass for a sunny greeting if not for the fact that he's clearly already forgotten Naomi's name. Mervin's surprised to see Sterling here, as he's only meant to be around on alternate Wednesdays, but Sterling says he's arranged to be there a few more days while he gets up to speed.

He invites Mervin to go for a drink with him and "shoot the breeze" sometime, which Naomi mischievously accepts on Mervin's behalf. Sterling informs the two of them that he's here to pick up some case files as he's reviewing all of their current investigations. As Sterling drives off, Naomi vents that she can't believe they fired Selwyn in favor of... "...that ninny", Mervin helpfully supplies. ("Ninny" is a word we don't hear nearly enough, kudos to Mervin for bringing it back.)

Inside, Darlene and Seb have been doing background on Roy: he bought the bar after moving to Saint Marie from the UK under a bit of a cloud after being made redundant, getting divorced, and picking up a drunk-driving charge. Seb is standing with one hand raised above his shoulder in a sort of gripping formation, and Mervin eventually cracks and asks him what he's doing: Seb explains that he saw a tip online that said if you want to make sure you remember something, pretend you're holding a donut. Sure, why not? Naomi says that the financial checks on Roy Palmer have revealed that he's overstretched on his mortgage and his business isn't bringing in enough to cover his outgoings.

Mervin allows Seb to finally let go of his donut (...that sounds rude in a way we can't quite pin down) and Seb says that Roy Palmer has been to the island once before, in April 1974 — visiting with his parents when he was 16, and staying at the Palm Royal hotel. Mervin notes that April 1974 was nine months before he was born, and Naomi wonders for a second if he suspects Roy of being his father; Mervin confirms that he isn't thinking that, but he does think it's a coincidence. Seb says he asked the immigration people to check out what Dorna was doing in April 1974 and she would also have been in Saint Marie at the time — and that it seems Charlie Wilson was here too. That coincidence just keeps getting bigger, doesn't it?

Roy comes to the station to answer some more questions, and he confirms that he made friends with Charlie when they were both staying at the Palm Royal. They often hung out at the Flying Fish restaurant, which is where Dorna worked at the time. He says that Charlie and Dorna hit it off and had a holiday romance, maybe even falling in love. Mervin asks Roy what brought him back to Saint Marie, and he says he had some redundancy money kicking around and read about the Fishing Net being up for sale, so it just felt right; however, he maintains it's a complete coincidence that he ended up buying the bar where Dorna's father was a regular fixture. He only realised Dorna was Erwin's daughter when she returned to care for him. Mervin asks Roy where he was the day Dorna died, and Ray says he was at the Fishing Net, with some of his regulars.

Back at the station, Darlene has confirmed Roy's alibi with the punters, and Naomi says that the same regulars were featured in the coroner's report: they were waiting outside the bar for Roy when they saw Dorna in the boat heading out to sea. They tried to attract her attention to stop her from going out with the storm coming, but she didn't hear them — and then Roy arrived to open the bar. Mervin's convinced that something about Roy doesn't add up, and decides he is now officially a suspect rather than a witness. Seb has more info: while Roy was staying at the Palm Royal in 1974, the hotel reported the theft of an expensive ring belonging to a guest. It was never recovered and the thief was never caught, and the ring was insured for $80,000. He has a picture of the ring, which Mervin recognises: he saw Dorna wearing it in the photograph of her that's on display at the Flying Fish.

Seb goes to Dorna's house to check through her photos, and discovers that she's wearing that ring in all of them — which leaves Mervin wondering what happened to it, because she wasn't wearing it when her body was recovered from the sea. At this moment, Sterling arrives in his flash car with some bad news: he's spoken with the Chief Commissioner and he's closing down the Dorna Bray investigation because they don't consider it to be an effective use of time and resources, given that there's no evidence to suggest it's anything other than an accident.

Mervin protests, but Sterling isn't having it and suggests Mervin's personal connection to it is clouding his judgement, saying that he's surprised Commissioner Patterson ever allowed it to go ahead — and that if Mervin has a problem with the decision, they can simply end his contract a week early and he can toddle off back to London now.

Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine) turns up at the station, outraged over Sterling's behaviour. She asks how Mervin is coping, and Naomi says he went off on his own — that in itself is not unusual behaviour, but she thinks he's feeling pretty crushed. Indeed, Mervin is standing by the shore, reflecting on his mother's final moments, caught up in a storm and frightened for her life (which Judith Jacob does an excellent job of conveying in the flashbacks).

Catherine goes to see Selwyn, hoping that he can do something given that he is, at least on paper, still the Commissioner of Police for a few more days. Selwyn points out that Sterling is clearly the one in favour with the Chief Commissioner, so nothing he say would have much impact — and that people will need to get used to him not being there to solve their problems any more. Catherine is aghast that he's just planning to walk away from the island and stop caring after 50 years of loyal service, and Selwyn wonders if maybe that's the only way he'll be able to cope with it. Catherine asks if he really wants his last actions in office to be turning his back on everything he once stood for; Selwyn asks her to leave, and on her way out, she reminds Selwyn that Mervin came to Saint Marie looking for answers. If he goes home without finding them, she reasons, then the whole island has let him down.

Clearly Catherine's well-chosen words touched a nerve (no wonder she's the mayor), because the next morning Selwyn gets dressed in his uniform and drives to the police station. He tells Mervin that he is here to get the case re-opened, and Mervin asks how. Right on cue, Sterling arrives in his sports car, and Selwyn informs Sterling that he's going to arrest him for criminal damage, after he scratched the paintwork of Selwyn's car door (remember that, from last week?

Who knew that was going to be so important?). Sterling can't believe what's happening — and in truth, neither can anyone else, although Darlene is particularly enjoying it. Sterling tells Selwyn that he can't do this, and Selwyn informs Sterling that if he doesn't let Seb cuff him, he'll add resisting arrest to the charge sheet. Seb carts an absolutely furious Sterling off to the cells, and Selwyn quietly informs Mervin that he intends to spin this out for the rest of the day, so that's how long he's got to solve the Dorna Bray case. Mervin is simultaneously flabbergasted and impressed. Selwyn then proceeds to "gather evidence from the crime scene", while reminding Sterling that it's been a while since he's taken such an active role in a case so he might be a bit rusty — then he very slowly makes himself a cup of coffee to drink while he works. Tee hee hee.

Mervin goes back to see Roy, who has just twigged that Mervin must be Dorna and Charlie's son. While searching through Roy's home, Mervin finds a five-year sobriety chip, and Roy admits that another reason he moved here was that things had gotten rather out of control and he needed to sort himself out. (By...buying a bar? That's quite the gamble.) Getting a little chippy, Roy tells Mervin that Dorna never mentioned him in the time they knew each other, and perhaps she'd chosen to put all that behind her: "out of sight, out of mind".

Naomi walks in with Roy's laptop, where she's found emails to a jeweler in the US asking for a valuation on Dorna's ring — which now appears to be worth $2m. This doesn't faze Roy at all: he claims that after they got chatting, Dorna showed him the promise ring that Charlie gave her before he went back to England. He'd wondered how teenage Charlie could afford such a ring, and then he remembered the report of the theft from the hotel. Dorna didn't believe him when he said it was valuable, hence the emails to the jeweler. He claims to have told Dorna to hand it into the police so it could be returned to its rightful owner, but she refused. Mervin doesn't believe him, and Roy shoots back that Mervin never met Dorna, so he has no idea what she was really like. Naomi asks him where the ring is now, and Roy breezily tells them he doesn't know where it is.

Meanwhile, Darlene is next door speaking to Brianna, who says she recognizes Roy from out and about but didn't know much about him other than he was friends with Dorna's father — she does, however, say she never really took to him. Naomi hears from Seb that he's searched Roy's bar, and the ring isn't there either. Mervin is getting frustrated: he's pretty sure Roy killed Dorna, and he thinks he knows why, but he can't figure out how he got her to go out to sea when she knew there was a storm coming. He's convinced that something is holding him back from being able to solve it, and tells Naomi and Darlene that he needs to go and do something he should have done earlier.

At the police station, Mervin is taking Dorna's letters to Charlie out of the drawer when Selwyn walks in. Mervin thinks the letters will hold the answers, but he can't bring himself to read them. Selwyn offers to read the letters for him, and Mervin hands them to him. A little while later, at Selwyn's house, he gives Mervin the summary: the letters were written just after he was born, and sent from Saint Marie. In them, Dorna talks about returning to the island after spending some time in London with Charlie and his parents when Mervin was born. She seems to have cared a lot for Charlie, but his parents weren't happy about him getting a girl pregnant when they were both so young — it was Charlie's parents who insisted that Dorna and Charlie gave Mervin up.

The letters go on to suggest that giving Mervin up caused Dorna a lot of pain, that she would "never be the same person" after this, and in one of them Dorna tells Charlie that she will never take the ring off, and whenever she looks at it, she will think of their little boy.

This is clearly a lot for Mervin to take in, and he goes out to the balcony to take a moment. It's here where suddenly he realizes what happened, as Dorna's words about "not being the same person" reverberate in his head. He asks Selwyn if he happens to know where the local AA meetings take place, and Selwyn says he does: his local church hosts them. Mervin says they need to get Roy Palmer to the station, because he thinks he's solved the case.

At the police station, Sterling has been released from the cells and is about to go straight to the Chief Commissioner to inform him exactly what's been going on in Saint Marie today, but Selwyn instructs him to sit down and watch what's about to happen — which Sterling does, albeit reluctantly. Roy arrives, and Mervin tells him that he's about to arrest him for the murder of Dorna Bray. Roy chortles that he's curious to see how Mervin came to that conclusion, and Mervin tells him to take a seat.

Mervin tells him that the motive wasn't difficult: Roy was drowning in debt and needed money. Then Dorna Bray came into his life after years apart, and she had a $2m ring on her finger. Unfortunately, Dorna never took the ring off, which meant that it was very difficult for Roy to get his hands on it — in fact, he was going to have to kill her. Naomi picks up the story, saying that Roy realised he needed to make Dorna's death look like an accident, so when she mentioned scattering her father's ashes, he started to form a plan.

With the who and the why taken care of, all that remains is the how, and Mervin has figured it out: Roy wasn't acting alone. At that moment, Darlene calls, saying she has found Dorna's ring... in Brianna Clemetson's house. Mervin says that Roy's life was based all around the harbour, as that's where his bar and his friends were, so he needed an accomplice who wasn't part of that world, who wouldn't be recognised there.

The only thing that Roy ever did which wasn't centred around the harbour were his weekly AA meetings, held at the same church that Brianna Clemetson attends. Naomi spoke to the pastor, who confirmed that he'd seen Roy and Brianna together on several occasions. Brianna, meanwhile, is tearfully telling Darlene that she thought the money might finally bring her some happiness — she's got no friends or family, and all she wanted was a life. Sadly, she's more likely to be looking at a life sentence now, as Darlene arrests Brianna for her part in Dorna's murder.

So here's how it all played out: Roy went to visit Dorna the morning she died, having heard on the radio about the storm. He convinced her that she needed to scatter her father's ashes that very day, and then slipped a sedative into her iced tea when she was distracted. Having checked the weather report earlier that day, Dorna set out to scatter her father's ashes on the beach as she'd planned, thinking that if she went in the morning she would miss the bad weather. However, the sedative started to kick in while she was driving, so she pulled over — and once she was unconscious, Roy drove her back to her house. Behind the closed gate in the drive, Roy pocketed the ring and Brianna changed into Dorna's clothes, then Roy went back to recover his own car, drove it back to Dorna's house and put her body into it. He then went to a quiet section of the beach, took Dorna out to sea in his boat and left her there, returning to shore in a dinghy.

When he was back on land, Brianna — still dressed as Dorna — drove to the harbour in Dorna's car, took the ashes and got into Erwin's fishing boat. Although the harbour was almost empty due to the storm forecast, Roy knew that his regulars would be outside the bar waiting for him to open up, and would see Brianna going out in the boat. Since Brianna was a similar height and build to Dorna, the witnesses would assume that was who they'd seen once Dorna's body was discovered later on. Brianna took Erwin's fishing boat all the way out to where Roy had left his boat, dressed the still-unconscious Dorna back up in her own clothes, moved Dorna's body into Erwin's boat, and then returned to shore in Roy's boat, leaving Dorna out there just as the storm was about to hit.

However, there was a small snag in the plan: the sedative wore on, and Dorna woke up. She managed to get her mobile phone from her handbag and called the harbourmaster — but because the signal was so poor, the line cut out before she could reveal anything that would incriminate Roy or Brianna, and she drowned without managing to contact anyone else. Darlene arrives with Brianna and the ring, which Brianna was looking after while Roy was trying to find the right buyer for such a rare and valuable piece. Mervin arrests Roy for Dorna's murder.

Outside the police station, Sterling tells Mervin that even though he's now caught Dorna's murderer, it doesn't excuse everything that happened today, and he'll be telling the Chief Commissioner everything as soon as he gets back to Jamaica. Mervin plays his trump card, pointing out that if they'd done things Sterling's way, then a murderer would still be walking free, which would look bad for both Sterling and the Chief Commissioner. He tells Sterling that the best way to fix this is by going back to his boss and reinstating Selwyn to avoid any future messes like this. Thoroughly chastened, Sterling leaves. Selwyn tells Mervin that he didn't need to do that, but Mervin says he did: none of this would have happened without Selwyn.

Mervin returns to the Flying Fish and takes a beer down to the beach, where he reads one of Dorna's letters. We see one final flashback of Dorna waking up in the morning, looking at the ring on her hand and smiling gently to herself.

Well, that certainly sounds like it's wrapped up everything as far as Mervin's concerned. But there's one more episode left in this season — and since it's Comic Relief 2025 next Friday, we'll have to wait two weeks to see if he decides to return to London, or whether anyone in Saint Marie gives him a reason to stay...

Death in Paradise season 14 introduces us to Roy Palmer, played by Gerard Horan.

Roy Palmer is first seen, although he barely speaks, in episode 6. We see him looking at the poster Mervin has put up asking for information about his mother, Dorna Bray (Judith Jacob). We also see him in the final scene of the episode as Mervin and Naomi chat.

Mervin's talking about wanting to get hold of his mum's phone records and Naomi offers to go through her emails. At that point, Roy serves them two beers.

Naomi goes on to suggest they should make a full search of his mum's house and look for prints. Mervin then says what really gets him is that having spoken to everyone who knew his mum they all said how good, kind, and caring she was, so why would anyone want to kill her? We then see Roy looking shifty at the bar as he cleans a glass...

Who is Roy Palmer?

Roy Palmer is the owner of the Fishing Net and he was a friend of Mervin's mum, Dorna. Dorna's late father was a regular at the bar so he got to know Dorna when she came back to look after him, and he got in the habit of checking in on her from time to time after her dad passed away.

Roy becomes a key witness in Mervin's investigation because he was texting Dorna a couple of hours before she died. Mervin's hoping Roy can shed some light on what happened to his mother. But new head boss Sterling Fox wants Mervin to stop his investigation as he thinks it's a waste of time. So, what exactly was Roy's role in everything?

Who plays Roy Palmer in Death in Paradise?

Roy Palmer is played by English actor Gerard Horan, who is perhaps best known for playing Terry alongside Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones in the BBC comedy Detectorists. Those with a really long memory might recall him as firefighter Leslie "Charisma" Appleby in the classic 1980s ITV drama London's Burning. He also appeared opposite Nick Berry in Harbour Lights.

More recently he appeared in Belgravia: The Next Chapter as a character called Enright. Plus he appeared as Aynesworth in the 2017 movie Murder on the Orient Express starring Kenneth Branagh. His other credits include Lark Rise to Candleford, Doctor Who, The Bill and Father Brown. In fact, if you name a long-running TV series from the last 40 years the 62-year-old star has probably been in it.

It remains to be seen how long he's in Death in Paradise as Roy. Death in Paradise continues on BBC One. You can catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Beyond Paradise season 3 will return this month, the BBC has revealed.

The new series will begin on BBC One on Friday, March 28 at 8.00 pm, with episodes also being made available on BBC iPlayer. Apart from the Christmas special, it seems an awfully long time ago since we checked in on DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton), DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi), PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn), Anne Lloyd (Barbara Flynn) and Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu).

Jamie Bamber is making a comeback as Martha's annoying ex Archie Hughes, while also returning is Jade Harrison as CS Charlie Woods and Melina Sinadinou as Zoe Williams.

Teasing the cases Humphrey has to crack this time in Shipton Abbott, the BBC says: "The team faces a host of baffling cases in the upcoming series, including a body discovered in a river on the county border, a perplexing chocolate box poisoning, a long-standing farming feud, and a spiking incident at sea.

"Away from the police station, Martha and Humphrey must overcome unexpected hurdles as foster parents, while the reappearance of Martha's old flame Archie presents an unexpected challenge. Meanwhile, Esther experiences a surprising twist in her personal life, Anne confronts painful memories following a health scare, and Kelby embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery."

The new series has a great guest cast including Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered) as local councillor Arthur Donelan, Steve Oram (DI Ray) and Gabby Best (Changing Ends) as Humphrey and Esther's Cornish policing counterparts, Chizzy Akudolu (Holby City) who returns as Reverend Kate and Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) as farming rivals George Ellis and Lotty Lewes.

We don’t know yet when Beyond Paradise season 3 will reach America. Meanwhile, don't forget to catch up on Death in Paradise season 14 which is currently being shown on BBC One on Friday nights.

Beyond Paradise returns on BBC One on Friday, March 28 at 8.00 pm.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 6 is one of those occasions where we can pretty confidently say the victim had it coming, as the corpse of the week is romance scammer Adam Carter (Phoenix Rise star Tyler Fayose), who was in the process of conning his latest mark when he met his maker. Needless to say he'd made a lot of enemies, but which of them hated him enough to want him dead?

Meanwhile, new police boss Sterling Fox (Enterprice's Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge) quickly makes his presence felt on Saint Marie. Following on from someone as beloved as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) was always going to be a challenge, but he doesn't do himself any favours with his plans to "streamline" the team's working practises...

Read on to find out what happened in Death in Paradise season 14 episode 6...

We open at a villa where Christian Butler (Tyler Fayose — yes, we know, but wait for it) is on a video call with Danielle Bailey (The Gold's Charlotte Spencer) telling her how much she is going to love the romantic views of the sunsets. Danielle tells him it's tipping it down where she is, so anything has to be better than that. She adds that they've only been doing this for a month, but it feels so much deeper. He says he can't wait for them to be together. She tells him she will see him tomorrow, and they end the call. Christian prepares gifts for Danielle's arrival: champagne, jewelry, flowers and the like. Outside, Gary Baines (Towards Zero's Alexander Cobb) is sitting in his car and talking on his phone, reporting to someone that Christian has just gone to bed, and he'll "do it in the morning, before she gets here". Sinister!

At the airport, Delmar Lloyd (Casualty's Tony Marshall) is waiting to pick Danielle up. He recognizes it's her first time in Saint Marie as she's got "that wide-eyed look" about her. She confirms the address as Christian video calls her, saying that he just wanted to check she'd arrived safely. Suddenly, he looks distracted, saying he heard a noise. Another voice is heard, and Christian tells the man to "just put that down", then a gunshot is heard and Christian slumps to the floor. Danielle is horrified and says they need to call the police. They get into the car and Delmar tells her to try calling Christian back.

They arrive at the villa with Danielle still trying to contact Christian, who's not answering. Delmar tells her the police are coming, but they need to wait outside in case the gunman is still in there. Danielle enters the villa very cautiously, asking Christian if he is all right. She finds him lying face down on the decking by the pool, blood pooling on the back of his shirt.

DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) is enjoying a relaxing day off as she chats to her mum about her plans for the day. Her doorbell goes, and from the insistent ringing she instantly knows who it is: it's DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet). She ends the call and wails "but it's Saturday!" to nobody in particular. She opens the door to Mervin, who has brought a back of shopping and invites himself in. He says he figured she didn't have anything planned, and after everything with "Emmental, was it?", he thought it would do her good to keep busy. He says that the Commissioner has given him the go-ahead to reopen the investigation into his mother's death, so he thought he would start by cooking her breakfast — bacon and eggs, with bacon his friend sent over from the UK — while they start looking over the case. It's a lovely idea, but it's going to have to wait, because Naomi gets a call from Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) telling her they have a new case.

At the villa, Danielle tells Mervin and Naomi that she'd just come out of a long-term relationship and wasn't looking for anything serious, so she joined an international dating app, which is where she met Christian. They had an instant connection and decided to meet in person. Delmar states that he was hired by Christian to collect Danielle from the airport, but had no prior dealings with him before that.

Danielle explains that Christian called her at 8:45 am and suddenly there was someone else in the villa. It sounded like the person said Christian "had it coming". Delmar says that they got into the car and drove straight there, which took about 10 minutes. Mervin asks Danielle if she has any idea what was meant by Christian "had it coming", and she says no: Christian wasn't the type to get into trouble, he was a good person. With the police having finished with their questioning for now, Delmar offers to drive Danielle to a hotel. Mervin notes that Christian was obviously minted, "and where there's money, there's motive". Naomi suggests that she and Darlene give the villa a once-over.

Mervin finds Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) lying on the deck next to the victim, and Seb explains that the bullet went straight through Christian's heart and out through his back. The paramedics think he would have died instantly. The reason why Seb is lying on the floor? Because he's noticed that the corpse is clutching a bullet in his hand. Since there's no sign of any other bullets anywhere, it's presumably the one that killed him — and if the gunshot killed Christian instantly, he wouldn't have been able to pick the bullet up himself. Therefore, the killer must have placed it there — but why?

Naomi and Darlene's search yields some fairly incriminating evidence — but about the victim, not the killer. Five different passports under different names, five different driving licences, four mobile phones and $20,000 in cash. Naomi has also been ringing around, and it turns out Christian — or whoever he is — didn't even own the villa; it's a short-term rental. Mervin phones Commissioner Selwyn Patterson to let him know, and Selwyn — who is in casual clothes and loading boxes into the boot of his car — says that he'll get the word out to see if any other islands have any intel on the victim. Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine) approaches him, surprised to see him packing his things away so soon; Selwyn explains he has a handover meeting scheduled with the person who will be overseeing things after him. He'll be on gardening leave for the rest of the week after that, and then he's gone. Catherine laments that this is all happening far too quickly.

At the police station, Darlene has found out who the victim is: fingerprints confirm his identity as Adam Carter (there we go), born and raised in London, who served 18 months for fraud six years ago. Naomi has also been delving into Adam's laptop, and found six different dating apps with a variety of different profiles on each, where he was running multiple variations on the same scam: he's a rich guy looking for love who flies all around the world. Mervin says it's the same with Adam's phones: not many stored contacts, and they're all women. The final nail in the coffin is Adam's emails, which show him emailing the women he's been wooing, claiming that he's in a temporary short spot financially and asking to borrow money.

He's a romance scammer, in other words. Mervin says that there could be any number of women out there who would have wanted Adam dead, but Darlene reminds him that the voice Danielle heard on the video call was male. The thing is, the only male suspect they have is Delmar, and they know it can't be him because he was at the airport with Danielle when it happened. Outside the villa, Gary is lurking again, telling the person on the other end of the phone that the police are "all over it" and he's on the first flight out tomorrow.

Better late than never: Mervin is making bacon and eggs for Naomi at the shack. She suggests it's a bit late for breakfast, but he points out that the joy of bacon and eggs is that you can have it any time of the day. They tuck in, and Naomi seems reasonably impressed, if not exactly blown away, by his cooking. Mervin tells Naomi he's put posters up all around the harbour appealing for information about his mother's death. At the harbour, a man in a blue baseball cap is looking at one of the posters — but who is he?

The next day at the police station, Seb says that one of the neighbours spotted a car parked outside the villa on the morning of the murder. When he checked it out, it was registered to a local hire company who rented it to... Gary Baines. He explains that Gary arrived on the island two days ago, and is a UK-based solicitor with no criminal record. Oh, and he's Danielle's ex-fiancé. Seb called Danielle to ask about this, and she had no idea Gary was here; apparently he took the break-up badly and wouldn't accept things were over between them. Mervin congratulates Seb on a job well done, but as Mervin and Naomi head off to the airport to intercept Gary, Darlene tells Seb she's got a slightly less exciting job for him: getting a drunk to move on.

Naomi and Mervin arrive at the airport just as Gary is being dropped off by his cab. He tells them there's a reasonable explanation for him being there: he, as well as Danielle's parents, were concerned that "Christian" could have been absolutely anyone as he didn't seem to have much of a digital footprint, so Gary flew over to give him the once-over. Naomi points out that this is still very suss behavior from an ex-boyfriend, and Gary says that he thinks Danielle made a mistake ending things between them, and so do her parents.

Personally, I'm wondering if all of these alleged conversations with "Danielle's parents" were in fact between Gary and his own hand with a face drawn on it in felt pen, because he is currently giving off more red flags than the USSR, and Mervin agrees with me that this all looks like proper stalker ex behavior. Gary says he went to the villa the morning that Christian was killed because he wanted to talk to him, but someone else was already there with him: a woman, who sounded English and angry. Not wanting to intrude, he got back into his car and drove back to the hotel to have breakfast. Mervin and Naomi wonder who this mystery woman was.

Meaningful segue to the Saint Marie Fishing Pier where Seb is trying to rouse Kelly Herbert (McDonald & Dodds star Tala Gouveia), who has passed out drunk on the steps. He manages to pull her up to her feet, at which point she realizes that he's a police officer and gets very nervous. She declines to tell him who she is or what she's doing there, but Seb notices that she has a picture of Adam as the lock screen on her phone. Trying to get past him, she pushes Seb into the sea and makes a run for it. Seb appeals to the passers-by to stop her, but they don't intervene.

Back at the station, a rather damp Seb tells everyone that Kelly was acting suspiciously, and Darlene says she believes Kelly was the woman that Gary overheard arguing with Adam the morning he was killed: a local taxi company confirmed that they drove a British woman matching her description to the villa. Mervin and Naomi go to the Sunny Bay Hotel, where she's staying, and a rather embarrassed Kelly says that Adam went by the name of Andy Johnson when they were messaging. They dated a few years ago: video calls at first, then occasional weekends together. He ended up taking $20,000 from her — all of her savings, and a bit of money she inherited from her nan. She says it happened in stages: one time he said he had a deal going through and there was a shortfall, another time he said he needed it to pay back angry men he owed money to. But when she had no more money left, he ghosted her. Kelly admits to going to the villa, but says she came here to forgive Adam, not to kill him. She wanted to help him get his debts sorted so they could start over as a couple — but he told her he didn't love her and he never had. She says she left, went to a bar and started drinking.

Back at the police station, Darlene says she's been through all the contacts on Adam's phones and laptops, but none of the people he was talking to — apart from Danielle and Kelly — are currently on the island, according to immigration. Naomi has traced CCTV of Kelly at the bar, where she entered at 8:33am and left at 10:18am. The barman confirms she was in the room with him the whole time, so she can't have been at Adam's villa to shoot him at 8:45am. Seb, meanwhile, has confirmed with hotel staff that Gary Baines was eating breakfast between 8:30am and 9:30am. And with Danielle and Delmar watching the murder on the video call at the airport, that makes zero suspects who could have been in the right place at the right time. The lab have confirmed the bullet found in Adam's hand is the same calibre as the one that killed him, but there were no traces of blood on it, so the killer must have wiped it clean. Selwyn arrives and informs them that he wants to take them all out for a drink, as it's Sunday night and they've all worked all weekend.

In his room at home, Delmar looks at a family picture on his bedside table, and then opens his bedside drawer, where a suspicious amount of cash is stashed.

Meanwhile, the gang are all at Catherine's Bar, where everyone is laughing at Kelly managing to push Seb into the water despite being almost a foot shorter than him. While Mervin and Selwyn go up to get more drinks, Catherine asks the others if Selwyn has told them that his successor arrives tomorrow for the handover: he has not told them this. Everyone agrees that it's too soon, and Catherine says that she thinks this evening is Selwyn's way of saying goodbye to his team.

At the bar, Selwyn tells Mervin that after tomorrow, he won't be around as much, so he'll be on his own with the Dorna Bray case — but he's happy to help out unofficially if needed. As they take the drinks back over, the same man in the blue baseball cap from earlier is watching from a distance.

You know how sometimes you can take against someone from the very first moment you meet them? Well, the next morning we are introduced to Selwyn's replacement, Sterling Fox, as he zooms through the streets of Saint Marie in his flash car wearing a flash suit, basically establishing him right from the off as someone who is the very opposite of Selwyn: all style, no substance.

He oozes his way into Selwyn's office and proceeds to patronize him about how "cute" the island is. He goes on to say that it's an honor to meet Selwyn, who's apparently known in the Jamaica HQ as a living legend; Selwyn responds, rather archly, by saying it makes you wonder why they're getting rid of him in that case. Selwyn offers to give Sterling the tour, and then introduce him to the team.

Naomi and Mervin join Seb outside Delmar's house to explain that the money found in Adam's safe was counterfeit. Also, Delmar's prints were all over it, which means he lied when he claimed he'd never met the victim. Inside, Seb finds $20,000 in Delmar's bedroom, and Delmar confesses that this is real money: he switched the cash stashed in Adam's safe with forgeries. He also admits that he's been helping out with Adam's scams for the last few months, as Adam was paying Delmar to drive him and his various women around. Delmar explains that his granddaughter is going to college in the US, so he thought he could help with paying her fees. Mervin wonders if Adam was onto Delmar stealing from him, but Delmar insists that Adam never found out what he had been doing.

At the police station, Darlene has already had the misfortune of meeting Sterling, and as the others arrive back, she introduces him (as "this young gentleman", which is a nicely spiky way to do it). Sterling tells them that he wants to get some one-to-one sessions in the diary, when he's on the island every other Wednesday, as he'd like to streamline their working methodology to cut out the waste. (I can think of a fairly good way to cut out the waste, and it involves this guy cutting his visits back from "every other Wednesday" to "never ever again".) Naomi infers that he's primarily here to cut costs, and he dances around that idea in a way that suggests it's entirely true. Meanwhile, Darlene has an update on the case: she's found that one of Adam's previous victims was a woman called Samantha Colby, who ended up declaring herself bankrupt. Samantha went to school with Danielle Bailey, and if their socials are anything to go by, they're still good friends.

Mervin goes to speak to Danielle, who says she didn't know about Sam and Adam. Danielle admits that Sam had become distant from her in the last year and she'd never really known why, but now it makes sense. Naomi joins them, having just spoken to Sam, who corroborated Danielle's account of events. Sam also said that she feels guilty for Adam targeting Danielle, because she talked about Danielle when she and Adam were together, and he presumably used that knowledge when he was scamming her. As Mervin and Naomi come to the conclusion that they're no closer to the truth, Mervin decides it's time for them to bring the case to life.

Mervin and Naomi base themselves at the police station, while Darlene and Seb are at the villa, keeping in touch via video call so they can re-enact the circumstances of Adam's death. Before Darlene and Seb can get things underway, however, Seb's interrupted by the arrival of Kelly, who has brought flowers for Adam in an attempt to gain closure over his death. She recognizes Seb as the man she pushed into the sea, and apologizes.

Meanwhile, Mervin is getting frustrated at the lack of action, so Naomi suggests they start without Seb and just have Darlene pretend that the killer is coming in and firing the gun. Mervin insists that they need to hear the killer — but then he realizes that maybe they don't need to hear the killer at all. He asks Darlene to show him the villa so he can check something on the terrace — and something he sees in the footage clues him in as to who did it and how, and possibly even why. But he needs to make a phone call first — he also needs Naomi to get all of Adam's mobile phones to the lab because he's pretty sure something important was deleted from one of them, and he needs Darlene and Seb to get themselves down to the courthouse to get a search warrant.

The suspects gather at the villa, where Mervin holds up one of Adam's phones and explains that it holds evidence that reveals how one of them managed to kill him without being anywhere near him when it happened. It was something that Kelly said that tipped him off: the way she talked about Adam using subterfuge to get her to part with money, and implying that mysterious bad people were out to get him. That's what Danielle saw playing out on the video call, because there was no intruder and no shooting. What she saw on their phone call was a hoax staged by Adam: he used his Bluetooth speaker to play a recording of himself — using his native London accent, not the Caribbean one that he used with Danielle — portraying the "intruder" on the call. Adam's plan involved Danielle arriving there, finding him alive, at which point he'd explain that he owed money to some dangerous people so that Danielle would feel compelled to lend it to him.

Naomi brings out the bullet that they found in Adam's hand, and Mervin says they've spent the whole case assuming the killer put it into his hand — but not knowing why. However, it wasn't actually the one that killed him; it was one that he was keeping as a prop for his scam, to show to Danielle as evidence that someone had shot at him. But someone really did shoot him: Delmar. He'd been working with Adam for a few months, and he was involved in the scams, one of his jobs being pretending to call the police whenever one of Adam's victims thought he'd been shot. Except this time, he really did phone the police, because he knew Adam wouldn't be found alive.

When they arrived at the villa, Delmar purposely stayed back, knowing that love and compassion for Christian would make Danielle go inside to check on him, even if that meant putting herself in danger. As Danielle walked through the villa slowly, in case the killer was still there; Delmar ran down the side of the property much faster than her and fatally shot Adam Carter on the terrace. By the time Danielle got there, Adam was dead and Delmar was already running back down the way he came. After finding Adam's body, Danielle went back to Delmar at the entrance, where he told her to wait there for the police — he then went over to where Adam's body was lying and deleted the recording, putting the phone back in the safe so that when the police arrive, the only phone they would find Adam with was the one he called Danielle on. Delmar recovered the bullet that he shot Adam with and removed it from the scene.

All that remains is why Delmar killed Adam: earlier, Mervin spoke to Delmar's daughter about how much his granddaughter meant to him, and he theorises that the more Delmar assisted in Adam's scams, the more he started to wonder how he would feel if Adam did that to someone he loved. Naomi adds that when they spoke to Delmar's daughter, she told them that his granddaughter isn't going to college in the US, so they think he actually took the money to give it back to the women Adam had been conning as a way of making amends. But Delmar realised that wasn't enough, as Adam would carry on conning women — so he decided to stop him permanently.

Over at Government House, Sterling thanks Selwyn for everything he's done over the last 51 years, and wondering with fairly fake humility whether he'll be up to the job of taking over from him. Sterling shakes Selwyn's hand and wishes him all the best for the future, and with that, the long and storied career of Commissioner Selwyn Patterson comes to a fairly muted end. There's not even a cake! And to make matters worse, Selwyn discovers that Sterling has left a mark on his car door where he carelessly hit it with the door of his own car.

At a bar by the harbour, Mervin tells Naomi that his posters appealing for information about Dorna have been up for three days, but nobody has called. Naomi tells him it was worth a try. They go inside, and Mervin orders two beers. Naomi suggests doing a full search of Dorna's house, processing it for fingerprints and doing door-to-door inquiries on the street. Mervin says the thing that really gets him is that everyone who knew his mum talked about how good and kind she was, so he can't understand why someone would want to harm her. Oh, and the barman who's avidly listening to this entire conversation from a few feet away? That's Roy Palmer (Detectorists' Gerard Horan) — the man in the blue baseball cap!

Sterling Fox, who arrived in Saint Marie in episode six of Death in Paradise season 14 episode 6, is a new character in Death in Paradise season 14.

So, you might be wondering who is Sterling Fox and what is he up to. Well, slickly dressed Sterling is the new boss of the Saint Marie police after the position of Commissioner on the island was phased out.

Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) has been forced into retirement much to the upset of his team. Now, Sterling is not the new Commissioner. That role has gone, but he is looking after Saint Marie as part of a brief that includes several islands. Sterling is based in Jamaica in the Chief Commissioner's office and because he looks after so many islands he can't be as hands-on as the Commissioner. He also drives an annoying car.

Does Sterling Fox upset the team?

Yes! While The Commissioner had his grouchy moments he was very much looking out for the team. However, Sterling is much more corporate. He's not interested really in the team, all he cares about is results.

And not surprisingly this approach rubs DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet), DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) and Darlene (Ginny Holder) up the wrong way.

In a teaser clip for episode 7, Naomi sees Sterling and says: "Oh no, please not him." He then manages to forget Naomi's name. Mervin then says to him he thought they only had the pleasure of his company every other Wednesday, but Sterling says he's around for a few days. Dripping with sarcasm, Mervin replies: "Well, aren't we the lucky ones". Sterling adds that he's reviewing all of the ongoing cases.

Sterling wants to stop Mervin from investigating the death of his mother

Mervin has been on and off investigating the suspicious death of his mother, Dorna Bray (EastEnders' Judith Jacob) during this series. In episode 7, Mervin makes a breakthrough however Sterling wants to shut down his investigation. We suggest that the former Commissioner might get involved to try and help Mervin get around Sterling. Sterling sees it as a waste of time. But this seems very insensitive given it's Mervin's mum and Sterling is just further angering his team.

Who plays Sterling Fox?

Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge plays Sterling Fox. Trieve is best known for playing medic Josh Hudson in Holby City between 2020 and 2022. Josh was a father to premature twins in the show and the character it was revealed suffered from bulimia. Unfortunately, Josh's story couldn't be thoroughly told as Holby ended in 2022. The London-born star hasn't had a huge number of TV roles beyond that, but he did appear in the series Rematch about world chess champion Garry Kasparov's 1997 match against the supercomputer Deep Blue. He has made a number of stage appearances including at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Will Sterling Fox be in Death in Paradise season 15?

That's unclear at this stage. We don't currently know if Don Warrington is leaving as The Commissioner or not. If The Commissioner's job is saved then we suggest Sterling will be on his way. You'll just have to watch to find out!

Death in Paradise season 14, one of the BBC’s best dramas, continues on BBC One. You can catch up via BBC iPlayer. The series is shown on BritBox in the US.

Beyond Paradise season 3 will feature a string of weird cases for DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), including a "perplexing chocolate box poisoning", as a string of guest stars were also revealed.

Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis joins as local councillor Arthur Donelan, while Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) play farming rivals George Ellis and Lotty Lewes. Judging by the first look pictures Humphrey has a bit of trouble keeping up with Hugh's character!

Also guest starring are Steve Oram (DI Ray) and Gabby Best (Changing Ends) as Humphrey and Esther's Cornish policing counterparts.

Teasing the cases Humphrey and DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) have to solve the makers say: "The team faces a host of baffling cases in the upcoming series, including a body discovered in a river on the county border, a perplexing chocolate box poisoning, a long-standing farming feud, and a spiking incident at sea."

The new series will also see Martha's (The Au Pair's Sally Bretton) old flame Archie (Jamie Bamber) causing more problems, while Martha and Humphrey continue to face trouble as foster parents. Esther also has some personal drama, while Barbara (Anne Lloyd) is forced to confront some painful memories following a health scare.

Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu), PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn), CS Charlie Woods (Jade Harrison) and Zoe Williams (Melina Sinadinou) all return.

Also guesting are Angela Curran (Doc Martin), Abra Thompson (Showtrial), Joseph Ollman (Queenie), Alexandra Gilbreath (Not Going Out), Alicia Charles (Pheonix Rise), Matthew Gravelle (Silent Witness), Brandon Fellows (Dead Hot), Abdul Salis (Love Actually), Jason Hughes (Midsummer Murders), Silas Carson (Star Wars), Syreeta Kumar (Fool Me Once), Amy Morgan (Mr Selfridge), Oliver Hembrough (The White Princess), Murray McArthur (Wonka), and Dean Boodaghians-Nolan (House of the Dragon).

Meanwhile, Death in Paradise fans can enjoy Death in Paradise season 14, currently screening on BBC One on Friday nights, while we wait for news as to whether Return to Paradise will get a second series.

Beyond Paradise, created by Robert Thorogood and Tony Jordan, is expected to return to BBC One in the spring. It will be available on BritBox in the US.

Death in Paradise has revealed first-look pictures of ex-Holby star Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge whose new character is replacing Commissioner Selwyn Patterson.

Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge, who played Holby City's Josh Hudson, makes his debut as Sterling Fox in episode six of the hit BBC One drama (which will air on Friday, March 14).

Death in Paradise season 14 has revolved around Selwyn's role being phased out, sparking widespread speculation that Don Warrington is leaving Death in Paradise as The Commissioner.

It did appear that the role was being phased out but in a fresh twist Friday's episode, episode six, sees Sterling Fox arrive at Saint Marie police headquarters.

Sterling Fox's arrival causes shockwaves — minor spoilers ahead about Sterling’s first episodes.

Sterling Fox is first seen in episode six and we saw his arrival briefly teased at the end of episode five. After arriving in a flash car, he tells The Commissioner his office is "cute!".

In episode seven, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) continues to try to investigate the suspicious death of his mother, Dorna Bray (Judith Jacob). Mervin has lots of questions about his mother’s death and he seems to be getting closer to cracking the case.

However, Sterling tries to shut down the investigation. It's not clear what's motivating Sterling. Is he somehow connected to the case? Or does he simply believe it's a waste of time? What we do know is that the team tries to get around Fox's orders to help Mervin find out what really happened to his mother. Little else is known about the character but he's sure to shake things up. Might he be a permanent new team member? Or will The Commissioner see him off?

Time on Holby

Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge played medic Josh Hudson in Holby City between 2020 and 2022. Josh was a father to premature twins in the show and the character it was revealed suffered from bulimia. Unfortunately, Josh's story couldn't be thoroughly told as Holby ended in 2022. Treive also appeared in the TV series Rematch about world chess champion Garry Kasparov’s 1997 match against the supercomputer Deep Blue.

Trieve makes his Death in Paradise debut as Sterling Fox on Friday, March 7 on BBC One at 9 pm (the episode will also be added then onto BBC iPlayer).

Don Warrington has played Commissioner Selwyn Patterson since the very first season of Death in Paradise.

Indeed, The Commissioner is the only character in Death in Paradise season 14, who appeared in the first ever episode, "Arriving in Paradise", in 2011. Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine) didn't show up until the second episode of season 1.

However, one of the main plots of series 14 was the news that The Commissioner's job is being phased out. In Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5, The Commissioner got "narky", as DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) put it, as it was revealed that it was his final week on the job. Despite Catherine raising a massive petition to keep him, the bosses were determined to end The Commissioner's role in Saint Marie.

Then in episode six, The Commissioner packed up his office, and his "replacement", Sterling Fox arrived. Then, in episodes seven and eight the story concluded. Here's everything we know...

Is Don Warrington officially leaving Death in Paradise as The Commissioner? (spoilers if you've not seen the final episode)

Don Warrington hasn't officially left Death in Paradise as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson. Neither the actor nor the show has said we've seen the last of the character. However, in the final episode of season 14, Selwyn revealed he'd been offered his job back and refused. He mentioned that he would go and visit his daughter, Andrina. The door is then open for Don Warrington to appear in Death in Paradise season 15. However, it appears likely that the character won't be in every episode and instead might make guest appearances.

As background to all of this, in episode six of series 14, Sterling Fox arrived. He was not a direct replacement as he's managing several islands including Saint Marie. In his introduction episode, it's clear Sterling is rather smug and dismissive of what Selwyn does. He's soon annoying the team, especially with his talk of cost-cutting.

Indeed, in episode 7, new boss Sterling (Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge) attempts to shut down Mervin’s investigation into the death of his mother, Dorna Bray (EastEnders' Judith Jacob). But this backfires on Sterling as Mervin catches the killer, with Selwyn's help, and shows that Sterling almost let a murderer roam free on the island.

In episode 8, a newspaper headline makes it clear Sterling is in disgrace, and the bosses offer Selwyn his job back. However, he refuses.

What medals does Selwyn have?

According to an official fan site among Selwyn's many medals are the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Saint Marie's Lifetime Award for Services to the Island Medal and the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

What does The Commissioner actually do in Death in Paradise?

This is the question that many of his DIs have asked over the years! Well, one thing he does is recruit the team, and fair play to him he has a real talent for finding brilliant DIs who are from the UK. He's also good at mentoring members of the team and trying to get the best out of them.

After this quite how he fills his days is something of a mystery, although he does deal with the big bosses. He loves yachting and we wonder if he sometimes sneaks off for a quick sail around Saint Marie harbour on quieter days. In terms of actually solving cases, he doesn't do a lot. It seemed a bit much in episode 5 of the most recent series when he started barking at the team for failing to solve the case in record time and then offered nothing in the way of any help. Indeed, it's amazing how loyal his team is given how narky he gets.

Death in Paradise season 14 is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and BritBox in the US. Every episode screened to date on the BBC is available on BBC iPlayer. We also have a rundown of the best-ever Death in Paradise episodes.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5 sees the team's day off at a football match swiftly interrupted by — what else? — a murder, when one of the star players from a rival side is shot in the dressing room, while all of the prime suspects are on the pitch, in full view of the police!

There's also an unexpectedly personal element to the case for Naomi when the match's referee turns out to be her ex-boyfriend from back home in Saint Barnabas, and reconnecting with him forces her to question some of her life choices.

Here's what happened in Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5...

We begin with Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine), in her role as mayor, making an announcement to the crowd at Saint Marie Stadium where Saint Marie are playing Saint Auguste in the women's youth cup final. Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah), DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet), Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) take their seats in the crowd as drummers beat out a catchy rhythm and dancers swirl their skirts on the pitch, with Naomi jokily noting to Mervin that he won't get this on "Day of the Match" (Naomi inaccurately referring to Match of the Day is my favourite running gag of this season — what can I say, I'm easily amused).

The players of Saint Auguste take to the pitch, led by goalkeeper Ines Mercedes (Nkechi Simms), accompanied by the Saint Marie team led by striker Grace Devon (Rita Bernard-Shaw). Darlene shows her enthusiasm by blowing a vuvuzela, which is delightful. Saint Auguste's coach Curtly Lewis (Patrick Regis) calls Ines over and points out two talent scouts at the side of the pitch, reminding her of the game plan: she's to play the ball long and keep her cool. Curtly's daughter Brigitte (Hijack's Chantelle Alle), who's also on the Saint Auguste team, tries to get her dad's attention, but he dismisses her.

The match gets underway but Ines is acting oddly — rather than following Curtly's instructions to play the ball long after intercepting it, she's throwing it feebly back out onto the pitch, much to his annoyance. Grace crashes into Ines during a particularly heated moment, and when Ines protests, Grace hits back with "not looking too impressive now, are you, superstar?" Ines sees red and gives Grace a shove — ironically, that means she sees red for a second time when referee Emmanuel Warner (Three Little Birds' Bobby Gordon) sends her off. Curtly is furious, and the scouts are disappointed, getting up to leave the stands. Brigitte is set on in Ines's place.

As the game continues, Darlene points out the "fine-looking referee" to Naomi, who looks alarmed when she catches sight of him. Grace scores for Saint Marie, to the delight of the home crowd, just before Emmanuel blows the whistle for halftime. As the players return to the dressing room, Brigitte stops in her tracks as she sees Ines lying on the floor with a pool of blood under her legs — dead.

Mervin and Naomi get to work investigating, and determine the cause of death as a single gunshot wound to Ines's right thigh, with a small entry wound and a larger exit wound. Mervin notices a bullet hole in the wall — but no sign of the bullet. He wonders if the killer deliberately took a souvenir. Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) arrives, and Mervin and Naomi get him up to speed on the case, explaining that nobody could have got in through the windows because they're too small, and they're also too high up for the killer to have shot her through the window. Her mobile phone is still there, so it can't have been a burglary. Selwyn asks if any of them saw or heard anything suspicious while they were watching the match, and tells them that the press are outside wanting answers. He reminds them that he is due to leave his position in less than a week, so he wants Ines's killer caught before then.

Outside, Seb is taking statements — but has focused on one specific witness, Mrs Valois, who was telling him about her sick dog. Darlene encourages him to get a wiggle on so that they can search the area for the murder weapon. Mervin is frustrated that they can't find any witnesses who saw anyone entering or leaving the changing room while Ines was in there. At this point, Emmanuel recognises Naomi and comes over; she's thrown to see him, but tells Mervin that the two of them are "old friends" from back home. Emmanuel tells them that he didn't know Ines personally, but she was well-known on the circuit generally. Mervin asks him if the red card moment was normal behaviour for Ines, and Emmanuel says it wasn't, so Naomi suggests they speak to Grace to see if she can shed any light. Emmanuel tells Naomi it was good to see her again, and leaves. Mervin senses that Naomi's "just friends" story wasn't the unvarnished truth.

Mervin and Naomi speak to Grace, who tries to brush the clash off as normal football business. She says it was an important match that they had trained hard for. Mervin asks her if she had a particularly deep rivalry with Ines, and Grace says Ines is a tough opponent, but she hardly knew her off the pitch. Grace's phone rings, and she tries to ignore it until Mervin asks if she's planning to answer it. As she walks off, Mervin and Naomi agree that Grace seems nervous.

Back at the police station, Naomi sums up what they know so far: Ines was 18, and was spotted by Curtly playing street football as a teenager. Mervin wonders what Brigitte, as the team's reserve goalie, thought about the fact that her own dad saw Ines as the star of the team. Seb says that he found a picture of Ines on her socials with some talent scouts from US colleges, and it looks like she was destined for big things. Mervin says that the time of Ines's death was some time between her being sent off, and half time — but Naomi points out that nobody heard a gunshot in that time. Seb's phone keeps pinging; it's Mrs Valois, sending him pictures of her shih tzu, and Darlene tells him that this is why the police usually take the witness's phone number rather than the other way around. The team work out that Grace scored at 2:35pm, which prompted the drummers to play and the crowd to cheer, and therefore seems to be the only time that a gun could have been fired without anyone hearing it. Darlene has been going through Ines's phone and found that she was receiving death threats, including one saying "play the final and die". She says she's contacted the network provider to trace the number, but they won't hear back until the morning at the earliest, so Mervin decides to call it a night.

After Mervin and Seb leave, Darlene asks Naomi about Emmanuel, and Naomi explains that he's her ex, who she broke up with when she moved to Saint Marie. They were together for four years, which she tries to play down as "no big deal", but she admits it was weird to see him again. Naomi claims she's over the relationship, but Darlene doesn't seem convinced.

The next morning, Mervin is having breakfast at the shack with Harry the lizard when Naomi arrives and notes the suspicious absence of his air conditioner from last week's episode. Mervin says that it packed up last night, and Naomi says that at least he can have his windows open to see the ocean now. She tells Mervin that she thinks he's starting to like Saint Marie, and Mervin tells her to hold her horses on that one, but admits he is taking her advice and trying to make the most of his time there — he's going to barbecue lobster night at the Flying Fish later. Naomi says she's pleased that Mervin is going back there to reconnect with his mother, and Mervin says that since he closed that case, he's been sleeping better, so he thanks Naomi for her help. He suggests Naomi join him for barbecue lobster later if she doesn't have any other plans, and Naomi agrees on one condition: that he doesn't order pudding before she's eaten her starter.

Over at Government House, Selwyn is sorting through his files as Catherine arrives. He tells her that he's getting things in order before he leaves, but she tells him that the petition to save his job now has over 10,000 signatures and that they need to go to Kingston to meet with the Chief Commissioner so that he can see the whole island supports Selwyn. Selwyn, however, doesn't like this idea as he's already appealed to the Chief Commissioner unsuccessfully, and doesn't want to be reduced to begging. Catherine tells Selwyn that she'll plead his case even if he won't. Selwyn replies that he's touched, but he thinks she's letting her emotions cloud her judgement. Catherine tells him she's doing this as the mayor of the community, not as his friend. Selwyn insists it will be embarrassing for both of them, but Catherine is resolute.

At the police station, Darlene says the network wasn't able to trace the number that the threats were sent from, but one of the threatening messages included what looks like a picture of Ines at the team's hotel, with the stalker saying that they were watching her, so Darlene suggests they go to the hotel to check the CCTV. Seb arrives, late for work — he was helping Mrs Valois with her shopping.

Naomi has been speaking to the scouts from the university in Florida: apparently Curtly was close to signing a scholarship deal for gifted players that would have brought a $1.5m investment in his football club — and Ines was supposed to be the scheme's first member. However, the scouts were already having doubts about Ines's temperament, so when she was sent off during the match, they decided there and then not to go ahead with her. Emmanuel arrives at the police station, and asks Naomi if he can talk to her about Ines.

Emmanuel explains that while he was checking the corner flags before the match, he saw Ines arguing with Curtly: she claimed that she had a migraine and wanted Brigitte to take her place in the match, but Curtly insisted Brigitte wasn't ready yet. Emmanuel says that Curtly has a bit of a reputation as a "barker" on the touchline, and Mervin and Naomi decide that they need to go and speak to him. As Mervin heads to the van, Naomi thanks Emmanuel for coming in and apologises if she was a bit off with him yesterday. He tells her that it's fine, and asks if she is free for a drink this evening. Naomi says she would like that, and heads over to Mervin (who Naomi has reluctantly allowed behind the wheel again, despite what happened last time), asking if she can take a rain check on their dinner plans tonight.

At the stadium, Curtly is conducting a training session, explaining to Mervin and Naomi that the team were struggling with being stuck in the hotel, and he thought a training session would help. He tells them that Ines didn't seem to realise the scholarship scheme was her big moment. Naomi asks if he was angry when she got sent off, and he says of course he was: it took a lot to persuade the coaches that his girls were disciplined enough to make it, and Ines was going to be the test case. Mervin brings up the loss of the huge investment, and Curtly curtly (heh) tells him that he wouldn't have killed Ines over a business deal. Mervin asks whether Brigitte felt overshadowed by Ines, and Curtly tells him that he has a great relationship with his daughter, and that Ines and Brigitte were close friends.

At the hotel, Seb and Darlene have struck gold on the CCTV, where they can see someone with a yellow backpack taking a picture of Ines's room — it's Brigitte. Mervin and Naomi go to speak to Brigitte, who denies sending horrible messages to her best friend. Mervin and Naomi question her about her relationship with her father, and Brigitte admits that Curtly told her she wasn't good enough for the scholarship, and that she sent the messages to scare Ines so that she would drop out of the match and give Birgitte a chance to play — but she didn't kill Ines. Mervin informs her that regardless of the outcome of the place, she'll be facing malicious communications charges, and Naomi tells her not to leave the island.

At the police station, Mrs Valois has come to see Seb, while Darlene shares the post-mortem results with Mervin and Naomi, confirming that Ines died of a major haemorrhage due to the gunshot wound to her thigh, and that the lab found double the recommended dose of a painkiller in her blood. Seb has a brainwave: after speaking with Mrs Valois and checking the pictures on her phone, he found that she'd shot some footage at the football match of laundry bags that weren't there while the police were interviewing the witnesses, so maybe whoever collected them saw something important? Mervin congratulates Seb on his outside-the-box thinking and Darlene gives him a proud maternal smile.

Later, Selwyn is getting tetchy about the lack of progress on the case just as Seb returns from the launderette with the murder weapon, which he thinks the killer stashed in the laundry bags. Mervin gets Seb to get the gun rushed off to the lab, and hopes that the washing machine hasn't cleaned off all the forensic residue. He tells everyone to go home for the night.

Naomi, of course, has big plans for the evening and heads to Catherine's Bar to meet Emmanuel, where Catherine tells her that she thinks her meeting with the Chief Commissioner went well. Emmanuel is already there waiting for Naomi. Sometime later, the two of them are reminiscing about old times and there's clearly still chemistry there. Emmanuel asks her if she's been seeing anyone else since they broke up, and Naomi says there hasn't been anything serious because she's so busy with work. Emmanuel tells her that she always knew she'd be successful.

Later still, they're enjoying a walk on the beach, where Emmanuel tells Naomi that she seems happy in Saint Marie, and she tells him that she is. Emmanuel asks Naomi why she didn't ask him to move with her, and she's surprised: she didn't think he would want to leave Saint Barnabas. He says he thought she wanted to be rid of him, and he didn't want to hold her back; Naomi insists that's not how she felt. She's on the verge of suggesting they try things again when Emmanuel cuts her off and admits he has something to tell her: he's engaged to someone else.

Having been avoiding work calls from Mervin during the previous scene, a saddened Naomi finally joins him at the Flying Fish, where a waitress said something that gave him pause: a week before she died, Dorna was talking about scattering her father's ashes on the beach near the restaurant, so why did she end up taking them out to sea instead? He asks Naomi what she thinks, and Naomi starts to cry; a situation that Mervin is completely unequipped for. He remembers what Naomi had planned that evening, and Naomi tells him that Emmanuel is engaged, apologising for crying in front of him. She says that she thinks she messed up, because Emmanuel is moving on with his life, just like everyone else she knows. She wonders if she should have stayed on Saint Barnabas, but Mervin points out that if she'd done that, she wouldn't be here now, doing the job that she loves and is very good at. Naomi sobs that she's worried she made the wrong choice, and Mervin tells her that there is no such thing: he admits that he was engaged once, but work got in the way and his fiancée got fed up of never seeing him. Naomi asks him if he thinks he could ever find a balance, and Mervin admits he's not managed it so far: it's difficult when work is the only thing he's really good at. Naomi smiles in recognition, and Mervin offers her some rum cake to cheer her up. (What a lovely scene that was — written with real warmth and perfectly played by Don Gilet and Shantol Jackson.)

The next day, at the police station, Mervin is back at the crime board going over everything they know so far. The one thing that's still puzzling everyone is that all of their suspects were visible on the pitch at the moment they believe Ines was shot. The lab report comes back from the gun, with the unsurprising news that there were no prints on it; however, the serial number connects it to a seller called Warwick Edwards. Darlene says that name rings a bell: Dwayne knew him back in the day, so she offers to track him down and see if he remembers who he sold the gun to.

While Darlene and Seb are making inquiries, Naomi approaches Mervin and apologises for last night, saying she's very embarrassed. Mervin tells her not to be, but not to do it again. Naomi asks if he's going to look into what the waitress said about his mother's plans for the ashes, but Mervin says he's decided it probably isn't important, and he's just going to leave it be. He's been going through Ines's phone records, and discovered that she booked a cab from the hotel the night before she died, so Naomi offers to go down to the cab office and see if she can find out where Ines went.

Catherine catches up with Selwyn, who tells her he has already heard from the Chief Commissioner that the decision won't be reversed. Catherine is outraged, because the Chief Commissioner "sat there, eating his prawn cocktail" (what a fabulous image) and told her the petition would definitely make a difference. She says she feels like an idiot, and Selwyn says that's not what she is. Catherine apologises for ignoring Selwyn's wishes, and he tells her that he's very grateful that she tried to save his job, even if she ultimately wasn't successful. He suggests they both accept the situation as it is.

While Darlene and Seb are waiting for Warwick to return from the shops, Darlene offers up an apology to Seb for previously giving him a hard time about Mrs Valois: she tells him that community policing is all about going the extra mile for the public, and it's good to be reminded of that sometimes. Seb says that his mother is a pastor at St Vincent's, and one of her favourite quotes from the Bible is "do unto others as you would like done unto you". Darlene says his mother must be so proud, but Seb says he thinks his mum is just waiting for him to ruin this opportunity like he ruins everything else. (There's more lovely character work going on in this scene; Ginny Holder and Shaquille Ali-Yebuah really making the most of the chance to let their characters breathe outside of the investigation.) Warwick approaches, and Seb goes to speak to him.

Back at the police station, Mervin has been brushing up on his football stats: apparently Saint Auguste have won the cup final six times in the last 10 years, compared to just two for Saint Marie. Naomi says that the cab driver told her that he drove Ines to Grace's house; Ines asked him to wait outside, and when she emerged, Grace was chasing her down the street and they had a big argument that ended with them both crying. Darlene calls, with the news of who Warwick sold the gun to.

Darlene and Seb are waiting outside Grace's house when she attempts to sneak out with a backpack. Seeing them waiting, she drops the bag and breaks into a run, so Seb gives chase — and Darlene uses the motorbike to get ahead of Grace and cut her off. At the police station, Grace admits that she and Ines were a couple, but Curtly banned all the girls from dating during the season, so they had to keep their relationship quiet. She says that Ines made her delete all of their messages, and she doesn't even have a photo with her. Grace says that Ines came over that night to end things between them; she had been planning to go with Ines to Florida if she got the scholarship, but Ines said she didn't want Grace distracting her during such an important opportunity. Mervin suggests that Ines ditched Grace because she didn't love her enough, and Naomi — definitely not overidentifying with this scenario at all — says that isn't necessarily true, that maybe Ines had the chance to follow the dream that she'd had since she was a little girl, and would never have forgiven herself if she hadn't devoted herself to it fully, that maybe it wasn't about Grace at all. Grace says she only wanted the best for Ines, and Naomi softens. Mervin asks her what she bought the gun for, and Grace says she bought it to protect Ines because she knew she'd been getting death threats. Apparently Ines was convinced someone was going to attack her at the match, but now Grace realises that if she hadn't given Ines the gun, she might not have died.

Outside, Naomi apologises to Mervin for getting carried away, and the two of them feel fairly certain that Grace isn't Ines's killer. As Seb and Darlene return, Mervin gets them all to throw around a football while they throw around a hypothetical: Ines didn't want to play in the match because of the death threats, but ultimately did end up taking part, so what made her change her mind? Naomi suggests she decided the risk was worth it — but Mervin wonders, if that's the case, why did Ines ignore all of Curtly's game plans? He reminds that Ines's future depended on this match, and she let her temper get the better of her. He chucks the ball to Seb, who misses it, saying that he's "not so good with [his] left" — which gives Mervin an idea. He asks Naomi to get that news article from his desk that he read the stats in earlier, and the photo of the Saint Auguste team, because he's ready to gather the suspects.

So here's what happened: Brigitte shot Ines — before the match. Looking through some old team photos, Mervin noticed that Ines would always be kneeling on her right knee, but in the picture taken at the cup final, she's kneeling on her left because doing anything with her right leg at the time would have been immensely painful. Ines wanted to pull out of the match, because she'd received a text from Brigitte telling her that she'd die if she played in it. She made the fateful decision to bring the gun that Grace had bought her for protection. As for what made Ines change her mind about playing, Brigitte admits that she overhead Ines and Curtly arguing, and that Ines was sticking up for Brigitte because she believed she was good enough to play. Racked with guilt, Brigitte went into the changing room with Ines and confessed to being the person who had sent the threatening texts. Ines took the gun out of her bag to show Brigitte the lengths she had gone to protect herself. Brigitte tried to take the gun away from her, but Ines wouldn't let it go, and in the struggle, the gun went off, firing a bullet straight through Ines's thigh and into the wall behind them. The gunshot went unheard by the supporters outside, because the band were rehearsing loudly at the time.

Brigitte says that the bullet wound was small and there was hardly any blood, so they thought Ines would be all right. Naomi theorises that if people found out about the shooting, all three of them would be in trouble: Ines for carrying an unlicensed firearm, Grace for supplying it, and Brigitte for sending threatening messages. It would not only ruin Ines's future, but Grace's and Brigitte's too. Ines didn't want that to happen, so they tried to cover up the shooting: they bandaged up Ines's thigh using the first aid kit, and Brigitte took the bullet out of the wall. Brigitte explains that she put the gun in her locker at first so she could get rid of it after the game, at which point the plan was also to get Ines some proper treatment. Ines took some painkillers and decided to play the game, but she was still in so much pain that she couldn't kick: hence her throwing the ball rather than kicking it long as Curtly had planned. The pain and frustration was what triggered Ines's clash with Grace and led to the red card, then when Ines went back to the changing room and took off the dressing to check her wound, she haemorrhaged because the exertion of playing the match had loosened a blood clot. She tried to phone for an ambulance, but bled out before she could make the call.

Brigitte explains that she took the bandages off the floor and threw them away, and then took the gun out of her locker when her father was getting the rest of the team out of the changing room — but when she saw the police, she panicked and threw the gun into the laundry basket. She'd planned to move it later, but the laundry had already been collected by the time she came back. Curtly speaks up to say that Brigitte didn't deliberately kill Ines, and Mervin agrees that it was a tragic accident, but says that Brigitte will still be charged with manslaughter. Grace is also arrested for illegally supplying a firearm. As she's being cuffed, Brigitte tearfully apologises to Grace. (Is it just me, or is the most heartbreaking part of all of this that Ines was trying to protect Grace and Brigitte when she played in the match that killed her, so she ultimately died for nothing?)

Afterwards, Naomi catches up with Emmanuel, who congratulates her on solving a tough case. He asks if this is goodbye for them, and Naomi in turn congratulates him on his engagement. He tells her to make sure she comes to say hi to him next time she's back on Saint Barnabas, and they part as friends — though Naomi is clearly still pretty heartbroken.

She goes for a consoling drink with Darlene at Catherine's Bar, and Catherine reveals that she's recently started seeing someone — all very casual — and his son is a doctor who might be a good match for Naomi. Naomi thanks her, but says that she's not ready to date anyone else right now. Seb and Mervin arrive with drinks, as well as a thank you cake from Mrs Valois, and Selwyn joins them to apologise for being grumpy over the past few days. He thanks them all for working so hard, and says he appreciates them all, even if he doesn't always show it.

Later in the evening, Mervin is sitting on the beach enjoying the view, and Naomi brings him a drink, teasing him that he really is starting to like it in Saint Marie. She's clutching a piece of paper, and admits that what he said about Dorna wanting to scatter her father's ashes on the beach has been playing on her mind. She tells him that if you want to scatter a loved one's remains on the island you need a permit, so she went to check the council records office and Dorna applied for permission two weeks before her death. They both agree that it's odd that Dorna did this only to end up scattering the ashes at sea, and come to the conclusion that they need to reopen the investigation into Dorna's death...

Since DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) arrived in Death in Paradise back in 2022, we've gotten to know her as an extremely professional and highly skilled member of the team — but we haven't always known much about what she gets up to when she's not working.

That all changes in the latest episode of Death in Paradise season 14, as an investigation into the death of a star player at a women's football match in Saint Marie brings Naomi back into contact with her ex-boyfriend, Emmanuel Warner (Three Little Birds star Bobby Gordon), who was refereeing the game. Naomi's a little awkward around him and there's definitely unfinished business between them, so could there be a chance for her to rekindle that old flame?

We caught up with Shantol to find out more...

Shantol Jackson interview for Death in Paradise

• Death in Paradise airs on Friday nights at 9pm on BBC1 in the UK

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 4 sees the team investigating a suspicious poisoning at a local distillery that affects multiple people — but only kills one of them. Was it a deliberate murder, and if so, how did the killer ensure that the right person got the fatal dose?

Meanwhile, after seemingly wrapping up the investigation into his mother's untimely death, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) attempted to make the remainder of his time on Saint Marie more comfortable by creating a home-from-home, but things did not go according to plan.

Read on to find out how the case was solved...

We begin with an open-topped sports car arriving at the Ambrose Distillery, driven by Janelle Dulice (Top Boy's Michelle Asante). After parking, she's greeted by Cora Ambrose (In The Long Run's Madeline Appiah). Cora attempts some pleasantries, but Janelle wants to get straight down to business and asks where Patrick is. Cora tells Janelle that Patrick is by the tasting bar, along with Janelle's assistant Antony — a piece of information that Janelle seems briefly thrown by.

At the aforementioned tasting bar, Antony Dulice (Tienne Simon) is discussing with Patrick Ambrose (Miss Scarlet and the Duke's Ansu Kabia) his plans to launch his own start-up one day. Patrick seems distracted, but is vaguely encouraging. Janelle and Cora arrive, and Janelle ignores Patrick's attempt at a handshake. Patrick says the contract will be with them shortly, and Cora suggests having a drink while they wait; Janelle tells them she just needs a moment with Antony. After Cora and Patrick retreat, Janelle tells Antony — who it turns out is her son — that she told him he wasn't supposed to be here, but he appears to have invited himself along anyway so that he can learn from her. Cora tells him this is too important to mess up, and Antony is stung by the implication that his presence there would somehow mess it up.

At the tasting bar, master distiller Francesca Bower (Two Doors Down's Siobhán Redmond) gives everyone the tasting notes of the distillery's new rum, saying that it has been aged in oak barrels, and the bottle they are drinking from was drawn three days ago specifically for this meeting. She puts ice into everyone's glasses, although Patrick says he'll take his neat. Cora suggests that Janelle makes a toast, and Janette toasts "to doing business". The four of them clink their glasses and drink.

Some time later, Antony is being wheeled out on a stretcher as Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) arrive. Francesca identifies herself as the one who called them, and says this is all her fault — she thinks it was methanol poisoning, but is flustered because this should not have happened. Seb reports that three victims are on their way to hospital, but a fourth was found at the bar who didn't make it. At the tasting bar, Patrick's lifeless body remains on the floor.

At the beach shack, Mervin is delightedly taking care of an air-conditioning unit. Now, I may not be a HVAC expert of any kind, but this seems to me to be both a wasteful and pointless investment for a building that looks to be about 40% open windows. But perhaps I'm missing something? DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) arrives and is intrigued (not necessarily in a positive way) by the presence of the AC unit, which Mervin claims to be renting for a pittance. That's not the only bit of home improvement he's been working on, either; he's only gone and stuck a satellite dish on the outside. Mervin explains to Naomi that he's just trying to enjoy himself for the remainder of his stay on the island, and she asks if he's feeling all right about closing his mother's case. Mervin insists that he's fine, especially now he can watch the football, with air-conditioning. Naomi tells him there's been an accidental poisoning that has hospitalized three people and killed one, and Mervin guesses that it happened at the Ambrose Distillery, much to Naomi's surprise.

At the distillery, Darlene sets the scene: Patrick is the distillery owner and, like all the victims, had a single shot of rum before starting to feel ill. Mervin crouches over the body making "mmhmm" noises, annoying Darlene who tends to prefer communication in actual words, and Naomi explains to Darlene that she thinks Mervin is behaving this way for a reason; she's just not sure what that reason might be. Naomi asks if there's any explanation for Patrick dying and everyone else surviving, and Darlene says the current assumption is that he simply drank slightly more than everyone else. Mervin finds what he's looking for on the body: a Post-It note. He explains that he got a call on his mobile two days ago from someone who didn't say anything before hanging up, and when he checked the number, it came from the Ambrose Distillery — but when he called back, the receptionist said it could have come from any phone on the estate and there was no way of telling. Now he knows it was Patrick who was phoning, and the fact that he has now died feels like too much of a coincidence.

Francesca, still quite emotional, says that health and safety officers have confirmed the cask was contaminated, so she can only assume that she must have distilled it at the wrong temperature and failed to remove all of the methanol; whether it was a faulty thermometer or human error, it's her fault. She walks Mervin through what happened: she drew the rum three days ago, the bottle was capped and sealed and given to Patrick, who kept it ever since. At the gathering, Patrick uncapped the bottle while Francesca put out four glasses, with ice in everyone's apart from his. Patrick poured everyone a shot, and they all sipped. Cora was about to pour Patrick a second shot while Francesca refreshed the glasses, and that's when Patrick started coughing, with everyone else falling ill soon afterwards. Mervin asks what they were all doing here, and Francesca explains that Janelle was about to buy the distillery from Patrick, but they never got to sign the contract. Since Cora is the last remaining member of the Ambrose family, Francesca assumes she is now the sole owner of the distillery.

Francesca is expecting to be arrested, but Mervin thinks it's more complicated than that: the impending signing of the contract to sell the entire estate is a second suspicious element in this case. But Patrick was the one who poured the drinks — so if it was murder, and the poisoning was intentional, how did the killer ensure Patrick gave himself a lethal dose but not anyone else?

At the police station, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) is waiting, because he has further info about the Ambrose family. He recalls that about 18 years ago, Patrick fell out with his father Darnell, though the reason for the argument was never made clear. Darnell died six weeks ago, so Patrick has only just inherited the distillery — and presumably returned to Saint Marie to sell it. Mervin and Naomi conclude that Patrick's lengthy absence, and the fact that he died shortly after returning to the island, amounts to Suspicious Thing Number Three. As Selwyn is on his way out, Darlene stops to check if he is all right in light of his impending redundancy. He assures her that he is fine, but thanks her for asking.

The next morning, Naomi arrives at the shack to find all of the doors and windows closed. She knocks on the door, and Mervin drags her inside where she gets an unpleasant shock: a temperature of 18ºC. Mervin admits that the downside to all of this is the need to keep the doors and windows closed at all times (see, like I said!), and Naomi says if it were up to her, she'd prefer to be able to see the view. She also points out that Harry the lizard seems to be suffering in the cold, so Mervin — who hadn't even noticed Harry was in the shack — quickly lets him out.

On the way to work, Naomi fills Mervin in on what she heard from the Ambrose family's lawyer: ever since Patrick left home 18 years ago, Cora helped her father to run the distillery, and it took her a long time to earn his respect. Reading between the lines, Naomi has deduced that Darnell was quite a traditional chap who wanted his son, not his daughter, to inherit the family business. However, Cora gradually convinced him that she had the skills, but he never got around to changing his will in time, and Cora was devastated when she found out that Patrick was not only inheriting the distillery, but planning to sell it.

Mervin goes to see Cora in hospital, where she admits that she and Patrick never got on, and she wasn't particularly upset when he disappeared all those years ago. She says that at first, their father kept putting a monthly allowance into Patrick's account, but he stopped after a year — hoping that being cut off would force Patrick to return home. Mervin asks how she felt when Patrick inherited the distillery, and Cora admits she was "beyond angry", and isn't shy about the fact that Patrick's death has given her everything she ever wanted — but promises Mervin that she didn't kill him.

Darlene and Seb are searching Patrick's office, and Seb is particularly impressed that Patrick had a minibar in there. Darlene is a bit distracted thinking about Selwyn losing his job, but breaks out of her reverie when she notices Seb taking pictures of the inside of the minibar, and points out that the room they are in isn't even a crime scene. Seb explains this is his new approach to investigating: previously he hasn't been doing enough and has missed things, so now he's going to do too much — and demonstrates this by photographing Darlene, who kisses her teeth at him.

Leaving the hospital, Mervin fills Naomi in on Cora's testimony. They see Janelle and Antony getting into a car, and Naomi reveals that neither of them seems to have much of a motive for wanting Patrick dead: Janelle only met Patrick a few days ago, and Antony only met him the day Patrick died. Plus, Janelle has majorly lost out from the sale of the distillery not going through. Janelle's phone rings, and she looks momentarily panicked, but doesn't answer it.

Back at the police station, Darlene updates Mervin on the lab reports: the bottle of rum was contaminated, and there were traces in all four glasses but nowhere else. Patrick's post-mortem confirms he died of methanol poisoning, with the amount found in his system being higher than that found in the other three. Seb suggests that Patrick was the only one drinking his rum neat, so possibly the poison was diluted by the melting ice? Mervin shoots that theory down, saying that the melting ice wouldn't have reduced the overall dosage of poison. Darlene wonders if the killer wasn't even that calculating, that they didn't care how many people died and just got lucky that everyone apart from Patrick survived. Mervin points out that a potential outcome of that approach would Patrick surviving and everyone else dying; the opposite of what the killer wanted. Darlene says that during the search, she found out that Janelle used to work for the Ambrose Distillery, aged 19, for one summer before going to university in the US. Naomi does some mental arithmetic and reckons that, despite what she told them, Janelle must have met Patrick when she was working there. Darlene clarifies that she's talking about the summer of 2007, 18 years ago, and Mervin realises that's the same year Patrick left, so he asks her to go back to the distillery first thing in the morning and speak to anyone who was working there in 2007. Mervin's phone rings: it's the Commissioner, instructing him to return to the shack immediately.

Back at the shack, Mervin's satellite dish has attracted a lot of unwelcome attention. He asks Selwyn what the problem is, and Selwyn explains that the dish is an eyesore, and Mervin didn't seek permission to install it — and had he asked, Selwyn would have told him it's illegal. Mervin can't believe this, saying "you can just shove those up in London, no one gives a hoot". Naomi gently explains that the fact that the shack is on a public beach is part of the problem, and Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine) adds that its in an area of natural beauty. She says that the council are not happy about it, and hands Mervin a fine for $150. Selwyn advises Mervin to pay the fine swiftly and take the satellite dish down. Catherine tells Mervin that it was nice seeing him again, although her tone of voice implies the opposite.

Naomi helps Mervin to take the dish down, and suggests that instead of sitting inside watching TV for the next few weeks, he could spend a bit more time getting to know about his mother — perhaps visit her old haunts, talk to her friends, that sort of thing. Mervin says that her neighbour Brianna mentioned a seafood restaurant that Dorna liked to go to, and Naomi suggests he go there and try it for himself. She reminds him that this is his one chance to learn about his mother's life on Saint Marie, and points out that he can watch "Day of the Match" (heh) as much as he likes when he gets home. Mervin agrees to give the idea due consideration.

At the distillery the next day, Seb reports that Patrick and Janelle were both seen there for the last time on August 22, 2007, with Darlene adding that people assumed they'd run away together, although nobody knows for sure. Naomi says that a summer romance from 18 years ago isn't much of a motive for murder, but Mervin says that it is odd that they both came back to the distillery at the same time.

Naomi and Mervin go to speak to Janelle, who warns them not to listen to gossip, and that there was never anything between her and Patrick. Looking at a picture of Janelle and Antony, Mervin notes that his date of birth is marked on the back: May 28 2008, roughly nine months after she left the distillery. Janelle admits that Patrick was Antony's father, but by the time she found out she was pregnant, he'd already disappeared, so she got on with raising Antony by herself. Mervin questions whether it's truly a coincidence that she came back to the island with Antony right before Patrick died, but Janelle insists her return was purely business, adding that Antony doesn't know Patrick was his father and she doesn't want him to find out about it now. Antony returns home as Mervin and Naomi are leaving, and asks what the police were doing there; Janelle tells him it was just routine questioning.

Naomi is surprised when Mervin takes her out for lunch to The Flying Fish restaurant — his mother's favourite place to eat. However, Mervin approaches lunch the same way he approaches everything else: with a ruthless efficiency, only briefly scanning the menu before ordering and asking the waitress to hurry the chef along as they're on the clock. Naomi encourages him to talk to the staff to see if they knew his mother, but Mervin is still in work mode and thinks Janelle isn't telling them the full story about what happened 18 years ago.

Francesca goes to Catherine's Bar for a drink, and admits to Catherine that she's feeling out of sorts with everything that's happened recently. Catherine encourages Francesca to open up, and Francesca says there's something she knows that she should probably tell the police — she feels it would be wrong to speak up, but also wrong to keep quiet, and she's not sure what to do. Catherine offers to help by making a call.

Back at the Flying Fish, Naomi is enjoying her lunch, but Mervin has already hoovered his up and is raring to get back to work, because he wants to consult the station duty logs from 18 years ago. He goes to settle the bill and suggests Naomi boxes the rest of her lunch up to take with her. Mervin goes to call Darlene to ask her to get the appropriate files out of the archives, but is confronted by a thoroughly exasperated Naomi (and her boxed lunch), who tells him bluntly that the point of coming to the restaurant was to reconnect with his mother, but he raced through the whole thing like it was just another item on his to-do list. She adds that if he'd stopped to really take notice of his surroundings, he would have seen a board inside with pictures of regular customers on it: including one of his mother. She reminds him that he's going to miss some really important things if he doesn't slow down, and Mervin tells her he knows that. The heat dissipates from the argument as they reach an understanding — Mervin, although he doesn't outright admit it, showing an awareness that he knows he shouldn't always act like this, and Naomi apologising for blowing up at him just now. (Some really lovely work from both Don Gilet and Shantol Jackson in this scene, by the way.)

Catherine has summoned Selwyn to her bar to meet with Francesca, who tells him that the thing she knows isn't really her secret to share — but she's been carrying it for so long. Selwyn advises her to open up, and Francesca tells him that it's about Janelle.

Back at the police station, Darlene has uncovered an entry from the duty logs concerning Janelle: she came to the police station in the morning of August 23 2007 — the day after she left the distillery — saying she wanted to report a crime. Sergeant Lily Thomson (remember her? The corrupt officer from the very first episode of Death in Paradise, played by Lenora Crichlow?) was on duty that day and started taking a statement, but Janelle changed her mind and left. Naomi wonders what crime Janelle intended to report, at which point Selwyn arrives with the answer to that question: Francesca told him that on August 22, she was leaving for the day when she found Janelle running through the distillery grounds in a state of distress and shock, having been sexually assaulted by Patrick. Selwyn says that in light of this new evidence, they need to speak to Janelle — but they need to be sensitive, so he asks for Naomi and Darlene to take the lead on this interview.

Janelle comes to the police station, having worked out that Francesca has been speaking to them. She says that she was working late on August 22, 2007 and was about to leave when Patrick appeared, saying he wanted a drink. Since he was the boss's son, she didn't feel able to refuse, but he started ranting about his father and the argument that they'd had earlier — apparently, the week before, a fire that was Patrick's fault had burned down one of the outbuildings and it was going to cost a lot of money to repair. Janelle tried to leave again, but Patrick stopped her and forced himself upon her. She says that when she heard Patrick was back and putting the distillery up for sale, she wanted to buy it so she could knock it all down and turn it into something else, erasing all of the horrible memories that it held for her. She wanted to see Patrick again, to look him in the eyes the way she couldn't 18 years ago. But it was strange when she did: he seemed like a different man, more guarded and quiet, like he was hiding something. She says that even though she spent most of her life hating Patrick, she didn't kill him because that would have made her no better than him.

Seb stops off at Catherine's Bar for a glass of water, and Catherine tells him how good Selwyn was with Francesca earlier. She thinks it's not right that he won't be there to do that any more, and Seb — via a characteristically meandering speech about his favourite character being written out of his favourite TV show when he was a kid — suggests that they could organise a petition to save Selwyn's job. Meanwhile, Mervin tells Selwyn that something is bothering him: from the start, they were working on the assumption that Patrick was the victim and one of their subjects was the perpetrator, but the opposite can also be true, as Janelle was a victim of a crime committed by Patrick. That's left him wondering why Patrick, as the perpetrator of a crime himself, would have been phoning the police.

Back at the police station, Mervin goes through the hundreds of photos that Seb took of the distillery, admitting that he doesn't entirely know what he's looking for. He finds a picture that Seb took of the inside of Patrick's minibar, and congratulates Seb on his good work because that picture might just be the key to solving the case. Meanwhile, Darlene — who has been dusting the Post-It note with Mervin's phone number on it for prints — has got a result, finding two sets of prints. One of them belongs to one of their suspects, but the other matches a guy unconnected to the case called Samson Lay. He was arrested for his involvement in a bank robbery in Guadeloupe in 2007 and later absconded, and there is still an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Seb wonders what Samson has to do with Patrick's murder, and Mervin twigs: everything.

Back at the distillery, Mervin shows the Post-It to Cora, saying that they found her fingerprints on it. He asks why she wrote his number down — was it because, as he suspects, she was planning to call him to report a crime a few days ago? Naomi says that they have just checked the body lying in the mortuary and confirmed it isn't actually Patrick Ambrose: it's Samson Lay. Mervin says she wanted to inform him that the man who had returned home claiming to be Patrick was actually an imposter, and Cora feigns ignorance — with Mervin adding that they know that the man killed here two days ago wasn't Patrick, it makes them wonder where the real Patrick is. He says he doesn't believe Patrick ever left the distillery — he thinks he is underneath the building they are standing in, and that Cora was the one who killed him. Cora protests, but the police have just brought in a specialist forensic team to determine if there is a body buried below, and are ready to bring in a digger as their next step.

Naomi asks Cora to tell them what happened on August 22, 2007 — the last night Patrick was seen at the distillery. Cornered, Cora admits to having seen Francesca and Janelle talking, which made her realise what Patrick had done to Janelle. Cora went to confront him, but he just smiled, so she grabbed the nearest thing she could reach — a bottle of rum — and whacked him with it. Patrick fell, banged his head, and never got up. As the new outbuilding was being constructed at the time, Mervin deduces that Cora dragged Patrick's body to the site so that the builders would unwittingly bury the body, and then convinced her father that Patrick had absconded. Cora says she took a suitcase, filled it with her brother's wallet, passport and clothes, and threw it into the sea. But when she heard that someone was drawing money from Patrick's account, she realised someone had stolen his identity. Samson looked reasonably like Patrick, so when he turned up, nobody knew he was an imposter apart from Cora. Mervin says that Samson was living a hand-to-mouth existence, so the opportunity to sell the distillery was too tempting to refuse, even though it was risky.

Naomi says that the police believe Cora found out about Janelle's plans to raze the distillery after buying it, and feared that Patrick's body would be found in the process. She wrote Mervin's number down because she was planning to report Samson as an imposter, but he figured out what she was up to, and warned her that if she tried anything, he'd let everyone know what she did to Patrick — so Cora felt that killing Samson was her only way out.

Everyone moves to the tasting bar to reveal how Cora committed the crime. The bottle of rum drawn by Francesca and poured by Patrick/Samson did not actually contain any methanol. Cora administered a non-lethal dose to herself, Janelle and Anthony by lacing the ice with it, leaving the poisoned ice cubes on the top of the bucket to ensure that Francesca would pick them. Samson then poured rum into everyone's glasses, causing the ice in Cora's, Janelle's and Antony's to melt and release a trace amount of methanol. At this point, Samson is the only one drinking a glass that didn't contain methanol: because he'd already been poisoned.

This is where Seb's photo of the minibar brings everything into focus (no pun intended): it was stacked with cans of soft drinks, which Samson clearly drank a lot of. During his statement, Antony confirmed that he saw "Patrick" finishing a can of soda when he arrived at the distillery, so Mervin is certain that Cora sneaked into Samson/Patrick's office shortly before Janelle and Antony arrived and spiked his drink while he was on the phone and distracted. All that was left to do was to contaminate the rum bottle after the fact, so when Cora offered everyone a second glass, she dropped the bottle top on the floor and added a few drops of methanol into the bottle while she was out of sight picking it up. While this was going on, Francesca was refreshing everyone's glasses, removing all traces of the poison — then Cora poured a second shot for Samson only, ensuring his glass would test positive for methanol and that the police would assume his first drink was poisoned just like everyone else's, since they were all poured from the same bottle, even though it was the soft drink that really killed him.

Cora apologises for what she did, saying that Samson wasn't a good man, but she didn't think he deserved to die. However, she says that Patrick did deserve to die, and she's not sorry for what she did to him. Naomi arrests Cora for Samson's murder.

With the case solved, Seb and Catherine get to work on an online petition to save Selwyn's job, while Mervin returns to the Flying Fish, trying to take it slowly the second time around. He goes to the board and looks at the picture of a smiling Dorna, and toasts his late mother with his bottle of beer before settling down to eat his dinner at a more leisurely pace while enjoying the view out towards the beach.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 3 sees a business launch take a terrible turn on Saint Marie when the founder dies just as she's about to launch a new product — and although it seems like she died of a tragic allergic reaction, it soon becomes clear that there was foul play involved. Meanwhile, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) finally gets the go-ahead to dig deeper into the mystery of what happened on the day his mother Dorna Bray died. Here's what went down in Death in Paradise season 14 episode 3...

We open on an idyllic beach, where Susie Montagu (Georgia Maguire) is arriving at her company Healing Skin and talking excitedly on the phone about launching a new moisturiser, Pelure. She greets Carrie Standish (Sex Education's Patricia Allison) and reveals that a client have upped their order to 800 jars of the new product; Carrie is delighted and embraces her. Daisy McCrae (Love Rat's Imogen King) pops her head in and says that she's just finished setting up, so it's probably time to start serving drinks. Susie tells them both to head out, and she'll see them out there.

Susie heads out to the crowd and is greeted with a smattering of applause before launching into a speech about how she's been plagued by allergies and illness all her life, until she moved to Saint Marie. She says that being able to help others like her through the products Healing Skin creates has changed her life, and she wants to thank everyone who's been on that journey with her. Later, she shows Carrie a promotional video that she's recorded as Daisy brings her a glass of champagne. But after just one sip, Susie starts coughing and then choking. She wheezes for someone to get her EpiPen and Daisy runs off to fetch it. Carrie injects her, but the shot doesn't work — and Susie stops breathing.

Later, Mervin attends the crime scene as DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) joins to brief him on the victim: Susie is 35 and collapsed with breathing difficulties, dying before the paramedics arrived. It seems that she died from anaphylactic shock, as the staff said she had a very severe peanut allergy. Mervin notes a nasty bruise on Susie's leg where she was given the EpiPen injection and wonders why it didn't work. He wonders what she could have ingested to trigger the nut allergy, and Naomi gestures to the spread of snacks that were laid out for the product launch.

Mervin and Naomi question Carrie and Daisy, who confirm that everyone at Healing Skin knew about Susie's nut allergy and that the caterers had been carefully briefed. Carrie adds that the drinks were from a nearby bar, who had also been warned about Susie's allergy. Mervin looks through Susie's bag and finds Susie's diary, which has an infinity symbol on the cover, and enquires about what Pelure is made of, with Daisy explaining that it contains naturally-shed snakeskin. Mervin sees a snake in a glass tank and recoils, to Naomi's amusement. Daisy, clearly still emotional, shows them the promotional video that Susie made earlier that morning, in which she says that Pelure makes your skin feel like velvet. Daisy tells them that Susie was really nice, and you wouldn't find anyone with a bad word to say about her. Well, we'll see about that.

Mervin heads outside with Susie's diary and shows Naomi an important clue within: Susie was on an intermittent fasting diet, and she hadn't eaten anything to eat that morning. He tells Naomi to call Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and get her to get everything from the buffet table tested. He asks Carrie and Daisy if Susie had any next of kin they need to speak to.

At a restaurant near the sea, Mervin and Naomi interview Susie's husband, Steve Montagu (Changing Ends' David Mumeni), and ask him about Susie's history with anaphylactic shock; he confirms that she'd had a few similar attacks in the past but the EpiPen always helped. Naomi confirms that one was administered, but it wasn't enough. Steve starts to cry, and Naomi suggests they complete the interview later, but Mervin wants to get it finished. He mentions Susie's intermittent fasting, and Steve says she was always careful about what she ate. Naomi says Susie was meant to fast this morning, so is there any chance she might have broken it? Steve says Susie was the most disciplined person he ever knew — if the diary said she was to be fasting, then she would have been fasting.

As they approach the police station, Mervin notes that it's curious that Susie had a successful business but her husband is working as a waiter. Darlene is outside, on her way to Healing Skin, but warns them that Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) is not in a good mood today. Sure enough, inside, Selwyn is giving Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) a roasting over multiple noise complaints that his secretary has been fielding regarding a rave on Turtle Beach. Seb looks it up on social media and says admiringly that it "sound like a mad party". Selwyn irritably dispatches Seb to break the party up, and after he leaves, Selwyn says he did have another reason for his visit to the station: he has got a search warrant for Mervin's mother's house. However, he reminds Mervin that this case must be treated like any other, and cannot become "a personal crusade", so he and Naomi are to be kept in the loop at every step. Mervin suggests they go to his mother's house right now, as they can't take any further actions on the Susie Montagu investigation until the post-mortem results come in.

Mervin and Naomi pull up outside Dorna's house, but Mervin needs a moment before going in. Naomi gently reminds him that they don't have to do it, but Mervin briskly says it's fine: "like the Commissioner said, it's just another case." They go into the house and search for any evidence that Dorna would have known the storm was coming. Naomi asks about Dorna's life, and Mervin explains that Dorna was born in Saint Marie and then moved to Antigua, only returning recently when her father got sick — this is Mervin's grandfather's house. Naomi asks Mervin if he has any siblings, and Mervin bluntly tells her that while he understands her professional curiosity as a detective, his personal history is not relevant to the case. They carry on searching in silence until Mervin finds Dorna's laptop — it's password-protected, but Naomi knows a guy who will be able to get them access.

Over at Turtle Bay, the rave is in full swing and Seb is on the phone to Darlene asking what he's supposed to do. Darlene — who has her hands full bagging up the buffet at Healing Skin — tells him to use his initiative for once. Seb heads into the party and attempts (very quietly) to tell the ravers that the party is over. He tries raising his voice, and still nobody listens to him, so he turns the music off, grabs a microphone and identifies himself as a police officer. But he gets absolutely nowhere, and calls Darlene in a panic for back-up. While he's waiting for help to arrive, he spots a small clear plastic grip-seal bag on the ground with a pill inside, which has the same infinity logo that we saw on the front of Susie's diary.

The next morning, Seb thanks Darlene (who he calls "Auntie D") for rescuing him the night before, and she tells him it's fine — and also not to call her "Auntie". Mervin and Naomi arrive; Naomi asks if everything went OK with the rave and Darlene quickly shuts Seb down, telling Naomi that it's "all good". Darlene shows her the bag that Seb confiscated, saying that the symbol doesn't match anyone they know so there may be a new supplier in the area. Mervin makes the connection with Susie, acknowledging that the symbol itself is fairly common but seeing it twice in two days seems like more than a coincidence. Plus, there are a lot of numbers recorded in the diary, which might mean something. Seb offers to conduct inquiries to see if anybody knows anything.

With the post-mortem and the lab results now in on the Susie Montagu case, the team brief each other: Naomi reveals that significant traces of peanut oil were found in Susie's mouth, specifically her gums and tongue. Given the severity of her allergy, the coroner is satisfied that she died as a result of fatal anaphylaxis. Darlene says that the lab results confirm Susie's EpiPen worked correctly: the amount of adrenaline in her system matched the dosage given by the pen, and it should have been effective. However, none of the food or champagne contained any traces of peanuts. Naomi adds that the post-mortem noted the significant bruising on Susie's leg, presumably resulting from usage of the EpiPen. Mervin remembers that Carrie said she'd not used one before, which might explain why she was a bit rough in handling it. But here's the clincher: the post-mortem confirms Susie's stomach was empty, and she hadn't eaten for at least 14 hours, so she was definitely fasting. So why were there traces of peanut oil in her mouth? They know she can't have eaten it by accident, so someone must have deliberately put it into her mouth — and that makes this an official murder investigation. Mervin tells Darlene to get the incident board set up and look into anyone who might benefit from Susie's death. He even remembers to say please... with minimal prompting.

Selwyn returns to his office and listens to a voicemail from the Chief Commissioner, who thanks him for his steadfast service to the island and his gracious conduct throughout this process, but there's nothing he can do about the restructuring: it all comes down to budget, and the decision is final.

Back at Healing Skin, Naomi tells Mervin that she's just updated the Commissioner, and notes that he doesn't seem himself lately. Mervin comments (accurately) that Selwyn is hardly a barrel of laughs at the best of times; unlike Susie, who, if the pictures on her desk is anything to go by, was happy all the time. Naomi says that Susie's life in the UK was miserable and full of illness and pain, but moving to Saint Marie gave her a new lease of life — Mervin, of course, still isn't convinced that Saint Marie has much to offer beyond sunshine and mosquitos. Mervin looks at the jar of Pelure that Susie was using for her promotional video, and notices that the lid is screwed on properly, which it wasn't in the video. Naomi suggests Susie might have closed it properly after she finished filming.

Mervin and Naomi speak to Daisy again to find out more about who Susie really was. Daisy says that they're an open book at Healing Skin, so Mervin and Naomi are free to look around. However, we then see Daisy in Cassie's laboratory frantically shredding documents. Meanwhile in Susie's office, Naomi discovers legal papers revealing that Susie was in the process of divorcing Steve.

They return to the restaurant where Steve works and questioning him about his reaction — given that he wrote "NO" on the papers in red pen, it seems the split was far from amicable. Steve sits down with them and says that things were great when he and Susie moved to Saint Marie — the cold weather back home made Susie's illnesses worse, but when they came to the island on holiday she was like a different person, so they decided to make it their home. As Susie got better she wanted to help others, but it took over her life, and they drifted apart. Steve moved out about a month ago, by mutual decision, to give them both a bit of space, but then Susie filed for divorce. Mervin asks if Steve stood to lose out financially from the divorce, since Susie's business was about to take off, but Steve protests that he loves Susie and wouldn't do anything to hurt her. He does know, however, that Susie and Carrie had a big falling-out about a month ago.

Outside the restaurant, Mervin takes a call from Darlene, who tells him that she and Seb have been looking into Healing Skin and found two things that might be significant: Carrie was registered as a new director one month ago, and one week later, she was removed. Naomi wonders if that's what Steve heard Susie and Carrie arguing about, and Mervin asks what could have happened to get Carrie removed from the role so swiftly. Darlene and Seb explain that Pelure's brand name was lodged with the patent office last year, with Carrie named as the inventor. Mervin theorises that Carrie was given the directorship as a thank you, and Naomi adds that Carrie stood to benefit in a major financial way if Pelure was a success. So why did Susie change her mind?

Back at Healing Skin, Carrie downplays the whole thing: she says that while she created Pelure, everything she does at the company belongs to Healing Skin, not her. She was as surprised as anyone when Susie made her a director, but claims that Susie later decided to wait until Pelure had launched to see how it did, and to give her an idea of how many shares to give Carrie. Naomi says that as a director, Carrie would have made a lot of money from Pelure, whereas now she gets nothing. Carrie scoffs that if she were interested in money, she'd still be working in Big Pharma: she's here because she believes in the mission, and only Susie knows why she made the decisions she did. Which is unfortunate, what with Susie being dead and all. After Naomi and Mervin leave, Carrie gets a text from Steve saying that they need to talk.

As they leave, Naomi warns Mervin about his manner with the suspects and says that he's coming close to being outright rude to them. Mervin, however, assures her that this is all a deliberate gambit on his part: if people get riled up, they lose their composure and say things they didn't mean to. He walks over to the jeep and tells her that he wants to drive this time, as he doesn't get to drive much in London. Naomi very reluctantly hands him the keys, reminding him that they drive on the other side of the road over here. Mervin starts the vehicle and struggles with the gears, saying that he's used to automatics. Naomi offers to show him the knack, but Mervin insists on working it out for himself — and ends up accidentally putting the jeep in reverse and backing straight into a bollard, leaving a nasty dent.

Arriving back at the police station, Naomi points out that she's been driving the jeep for years without incident, while Mervin managed to damage it within seconds. The team gather to update on the case, and Seb has tracked down a number for the dealer who distributes the drugs with infinity symbol markings. Mervin assumes that Seb has already called and pretended to be an interested client to gather more info, which Seb has absolutely not — but makes the very valid point that he is still very new to all of this. Mervin instructs him to text the number asking about supplies for a party, and arrange a meet, with Darlene as back-up to make the arrest as soon as the merch changes hands. Mervin's keen to act quickly, because if the symbols are connected, the dealer might have known Susie — and might have intel on what happened to her.

Seb and Darlene go undercover to meet the dealer, and Seb is not doing the best job of keeping cool. The dealer turns out to be Daisy, who wants to know how Seb got her number. Seb comes up with a fairly elaborate cover story, which Daisy seems to buy — but when he's getting the money out, he accidentally drops his police ID card on the table on the table, spooking Daisy. She makes a run for it, but luckily quick-thinking Darlene stops her. She makes the arrest, but is clearly unimpressed with Seb's performance in the sting.

Back at the station, Daisy explains that the drugs are a natural high, made with venom from the same snakes they use at Healing Skin — but you have to get the dosage just right or things can get quite nasty. Naomi asks if Healing Skin is a cover for a drug manufacturing business, but Daisy quickly clarifies that nobody else there knows about her little side hustle. She explains that the money there wasn't good, and she needed to supplement her income with a few extra hundred per week — she used to work on a snake farm, so she knew how to extract the venom herself. Susie never spoke to her about the drugs, so she assumes that she didn't know about them as it seems like the sort of thing she wouldn't have just let pass. But the numbers recorded in Susie's diary suggest that (a) Susie did indeed know about it, and (b) Daisy was making a lot more money selling snake venom than she's been admitting to. Panicked, Daisy says that she didn't do anything to Susie — Susie was good to her, and Daisy's only crime was, y'know, drug-dealing.

That night, Darlene goes for a walk with Catherine (Élizabeth Bourgine) and vents about working with Seb: she can tell that he's trying, but she feels more like a babysitter than a training officer. Catherine suggests that Seb just needs more time, but Darlene says that right now it feels like having him on the team just creates more work. Selwyn walks up behind them and asks Darlene if she was planning on sharing these grievances with him. Darlene, chastened, says that it's nothing really: Seb made a small mistake on the undercover operation that could have jeopardised the investigation, but she has spoken to him about it. Selwyn tells her, rather bluntly, that as his mentor, she should consider the possibility that she's the problem, and Darlene is clearly stung by his comments. Selwyn says he'd been thinking about encouraging her to study for her Sergeant's exam, but perhaps that was hasty. He leaves, and Catherine consoles a shaken Darlene.

At the beach hut, Mervin and Naomi sit down with Dorna's laptop and, in a very sweet moment, Mervin thanks Naomi for helping him with this and apologises for biting her head off while they were searching the house. He explains that he never had a proper family apart from Dorna: he was brought up in care. Naomi expresses her sympathies, and he tells her it's water under the bridge, adding that he doesn't know why his mother wasn't able to bring him up. He has been through Dorna's browsing history, and found that she viewed a weather warning for the storm on the day she died — so she clearly knew it was coming but went out on the boat anyway. The two of them agree that there's something suspicious about that, and Mervin suggests they build a timeline of everything Dorna did, and everyone she spoke to, in the run-up to her death.

The next morning, Catherine barges into Selwyn's office and reads him the riot act, telling him that he has never spoken to his officers like he did last night in all the time that she's known him. She says that if he told the team what was going on instead of pushing them away, they would support him because they are loyal and they respect him: "they deserve the same in return, starting with Darlene". Selwyn stubbornly starts reading through his papers without responding.

In the police station, Seb is going through Daisy's phone to see if he can find anything that sheds any new light on the case. He also heard an update from the coroner, which reveals that there were no traces of peanut oil on Susie's fingers. Mervin admits that there are no traces of it anywhere else on the premises and they have no clue how the killer managed to get it into Susie's mouth without her realising. Then Seb comes up trumps with a photo from Daisy's phone — it's a selfie, but in the background is Carrie, and the arm around her shoulder has the same bracelet that Steve was wearing. The picture was taken a month ago: the same time that Susie filed for divorce and changed her mind about Carrie being a director at Healing Skin.

Mervin and Naomi find Steve and Carrie together, and Steve admits that they had a fling, but they aren't together any more. Carrie says they were both lonely, and Steve says they aren't proud of it. Mervin presumes this is why Susie withdrew Carrie's directorship, and Carrie says that although Susie found out, she ultimately forgave her: the business was too important, and she needed Carrie to be part of it. Mervin and Naomi put it to Steve that if he offed Susie before the divorce was finalised, he'd inherit her business and be free to start over with Carrie. Steve insists that he loved Susie, and Carrie maintains that neither of them had anything to do with Susie's death.

Mervin and Naomi get back into the jeep, with Mervin in the driving seat once again, to Naomi's obvious discomfort. He starts up the vehicle and puts it into reverse accidentally once again, but this time Naomi is on high alert and manages to stop him. She gets out to inspect the rear of the jeep for damage and sarcastically congratulates him on almost denting the exact same part of the vehicle as before — and Mervin suddenly has a breakthrough. He fires up the jeep, drives it forward ever so slightly, then reverses at speed into the bollard again, to Naomi's outright horror. He gets out and inspects the damage, and remarks "just like the bruise". He tells Naomi they have been looking in the wrong place this entire time, and tells her to call Darlene because he needs Susie's notebook checked again, and he needs the coroner to run one more check.

Carrie, Daisy and Steve are gathered at Healing Skin, where Mervin — no longer protesting about this idiosyncratic way of catching criminals — outlines his case. Two things were bothering him: how did Susie ingest peanut oil when she'd been fasting, and why didn't the EpiPen work to save her life? The collision in the jeep gave him the answer to both of those questions: the EpiPen didn't work, because Susie was never in anaphylactic shock. He identifies Carrie as Susie's killer, but she didn't do it with peanuts; she did it with snake venom. Naomi picks up the story: thanks to Daisy, they know that snake venom in small doses can bring about a natural high, but if the dose is too high, it can be fatal.

They had assumed the bruising on Susie's thigh was due to Carrie being careless with the EpiPen, but in fact it was because Carrie had already injected her with snake venom: when Susie came in to tell Carrie about the client increasing their order, Carrie hugged her and took that moment to deliver the lethal injection. The venom would take around 10 minutes to take effect, and would manifest in a very similar way to anaphylaxis; in order to cover her tracks, Carrie made sure that she was the one to inject Susie with the EpiPen when she collapsed, and did so in the exact same spot where she'd earlier injected the venom. She then put peanut oil onto her fingers, and transferred it into Susie's mouth under the pretext of checking her airways were clear. And because the cause of death seemed to be an obvious case of anaphylaxis, the coroner wouldn't be specifically looking for snake venom in Susie's system — until the police asked him to look again.

Daisy chips in with the question we're all thinking: how on earth did Carrie inject Susie with the snake venom in the first place without Susie noticing? The answer lies in Susie's promotional video for Pelure, which she'd filmed that morning. Carrie knew that Susie would be filming the video before the launch, and added numbing cream to the jar — and then swapped the jars later, explaining why the one in Susie's video had the cap on loosely, while the one the police found was tightly fastened. Mervin says that Carrie would have known from her time in Big Pharma how lucrative snake venom was as a recreational drug — and when she found out about Daisy's side hustle, she encouraged her to up production, and then started secretly siphoning off some of the venom for her own use. The numbers found in Susie's diary were actually in Carrie's handwriting, and the argument that Steve overheard was about the snake venom sideline, with Susie wanting no part in it. Carrie wasn't willing to let it go because it was too profitable, and that's why she killed Susie. Darlene and Seb arrest Carrie (for Susie's murder) and Daisy (for dealing drugs).

To celebrate successfully closing the case, the rest of the team take Mervin to Catherine's Bar as per tradition, having lied to him that she would be showing the football in order to get him there. Darlene gives Seb props for using his initiative to uncover some real leads in the case, and Selwyn arrives to apologise to Darlene for the way he spoke to her, adding that he thinks she will make a fine Sergeant one day. He also breaks it to the team that his job is being phased out. Naomi protests that they can't do that, and Selwyn gently tells her that they can, and they are. He leaves them to their evening, but the celebratory atmosphere is definitely diminished.

Naomi drives Mervin home, and admits she hasn't really processed the news yet. As he's getting out of the car, Naomi tells him that she spoke to the harbourmaster who was working the night that Dorna died, and he told her that she called him from the boat during the storm. Naomi gives him a USB drive with a recording of the call on it, but warns him that it's a hard listen.

Mervin sits on his veranda with his laptop and listens to the recording of the call. It's Dorna, calling in distress from the boat, revealing that she has no GPS and can't see land, so she doesn't know where she is. There's a muffled scream, and the call goes dead. Mervin takes out his phone and calls the Commissioner, telling him that he was right all along: Dorna's death really was an accident, and he will be shutting the case down. Selwyn tells him it can't have been an easy decision, but it is the right one. Mervin thanks Selwyn for humouring him, and sits there on the beach, slowly processing everything he has just learned.

Death in Paradise star Elizabeth Bourgine has revealed that Catherine's Bar is a real place.

Yep, the 67-year-old French star, who's played Catherine Bordey since the very first series of the BBC hit, says the bar she runs in the show operates in real life.

OK, it's not actually called Catherine's Bar, but it is a place where you can enjoy a delicious cocktail if you ever visit Guadeloupe in the Caribbean where Death in Paradise is filmed.

Elizabeth tells What to Watch that they have to be quick, though, shooting at the bar because of the weather.

"Usually when we film in Catherine's Bar, it's a rainy day, so we have to wait for that to stop and then shoot the scenes very quickly. But it's beautiful, you can just sit there and watch the sea. It's actually a real bar called Le Madras, and it's a lovely place to go to and have a drink."

Le Madras has a four-star rating on Trip Advisor and one recent reviewer wrote: "It's always a great spot right by the water. I recommed calling for a reservation as it is always busy being Catherine's Bar in the series Death in Paradise. It's a gorgeous spot overlooking the beach and boats right in town. The food is delicious."

Meanwhile, we can expect more scenes between Catherine and The Commissioner in Death in Paradise season 14 as he struggles over the news that his job is being phased out. Elizabeth has enjoyed the scenes with Don Warrington, who plays The Commissioner.

"I think the producers realized recently that until Series 10 [in 2021], we didn’t actually have any scenes together. But it was just so obvious that our characters were old friends and, when we had our first scene, it was really strong. Every year we discover more about Selwyn and Catherine's private lives. They are like the father and the mother of the show, and I like that very much."

She also hinted that she wouldn’t mind a romance for Catherine, whose one romantic entanglement in the series so far was a disaster. "She had a romance in the first series [with Aidan Miles, played by Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar], but he was the murderer, so she just had to slap his face and say bye-bye! She's a free-spirited woman who's happy to be alone and enjoys it, but I think it's important to show that she has a love life too."

Death in Paradise continues on Fridays on BBC One.

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 2 sees the team get drawn into the murky world of reality TV — sadly not with Mervin, Naomi, Darlene, Selwyn, Catherine et al going head-to-head on a season of The Traitors, but with the tragic death of a frontrunner in a Bear Grylls-esque survival competition. We're also introduced to a new member of the team — who's full of enthusiasm but very much in need of mentoring. Here's what went down in episode two Death in Paradise continues...

We open with Chaz Simons (Bhavna Limbachia) running through a jungle trail, in workout gear with a rucksack on her back. She's constantly looking over her shoulder as Jonny Feldon (Simon Lennon) gains ground on her. They approach a stone arch with "Island Warrior" branding on it, which leads to a tunnel filled with makeshift cobwebs and creepy-crawlies. A camera crew films Chaz as she emerges and continues down the path, while Jonny emerges covered in cockroaches and spluttering. We see the show's production team watching the raw footage, as producer Rick Mayhew (Hotel Portofino's Adam James) chuckles in delight. He radios to camera operator Dale Buckingham (Domina's David Avery) to advise him to get the drone camera ready to capture the contestants on the zipline — it's clear even from this brief exchange that they're not exactly the best of friends.

As Chaz and Jonny approach the next stage, Jonny is limping, but Chaz trips and falls — he offers to stop and help her, but she tells him she's fine. Jonny runs up ahead and picks up a key to the treasure chest, stopping to briefly taunt Chaz before running off. Rick radios to runner Lisa Bulmer (Extraordinary's Sofia Oxenham) asking her to "pick up Supermum — she's done, she's cooked. I really thought she'd have this in the bag." He asks her to make sure Chaz is back in time for the winner's ceremony, as he wants to get footage of her crying when Jonny wins. What a delightful man! Lisa asks Rick if he wants a lift to the finish line, but he tells her he'll make his own way there, and tells the rest of the production team to let him know if he misses any big surprises while he's travelling.

Jubilant Jonny makes his way to the zipline and descends, cheering with joy as he goes — he disappears into the trees but as he emerges at the finish line, it's clear something is horribly wrong because Jonny's body is dangling lifelessly from the harness. The production team call for a medic, but it's already too late...

Over at Honoré Police Station, the electrician has just finished fixing things after Mervin broke the fan (and the ceiling) last week, and Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) are quietly celebrating the fact that Mervin should be back in London by now. Darlene says she hopes the new Inspector will be more patient and polite, and Naomi agrees. Unfortunately for them, at that precise moment, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) is signing a three-month contract with Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) over in the beach shack. Mervin assures the Commissioner he has no intention of staying beyond the end of the contract, he just wants a bit more time to investigate the circumstances of his mother's accident. Selwyn doesn't seem entirely convinced that Mervin will want to go home afterward. The Commissioner receives a call from Darlene, and he informs Mervin that he has his first case.

Darlene and Naomi are already on the Island Warrior set, where they've established that the cause of Jonny's death was a knife wound to the abdomen. Lisa hurries over and tells Naomi that she's got a DI Mervin Wilson on the radio who needs to speak to them. Naomi and Darlene are stunned into silence, and Naomi eventually asks why he's not in London. Mervin says he has good news: he's signed a three month contract to be their new DI. Darlene whispers that it's not what she would call good news, not realising that Naomi still has her finger on the radio's "call" button and Mervin can hear her. Darlene tries to cover that it's not good news for Mervin, since he seems to hate it here. Mervin clarifies that he doesn't hate it — he just doesn't love it — and says he's going to be heading down from the production base to the apparent scene of the crime, asking them to meet him there with a crime scene kit.

At the production base, Dale replays footage of Jonny's descent for Mervin, saying he was out of sight for about 40 seconds before appearing at the landing platform, already dead. Mervin asks Rick if he could think of any reason why someone would want to kill Jonny in such an elaborate manner — Rick says no, Jonny was a terrific contestant who planned to donate the prize money to a cancer charity in honour of his sick mum. Chaz, who's nearby resting her ankle, agrees that Jonny was "the sweetest guy". Rick's phone rings — it's the network, holding crisis talks about the show's future — so Mervin leaves him to it.

Mervin joins Naomi and Darlene at the crime scene, where they greet him without enthusiasm. Mervin assesses the set-up — the killer would have had to climb a very tall tree, wait for Johnny to pass by on the zipline, stab him as he passed, and then climb back down again. Naomi has found signs of flattened bushes and scuff marks at the base of the tree, as well as a knife which matches the wound — presumably having fallen out of the killer's pocket as they climbed down. Darlene says she will dust it for prints back at the station. Mervin stumbles over something next to the tree and calls out for a glove — Darlene glares at him until he says "please". Near to where the knife was found, Mervin discovers a pearl that appears to have snapped off an earring, and bags that as evidence too. He tells Darlene to interview everyone involved in filming — crew and contestants — and find out where everyone was when Jonny was stabbed at 8:40, as well as interviewing everyone who was staying in the same place as Jonny, and asks her to see if anyone is missing a pearl earring. Darlene points out that this is an impossible workload for one person, and Naomi says they need to speak to the Commissioner to see if he has found a new recruit yet.

As it happens, he has — Officer Sebastian Rose (The First Team's Shaquille Ali-Yebuah), who completed the pan-Caribbean training scheme shortly before the late Officer Brice, but has yet to find a placement. Selwyn takes Mervin to meet Sebastian — who is currently handing out leaflets while dressed as a pineapple. Selwyn admits that Sebastian wasn't his first choice for the role, but he has potential — it just needs teasing out. Selwyn introduces Mervin to Sebastian, who is excited to meet a real detective for the first time. Mervin is immediately turned off by Sebastian's brimming enthusiasm, but agrees to an initial three-month probationary period. Sebastian is excited, and promises not to let them down. As they walk away, Sebastian celebrates, while Mervin is already feeling like the wrong decision has been made.

At the station, Naomi has assembled an incident board of the four people who can't be alibied for the time that Jonny was stabbed: Rick, Chaz, Dale and Lisa. Naomi says that Jonny started his descent at 8:39, was stabbed halfway down at 8:40 and arrived dead at the landing platform at 8:41. It took him a total of two minutes from top to bottom — and Naomi points out that while the suspects can't be alibied at the time of the murder, they were all recorded by one of the show's cameras arriving at the landing platform — first Dale, then Chaz and Lisa, then Rick. But here's the tricky part: it took Naomi and Darlene half an hour to walk the distance from the crime scene to the landing platform, and Naomi says that even if they'd run, they'd only shave about 10 minutes off that time. So how on earth could the killer have covered that distance in two minutes, including getting down from a tree? Mervin notes that it's a particularly difficult and public way to kill someone — the whole thing just doesn't make sense.

Outside in his car, Selwyn takes a call from the Chief Commissioner in Jamaica, who wants to meet with him tomorrow. Selwyn asks if he's able to get some indication of what it's about, but the Chief Commissioner says they'll go over that tomorrow. Of course, Selwyn already knows full well what it's about, thanks to JP. Mervin comes out and tells Selwyn he wants to get working on his mum's accident, and Selwyn reiterates that he wants them to meet and discuss it properly first — he says that his secretary will contact Mervin in due course to set something up. Back at the shack, Mervin takes out Dorna's file again and makes a phone call to his mum's friend, Brianna Clemetson (Joy Richardson), who we met in the Christmas special. He goes to meet her, and she's confused as to why he's there, since she thought Dorna's death was an accident. She asks if he is now saying it's murder, and Mervin asks to come in and explain properly.

Naomi arrives at the shack the following morning, where Mervin is ironing his clothes, having had some of his belongings shipped over by a friend back in London. Naomi is impressed with his ironing skills, and asks if he'd be up for doing some of hers. Unsurprisingly, he would not. Naomi hands over the post-mortem report, which confirms that Jonny was killed by a single stab wound that pierced his kidney, and the blood on the knife matches Jonny's, but there are no fingerprints on it.

At the station, Mervin tells Naomi that the fact they found the knife at the crime scene is starting to feel fishy: the killer was both careless enough to drop it, but also canny enough to wipe their prints off it? Naomi asks if he thinks the killer planted it for them to find. Mervin wonders why they found the pearl earring in the same spot as the knife too. The Commissioner arrives in his car looking thoroughly displeased: he has had a call from Brianna Clemetson asking if they are investigating Dorna's murder. Mervin quickly clarifies that he never said "murder" to her, but Selwyn shuts him down: he says that from now on, Mervin is to do nothing without his say-so, and he wants Naomi across the investigation as well. Naomi — who has been out of the loop so far — asks what exactly it is she's meant to be across before reading the room (well, the car park) and quickly backtracking, assuring them she can get caught up later (a lovely bit of comic acting from Shantol Jackson there, by the way). Selwyn leaves to catch his plane, and Naomi tells Mervin she has a lot of questions.

Inside the station, Seb has arrived for his first day and greets Mervin sunnily. Darlene says she's given Seb the case file to read, so he's fully up to speed — Seb admits he's a slow reader so he isn't quite finished yet. Mervin gets Darlene to review where they're up to, and she says that she and Seb are about to go over to the crew's hotel to search the victim's bedroom. Naomi adds that the toxicology report shows that the victim had a significant amount of painkillers in his system — according to the production's medic, Jonny was taking them for a knee injury he sustained earlier in the competition. Mervin wants to know more about Chaz, so Darlene explains that she's a PE teacher from Reading, recently divorced, with an eight-year-old daughter, and she was frontrunner in the show. Mervin raises something that's been bugging him: for the killer's plan to work, Jonny needed to be the one to get to the zipline first — so could Chaz have been in on it? Or, Naomi suggests, someone made sure she wasn't in a position to win. Darlene has something to add on that: she recovered some CCTV from outside the production office showing Chaz emerging from a vehicle. Despite injuring her ankle during the competition, Chaz is clearly stepping out of the car and putting her full weight on it without any apparent pain, so it seems she's faking the injury.

At the cast and crew hotel, Mervin and Naomi quiz Chaz about her faked injury, and she reluctantly admits that Rick made her throw the final, since the bosses had told him they wanted Jonny to win because he had the better backstory. So Rick offered her £25,000 — the same as the prize amount on offer — to let Jonny win, but she had no idea he was going to die. Mervin asks Chaz why she didn't ignore Jonny and just win the show if she just wanted the money, and she says that Rick threatened to give her a terrible edit that made her look petty and jealous — she felt intimidated by him and didn't want her little girl to be disappointed in her, so she felt compelled to go along with what Rick wanted. However, she does have more information for them: she overheard Jonny on the phone to his lawyers, talking about the injury he'd sustained in the competition and sounding angry.

Darlene and Seb are busy logging evidence in Jonny's room, and Darlene is taking the time to get to know Seb, who seems to be enthusiastic about absolutely everything. Seb admits he's more of a practical, physical person who's less skilled at paperwork, but he's got good at muddling his way through that side of things — and if they ever need someone to chase down a criminal, he's their man. Darlene finds something in one of Jonny's socks - a USB stick that somebody clearly didn't want to be found. Darlene gets Seb to bag it and log it so they can examine it back at the station.

Mervin and Naomi go to see Rick at the production base, where he's fighting fires because somebody has leaked the information about Jonny's death to the press. Mervin asks him about paying Chaz to rig the final, and Rick says he had to do what was best for the show — Jonny's story about his sick mother was the better narrative. He says he did what had to be done: "I'm pretty sure that isn't a crime, is it?" Mervin informs him curtly that bribery is absolutely a crime, and says that he doesn't buy the backstory argument anyway: Naomi spoke to Jonny's lawyer, who revealed that Jonny was going to take the show to court for negligence. Jonny's leg injury happened on set after the production team cut corners on the health and safety front. Rick asks sarcastically if they think Jonny's death has solved all of his problems, and points out that his investors are pulling out, the tabloids are sniffing around, and the show he's been developing and working on for years will not be aired. Mervin asks him if the show is insured, and whether Rick stands to get a substantial payout resulting from Jonny's death.

At the police station, Darlene is just getting off the phone with the insurance company, who confirmed that the show's insurance policy covered murder. (Given that it was being filmed in Saint Marie, you'd think that would have pushed the premiums up by quite some whack.) They also said it wasn't the first accident reported on set, and that the show has a reputation as a cursed production. Although this gives Rick a clear motive, Mervin reminds the others that it doesn't solve the problem of it being seemingly impossible for Rick to be up in the tree in the right position to stab Jonny on the zipline and still arrive at the landing pad two minutes later. He asks Seb for the memory stick to see if it sheds any light on things, and Seb goes through the gathered evidence — but can't find it. Darlene says she and Seb will go back to the hotel and look for it. Seb tries to apologise to Mervin and reiterates that he's sure he bagged it, but Darlene drags him away.

Naomi gently invites Mervin to go for a drink and talk about his mother, and just as he's finishing telling her his story, the Commissioner turns up looking like someone who has had a very rough day. Selwyn asks Naomi what she makes of the whole thing, and Naomi says she still isn't sure why Mervin thinks Dorna's death was suspicious — which Selwyn agrees with. Mervin says that according to the file, Dorna went out to see to scatter her father's ashes, but according to his research, Dorna's father was a fisherman — which means Dorna grew up around boats, and would know to check the weather before heading out to sea. Naomi says that still feels like a tenuous argument, and that it's likely Dorna wasn't thinking clearly because she was grieving. Selwyn says that even if there was more to it, Dorna was alone at sea on the boat in the middle of a storm — so how could anyone have killed her? Mervin admits he doesn't know what went on, but he can't ignore it if there's even the smallest possibility that something untoward happened.

The next morning, Naomi and Mervin arrive at the police station, where Darlene is staring at a curious sight: Seb has cordoned off the motorcycle and sidecar with crime scene tape. Inside, Seb explains that he was feeling bad about the missing evidence and wanted to put things right. He thought back to when he last had the USB stick, and he vividly remembered putting it in the sidecar with the rest of the evidence, which means someone must have taken it. He's dusted the sidecar for prints, and he got a match.

Dale returns to his room at the hotel to discover Mervin and Naomi inside — they've found the memory stick there, and they've looked at it. It contains footage from Dale's drone, of Jonny and Lisa in bed together, unaware that they are being filmed. Dale blusters that he's never done anything like that before, and Naomi asks him why he did it. Dale says that people are always hooking up on film shoots but it never happens for him. Mervin: "Hang on: you didn't manage to pull, so you did this instead?" Dale says that he liked Lisa and they'd been getting close. He thought it was going somewhere, but then she started getting close to Jonny and he got jealous. Mervin tells him he will absolutely be arrested and charged for this, and Naomi hypothesises that Jonny found out what Dale had done, confronted him, and took the memory stick. Dale says Jonny told him on the morning of the finale that he was going to tell Rick as soon as they'd wrapped — which gives Dale motive, since his career was in ruins. Dale protests that he didn't do kill Jonny because he was ready to accept the consequences of his actions — and then Jonny died.

On the way out, Naomi wonders why Lisa never told them that she and Jonny were an item, and Mervin says it's a good point. He also points out that the dynamic between the two of them at the end of the video didn't look like pillow talk between lovers; it looked like a row. He asks Naomi to organise a lip reader to look at the footage and find out what they were saying — but, he clarifies, only the bit at the end where they were talking. Not the rest of it.

At the station, Darlene — doing her best to mentor Seb but slightly frustrated with his lack of care and attention — wonders how he ended up leaving the evidence unattended. Darlene suspects he was on his phone, and Seb grudgingly fesses up: he was distracted by a group chat organising a beach party for the weekend. He tells Darlene that he has a "fidgety brain" and he's not good at focusing on what's right in front of him, which is probably why he's not so good at the paperwork. Darlene, softening, tells him that now they know what they're dealing with, they can keep an eye on it — together. She also tells him that she's impressed that he had the idea to dust the sidecar for prints without being told to. (There's a really lovely dynamic between these two already, I'm excited to see more of them working together.)

Mervin and Naomi arrive, and Darlene tells them what the lip-reader revealed: Lisa got a job working on Island Warrior because she has a score to settle with Rick. Lisa is brought into the station for questioning, and claims she hadn't met Rick before coming to work on the show, but Naomi says they know she told Jonny that she believes Rick stole her original idea for the show without crediting her, and she got the runner job to sabotage the show from the inside. Lisa cracks and admits she met Rick at a networking event two years ago, pitching her idea to him, but he told her it wasn't what the broadcasters are looking for. The next thing she knew, the show had been greenlit and gone into pre-production, but she couldn't prove that he'd stolen her idea. Mervin says that they know she's responsible for several accidents on set, including Jonny's leg injury, because they have a recording of her talking to him (Lisa is unaware of the recording, and Naomi gently says she'll talk to her about that in a moment). Lisa admits that when she told Jonny what she'd done, he was really angry with her for potentially ruining his chances of winning the money for his mum. Naomi asks if she was worried what Jonny would do with that information, and Mervin points out that Jonny's death achieved everything Lisa wanted: Rick's TV show is ruined. But Lisa is adamant: whatever else she may have done, she's not a murderer.

After the interview, Mervin tells Naomi that even if Lisa is lying about not killing Jonny, they have the same problem with her as a suspect that they have with everyone else: she couldn't have got from the treetop to the landing platform in two minutes. Naomi asks what they do now. Mervin says he wants to see it in action, and tells Seb that they have a job for him.

On the set of Island Warrior, Seb is limbering up while Mervin is attached to the zipline. Mervin grumbles about never having to do things like this in London, and whether it's even been risk-assessed, but Darlene gleefully reminds him that it was his idea in the first place. Naomi cues them both in, and Mervin rides the zipline somewhat nervously. As he goes under tree cover, he yells "go, go, go!" to Seb, who sets off running.

Back at the police station, Darlene reveals that Seb clocked in a time of 8 minutes 42 seconds — an impressive time, but still nowhere near fast enough. Naomi adds that Seb's time also doesn't account for the killer getting down from the tree after stabbing Jonny. Mervin is frustrated: the whole thing is impossible, so there must be more to it. And they still haven't accounted for the pearl earring either. Naomi suggests the pearl earring could be entirely unrelated to the crime, and Darlene wonders if it's not even an earring — it might be something else. This causes everything to slot into place in Mervin's head. Darlene offers to go and gather the suspects — a concept that Mervin still isn't keen on — but first he asks Naomi to speak to the show's production office and see if the costume or props department recognise the pearl.

With all the suspects gathered (and Lisa being sure to keep well away from Dale now she knows about the recording), Seb's excited for his very first big dénouement. Mervin says that as far as murders go, this one is pretty extreme: a man stabbed on a zipline, alive at the top but dead by the time he gets to the bottom. He says that the thing that bothered them throughout was the unnecessary complexity of the crime: why go to such lengths when there are easier ways to murder someone? But that was the point all along: the killer was setting the police up on a wild goose chase, and Jonny Feldon wasn't stabbed on the zipwire; he was actually already dying before he started his descent.

Mervin reveals Dale as the killer, and this is how he did it: the pearl that they found at the base of the tree was part of the murder weapon. It was part of a pearl headed pin used by the costume department — they are over four inches long, made of sharp steel, and capable of penetrating human flesh. Dale stole a pin from the costume rail when nobody was about, and then offered to help Lisa, whose job it was to get the contestants' rucksacks onto their backs. While helping Jonny with his backpack, Dale pieced the belt of the backpack — and Jonny's abdomen — with the pin. Jonny felt the stabbing sensation as it went in, but Dale claimed he'd just caught Jonny's skin in the buckle. As he tightened the belt on Jonny's backpack, the pin was driven further in and pierced his kidney — and because Jonny was already on strong painkillers for his leg injury, he didn't notice. When Johnny got to the zipwire, he took his backpack off, removing the pin and opening the wound. Given that his clothes were already stained with mud, it's unlikely anyone would have noticed a tiny blood stain on his shirt. While on the zipline, the momentum accelerated Jonny's blood flow, so he bled out — and was dead by the time he got to the landing platform.

Dale timed his arrival at the landing platform carefully and — knowing which angle he'd placed the static camera at — carefully positioned Jonny's body so the camera couldn't see him clearly. When Rick arrived and called for the set to be cleared for the paramedics, Dale waited for everyone else to leave before stabbing Jonny in the exact same place with a much bigger knife — meaning the post-mortem would only register the larger knife wound. In the aftermath, Dale had to remove the pin from the backpack and clean any blood marks off it, and then go into the forest to plant the bloodstained knife under the zipwire, carefully trampling the bushes and scuffing the tree trunk to make it look like someone had been climbing it. But the weight of Jonny's backpack had loosened the pearl on the head of the pin, and it broke off in Dale's pocket, so when he knelt down to take out the decoy weapon, it fell onto the ground — ironically contaminating the fake crime scene he'd staged so carefully and creating the only piece of real evidence.

Chaz, a little confused, asks why he did all of this. Mervin tells her that Dale did it out of love: he had very strong feelings for Lisa, and in addition to the knowledge that Jonny was about to ruin Dale's own career, he believed that Jonny was also going to ruin Lisa by outing her sabotage of the show. In a bid to protect Lisa and himself, he killed Jonny — and did it in such a public way that it would destroy the show itself in the process, giving Lisa what she wanted and hopefully making her eternally grateful to him. Of course, Lisa now knows that Dale is a creep who made a sex tape of her without her consent, so she doesn't even want to be in the same postcode as him.

Dale is arrested, and Mervin gets a congratulatory call from the Commissioner, who's at Catherine's Bar. Catherine (Élizabeth Bourgine) comes over, having just had a call from JP with the news about Selwyn's job being phased out. She says she knew something wasn't right, but they can't do this. Selwyn tells her they can, and they have: the Chief Commissioner officially informed him yesterday, because they need to save money. Catherine tells Selwyn that the island needs him, and asks him what he's going to do. Selwyn doesn't know, but Catherine already seems to be plotting a campaign of some sort.

Mervin goes to see Brianna again and apologizes for upsetting her on his last visit. He says that he's been asked by the Commissioner to inform her that this nis ot an official murder investigation, but they are looking into the possibility that Dorna Bray's death might not have been an accident. He asks if anything else has come back to her about the day Dorna died, and Brianna says it's something very small and silly: she remembered that morning she was watering her garden and she heard Dorna singing, as she often did around the house. She was singing "Dusty Roads" by John Holt — it must have been a favorite of hers because she was always singing it. Mervin goes back to the beach shack by himself and puts the song on, slowly taking in the music and the lyrics as he stands on the veranda and looks out to sea.

Death in Paradise season 14 is here at last, and the team are left shell-shocked when Officer Benjamin Brice is murdered the same day he's due to start work with Honoré Police. Despite intending to return home to London, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) decides to stick around long enough to close the case — but the rest of the team are far from happy to be stuck with him after his rude and dismissive attitude at Christmas. Can they put their differences aside long enough to solve the case? Read on to find out...

The Death in Paradise episode begins with narration from Benjamin (Anthony J Abraham): "For as long as I can remember, I never felt like I belonged. My mum was in labor for 30 hours when she had me; she always said I didn't want to come out because I knew what was waiting for me, like I knew I wouldn't fit in. Growing up, I was the kind of kid who would sit in the shade doing puzzles instead of playing out, messing with my brother. After school, my mum would get to know I was more interested in doing homework than helping her. My stepdad was a bit more patient, but not much. As I got older, I started to accept that there was something inside me that was different to them."

We see Benjamin's brother Karlus (Stephen Odubola) finding an unlocked car and hotwiring it, encouraging Benjamin to get in with him despite his protestations. Later, Benjamin calls the police anonymously to report where the stolen car has been dumped. His voiceover continues: "Instead of doing what they did, I realized I wanted to do something positive with my life... I just didn't know what. Then my answer came. I'm not saying it was fate intervening, but it just felt like something was calling me." Benjamin goes to a police recruitment session, led by JP Hooper (Tobi Bakare). In his voiceover, Benjamin admits that the last thing he ever thought he'd be in life was a police officer, but what Sergeant Hooper said to him made sense, and he never felt so proud of himself as when he completed his police training. Benjamin finishes by revealing that in the morning, he has his first shift with the police in Saint Marie, and he can't wait. It turns out that he's recording all of this for a social media post, hoping to encourage other people who are feeling lost to find their purpose in life.

The next day, DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) arrives at the police station and greets Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder), asking if Benjamin is settling in OK. Darlene reveals that Benjamin hasn't arrived yet, which surprises Naomi, who thought he would have got there early. The phone rings, and Darlene goes to answer it. A woman is calling to report a body by the roadside wearing a police uniform — it's Benjamin.

Meanwhile, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) is in the beach hut, explaining to Harry the lizard that he's doing an online shop, ready to be delivered to his flat when he gets back to London tomorrow. He wonders if such technological advancements might one day make their way to Saint Marie — but he doubts it. A cab driver honks his horn from outside, and Mervin grabs his belongings and heads out. On the way to the airport, Mervin is grousing about the cab's lack of air conditioning as they pass Naomi and Darlene at the crime scene. He gets the cab driver to pull in, and asks Darlene what's going on. Darlene says they've only just arrived, but they found Benjamin's bike with the front tire twisted, so he probably hit a pothole and went flying over the side of the road. Darlene assures Mervin that there's no reason for him to hang around, and that he can go ahead and catch his flight. Mervin gets back into the cab, which drives off... and returns fairly swiftly, because Mervin wants to get something off his chest: he noticed that Benjamin wasn't wearing a helmet, but there was a bicycle clip on the road. He thinks that's odd — surely someone who was sensible enough to wear bicycle clips wouldn't forgo a helmet?

He and Darlene go over to Naomi, who is surprised (and not especially thrilled) to see him. She's just been speaking to the paramedics, who think Benjamin banged his head on a rock. Naomi is assuming Benjamin's death was a tragic accident, but Mervin thinks differently: he notices that the other bicycle clip is on Benjamin's trousers, and there's dirt under his fingernails, but only on one hand. He thinks there's a good chance that Benjamin was wearing a helmet, so there's potentially some evidence missing from the crime scene — and until Naomi can establish what happened to it, this death should be treated as suspicious. He also advises — well, he tells Naomi to get the bike to the lab ASAP, check the GPS on the phone, and do a thorough search of the area. He asks her to keep him updated, and hurries back to the cab. As the car drives away, Naomi remarks sarcastically to Darlene that she's really going to miss Mervin.

In town, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) and Naomi meet up with JP, who says that if they are treating Officer Brice's death as suspicious, they shouldn't rule out his family as possible suspects — they all have criminal records, and they all hated that he had joined the police. JP is clearly upset by what's happened, and Naomi offers her condolences. They go to meet with Benjamin's family — his mother Paulette (Michelle Greenidge) confirms that Benjamin left that morning at 7:30 in his uniform. Naomi asks if he was wearing a cycling helmet, but Paulette didn't see. GPS records show that Benjamin came off his bike 15 minutes later at 7:45am, but Paulette bristles at being asked what she was doing at that time. She tells them that she was having breakfast on her veranda, and she's sure someone would have seen her. Benjamin's stepfather Damon Clarke (Mark Holden) says he was taking a delivery between 7:30 and 8am. Karlus says he was in bed with his girlfriend, who will confirm that their alarm went off at 7:45am when she had to get up for work. Selwyn asks if they have any idea why someone might want to harm Benjamin; Karlus snorts that Benjamin was "a softie" who never upset anybody, so it must have been an accident.

Selwyn's phone rings, it's Darlene, with some bad news: Mervin has come back. Mervin tells her to put the Commissioner on speakerphone, and Darlene — her patience already wearing thin after a matter of minutes — curtly informs him that they might not use words like "please" in London but they absolutely use them in Saint Marie. Mervin very pointedly asks again in the politest manner he can muster, and after Darlene complies, he tells the Commissioner that Benjamin left them a message: he scrawled "AIRAM" in the dirt.

Back at the police station, Mervin points out that "AIRAM" is "Maria" backwards. Darlene says she checked Benjamin's phone and emails, but couldn't find anyone named Maria, and his social media activity didn't come up with anything either. JP tells them that he is heading back to Jamaica, but he'll pop back to the Brices on the way to see if they know who Maria is — not that he's expecting them to cooperate. He asks Mervin to keep them updated, but Mervin is staring intensely at the whiteboard and doesn't answer, so Darlene assures him that she'll keep him posted. Mervin asks tersely if the ceiling fan in the station can't go any faster, and Darlene tells him, equally tetchily, to just leave it, because it's fine as it is. Mervin says that the writing was under Benjamin's body, and he had dirt under his nails, which implies Benjamin wrote it and then rolled on top of it to prevent someone else seeing it — all of which points to Benjamin having been murdered, and the killer staging it to look like an accident. Mervin thinks that if they're going to find out who killed him and why, then somehow Benjamin has already given them the answer. Naomi — no slouch in the observation stakes herself — picks up on his use of the word "we", and Mervin points out that he's missed his flight now, and since he's here anyway, he might as well stay and help to solve the case.

Naomi drops Mervin back to the beach hut in the jeep as he calls the Commissioner to confirm he'll be staying for a few more days. Mervin jokes that he's sure Naomi is delighted he's sticking around, but Naomi surprises him by saying she is actually pleased about it — because she thinks Officer Brice deserves the best minds solving his murder. Mervin agrees that they need to give this everything they have, because it's a fellow officer's death they're talking about. He adds that he's excited to spend a bit more time with Larry — the lizard. Naomi points out that the lizard's name is Harry, and Mervin asks if she doesn't think "Larry" has a better ring to it. Naomi says she thinks "Larry the Lizard" sounds more like a children's character, and says that everyone calls the lizard Harry. Mervin agrees to call him Harry, but walks off muttering that it's a stupid name for a lizard. (Is it wrong that I'm Team Mervin on this one? Larry the Lizard is a better name, 14 years of precedence be damned.)

Later that night, we see someone breaking into the police station. Suspicious!

The following morning, Mervin — who forgot to cancel his online shop — is on the phone with the supermarket, from which we can gather that his people skills don't go over much better in the UK. While explaining the problem to Naomi, he asks her if she knows what online shopping is, and it's to a credit to Naomi's professionalism that she doesn't stick him in the cells for the rest of the day to think about what he just said. She does, however, inform him that his attitude towards Saint Marie in general is extremely condescending, but before the impending argument goes any further, they both realise that there is crime scene tape around the police station.

They go inside and find the place has been ransacked. Darlene says that the pastor noticed torchlight in the station when he was returning to his car after choir practice; he went to check it out and presumably disturbed the intruder in the process. Mervin asks if anything was taken; Darlene says she hasn't noticed anything missing, but whoever did it was definitely looking for something specific. Mervin starts putting the pieces together: potentially someone didn't want Officer Brice to make it to the police station, and whatever they didn't want him to see is still there, which is why somebody broke in last night. Darlene has a brainwave: the intruder was looking through hard copies of the evidence files, and Dwayne mentioned an informant that he used to use — Paulette Brice. She used to give the police information on local criminals, and she got Karlus arrested for selling counterfeit goods.

Mervin and Naomi go to interview Paulette, who explains that she informed on Karlus because he was stepping on her toes as far as her quote-unquote "retail" work was concerned. Naomi asks if she was afraid of Karlus finding out that she was responsible for him going to jail, but Paulette snorts that she's not scared of him. She admits that Karlus doesn't know it was her who told the police about him and she would prefer it to stay that way, but she wouldn't have killed Benji over it. Mervin points out that it's not just Benjamin and Karlus she has to worry about: if word got out that Paulette was a grass, there would be an awful lot of quite dodgy people who'd probably want to ensure her silence.

Naomi takes a call from Darlene informing her that all three suspects' alibis have checked out. Mervin, meanwhile, is writing "AIRAM" and "MARIA" on the window of a dirty car; he's wondering if this is tied to an old case involving someone named Maria, and Benjamin was killed to stop him from finding out about it.

Back at the station, Darlene has been going through the archives and found 13 case files involving women named Maria. Mervin declines Naomi's offer of help, as he isn't really sure what he's looking for, so she and Darlene leave for the night. Before she goes, Darlene informs him that Catherine is organising a vigil tomorrow outside the station for the local community to remember Benjamin. Mervin starts going through the files, and the one on top startles him: it's an investigation into the death of Dorna Bray. He calls the Commissioner and asks him why he's looking at a case file with his mother's name on it.

The Commissioner meets him on the seafront and admits his surprise that Mervin hadn't looked up what happened to his mother earlier. Mervin says he had just assumed it was ill health — but finding a case file with her name on it suggests something untoward happened to her. Selwyn tells him that Dorna's death was an accident about four months ago: she had been caring for Mervin's father, who had dementia, for a while. Following his death, she decided to scatter his ashes at sea, but a storm came in unexpectedly while she was out on a small fishing boat, and she didn't stand a chance. Selwyn asks Mervin if he's OK, and Mervin says it just feels strange to hear someone talk about his mum — it makes her feel real. Mervin asks what he will find in the file, and Selwyn says that it contains the coroner's report, police statement, post-mortem — the coroner in this case was called Maria, and that's why it came up when Darlene searched. Mervin asks if there are any photographs of Dorna in there, and Selwyn says there aren't. Mervin thanks him, a little awkwardly, and says he will leave Selwyn to his evening.

Back at the beach hut, Mervin puts Dorna's case file in the desk drawer. Larry — sorry, Harry the lizard comes out to join Mervin while he reads through the case files.

The next morning, a delivery driver brings Mervin breakfast as Naomi and Darlene come to see him. Mervin has ordered a bacon sandwich, but he quickly complains that the local bacon doesn't taste right. (Darlene to Naomi, under her breath: "Do you want to chuck that breakfast in his face, or shall I?") Mervin abandons the sandwich, and Naomi tells him she remembered something from when Benjamin visited the station the day before he was due to start work: he put some papers in his desk drawer. One of them shows an address with times of the day, and the other shows the ground plans of a property — Benjamin had discovered that a robbery had taken place a year ago, in which jewellery, cash and a handbag was stolen by a man named Clendon Sealey. The handbag was recovered with nothing in it, but the cash and jewellery were never found — and the homeowner in question, Eudora James, died of a heart attack that same night, so the handbag has been in the police evidence store ever since. Darlene tells Mervin that when they originally investigated, it was believed that Clendon committed the burglary on behalf of a third party, and Naomi says that the papers had another set of fingerprints on them besides Benjamin's: Damon Clarke's.

Naomi and Mervin go to see Damon about the burglary, and he's quick to scoff at the idea that he killed Benjamin to stop him reporting it. He says that he and Benjamin always got on well, and he's never been accused of being involved in the burglary before now. Naomi admits they aren't planning to arrest him over it right now, and Damon gently points out that if they don't have enough evidence to arrest him, it's definitely not something worth killing over. Mervin tells him that they are going to keep digging into the robbery, and he's sure they will find more evidence, because they always do — and Damon should be worried when they do. After they leave, Damon places a call to someone and tells him that he thinks the police will be heading their way very soon.

Naomi and Mervin return to the station, where Darlene has had a breakthrough: Clendon Sealey and Karlus Brice were in prison at the same time, and it turns out that (deep breath) the boyfriend of the daughter of the sister of the woman who does Darlene's nails is a prison officer, so Darlene called him and discovered that Karlus befriended Clendon in prison. At this moment, Karlus walks into the station and informs them that there's a lot of misinformation circulating in that prison, and he's here to give him the official story.

Karlus tells them he didn't deliberately seek out Clendon's friendship in prison. Darlene says her contact is reliable, and told her that Clendon had some information to share with Karlus — but Karlus denies this. Naomi asks him if it's a coincidence that they have evidence linking Karlus's stepfather to the robbery Clendon was arrested for. Karlus says that's a matter for them to take up with his stepfather, and reiterates that he and Clendon got acquainted in prison, but that's as deep as it got. Mervin doesn't believe Karlus is being 100% honest with them, but thinks they aren't going to get anything more out of him and tells him to leave. Afterwards, the team theorise that the information had to do with the location of the missing cash and jewellery from the robbery, but it doesn't explain why the police station was robbed, because they aren't there. Darlene and Naomi get ready to head outside for the vigil, while Mervin — still complaining about the heat — asks Darlene what they know about the robbery victim, Eudora James. Darlene says she's a wealthy widow, who was a bit lonely. Mervin asks for the key to the evidence store so he can have a look at Eudora's handbag.

Outside, Selwyn is leading the vigil and talking about Benjamin, saying that he was only at the start of his career, but that he would have made a fine officer. In the station, Mervin has retrieved Eudora's handbag but — still struggling with the heat — moves over to turn the ceiling fan control to its maximum setting. Outside, Selwyn asks everyone to stand in a moment of silence for the deceased — but they can hear a creaking sound coming from inside the station. Darlene: "He's turned the fan up to full, hasn't he?" Mervin turns the fan off, but it's too late — there's a loud crash from inside the station as the fan falls down, narrowly missing Mervin. Darlene reports that she thinks it's taken all of the electrics out with it.

Later, Selwyn informs Mervin that the repairman can't get there for a couple of days, so he's invoicing Mervin for the expense, courtesy of the Metropolitan Police. Mervin protests that it's not his fault that they only have "some antique ceiling fan from the 1920s" instead of proper air conditioning, and Selwyn finally snaps, telling him to shut up. Catherine (Élizabeth Bourgine), who has been helping them with the clear-up, asks if the murder case involves Eudora James, as she knew her a little bit — they were near-neighbours, and Catherine kept an eye on Eudora because she was elderly. Catherine was at the hospital with Eudora when she passed, and says that she was very confused about something, but kept asking where Maria was; Catherine didn't know what she meant, because there's no one named Maria in Eudora's family. Mervin is convinced that the answer to all of this must be inside Eudora's handbag; he clears it out, but it all seems fairly standard: some knitting, a pill box, an old envelope with a shopping list on it. The Commissioner wonders why on earth someone would break into a police station — or indeed commit murder — to get their hands on any of that.

The next day, JP returns and takes a moment at the shrine for Benjamin outside the station. He has some meetings on Saint Marie, and wanted to check in to see if there was any news on Benjamin's killer. He also needs to talk to the Commissioner about something. Darlene notices that Mervin is missing, so Naomi calls him to find out where he is.

As it happens, they find him on the beach. He's frustrated, because all three suspects have alibis, so they have no idea how the killer murdered Benjamin, if indeed it is any of those three. They also don't know what they were trying to steal from the station, or why Benjamin wrote "MARIA" backwards before he died. He looks out to see and inspiration strikes him: boats have names. He realises that the boat they were looking to steal was inside the station all along — and, thinking about how the UK is in a different time zone to Saint Marie (which is partly why he forgot to cancel his online shop in time), he realises how the killer managed to be in two places at once. He tells Naomi that she needs to get some fingerprints checked, while he places a call to an old colleague in Kentish Town. Naomi and Darlene are perplexed, particularly by the existence of "Kentish Town".

Once again, Mervin has been forced to gather all the suspects together for the big j'accuse moment, even though he'd rather simply file the paperwork and have done with it. Mervin tells the suspects that Benjamin would have excelled as a police officer; he knows this, because Benjamin was smart and able to keep his cool even in the direst of circumstances. He left the police a message by writing "Maria" backwards in the mud, and although it took the police a while to work it out, they found the answer in Eudora James's handbag: her shopping list was written on the back of an envelope. Attached to that envelope was an old Saint Marie stamp from the 1930s (as verified by Mervin's pal in the fabled Kentish Town) — and the image of the boat in the centre of the stamp is upside down. It's a rare misprint, of which there are only five in existence — the last one that went up for sale at auction went for close to $1m, and the stamp is called "the Inverted Maria". That's why Benjamin wrote "AIRAM" in the mud — he knew that it wouldn't make sense at first, but that the fine minds of the Honoré Police would be able to decode it in time.

All three suspects knew this very valuable stamp was in the police station's evidence locker, and the police have now found Paulette's prints on the envelope. They don't know how or when she found out about it, but Naomi — taking up the story — supposes that Paulette found a way of ingratiating herself with Eudora, knowing that she was old and lonely, and sensing an impending payday. Eudora must have confided in Paulette about the stamp, at which point Paulette and Damon concocted a plan that involved recruiting Clendon Sealey to steal the handbag. Unfortunately, the plan went awry when Eudora woke up during the robbery and called the police, and Clendon was arrested. That's why Paulette turned informant on Karlus — so that he could go to prison and put pressure on Clendon to reveal where the handbag with the valuable stamp on it ended up.

JP picks up the narrative, and says that the family ended up with an inside man after Benjamin got the job with the police, working in the same station where the stamp was stashed. They asked him to go into the evidence store and retrieve the envelope, but much to their surprise, Benjamin refused to do it. Benjamin felt compelled to report what he now knew about his family to the police, and his family knew they were on the verge of being arrested for conspiracy to commit burglary, as well as perverting the course of justice.

Mervin deduces that only one of them, however, was prepared to murder Benjamin to ensure his silence: Karlus. He'd spent six months in prison just to find the stamp, and now that was going to be in vain if he was going right back to jail. Karlus reminds Mervin that he was with his girlfriend when Benjamin died, but Mervin worked out that Karlus's alibi was the only one that could be faked. He adjusted his girlfriend's alarm clock, putting it back 15 minutes while she was asleep, and got up to intercept Benjamin on his way to work and kill him, before going back to his girlfriend's flat, climbing into bed ready for the alarm to go off — and although the clock said 7:45am, it was actually 8am. Then while his girlfriend was showering, Karlus put the clock back to the correct time, leaving her unaware that she's lost 15 minutes — but given him enough of a window to kill his brother.

Karlus — not unreasonably, it has to be said — points out that this is all a load of supposition and no actual proof. However, the police have an ace up their sleeve: Mervin points out that the first thing that bothered him about this case was Benjamin not wearing a helmet while he cycled to work. They've just been to Karlus's girlfriend's flat and found a bike helmet in the rubbish, and Mervin is sure they will find Karlus's fingerprints on it. He lays out the story: Karlus stopped Benjamin on his way to work to prevent him from reporting his own family, as well as explaining the true value of the stamp in the evidence locker. But Benjamin was determined to go ahead, so Karlus whacked him on the head with a rock — and took the helmet to make it look like he'd died in a cycling accident. Paulette is overcome with grief and launches herself at Karlus as she's being arrested, and Mervin gives JP the honour of personally arresting Karlus for Benjamin's murder.

Outside the police station, Mervin is checking flights back to London and planning to return home tomorrow afternoon. Naomi invites him to join her and Darlene for a farewell beer at Catherine's Bar, but Mervin tells her he has stuff to do. Mervin asks if she'll be putting her name down to be the new DI when he's gone. Naomi says it's something she's looking to do at some point, but not yet: she knows there are still some things she needs to learn. Mervin is impressed by this, and says there are a few DSes back in London that could learn from her approach. Naomi remarks drily that they've finally found something that Saint Marie does better than London.

Mervin calls up to book the ticket on the plane back to London, and heads back to the beach hut where he retrieves Dorna's case file from the drawer. He sits at the table on the veranda and looks through it.

At Catherine's Bar, Selwyn is enjoying a drink. Catherine tells him she's pleased that the police got justice for both Benjamin and Eudora, but Selwyn says it doesn't make the whole thing any less sad. As Catherine attends to her customers, JP stops by to speak to Selwyn: he has found out some things at Police HQ in Jamaica, and wants to quietly tip Selwyn off that they are planning some cutbacks in Saint Marie — particularly that Selwyn's position as the island's Commissioner is set to be dissolved. Selwyn is startled, but thanks JP for giving him an early warning. JP leaves to catch his plane, and Selwyn takes a call — from Mervin, who has been looking through his mother's file, and he doesn't think her death was an accident after all. Looks like that's yet another plane ticket he won't be using — hope he booked a refundable fare...

When Death in Paradise introduced DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) in the 2024 Christmas special, it's safe to say that he didn't make the best of first impressions on his new colleagues.

Mervin, who worked as a detective in London, was originally just visiting the Caribbean island of Saint Marie to find out more about his estranged mother, who lived there, but was seconded to the local police force when they needed his help to solve a serial murder of Santas. Mervin's brusque demeanor and frustration with the pace of island life didn't endear him to DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) or the rest of the team, so there weren't many tears shed on either side when the case was resolved and Mervin prepared to return to the UK.

As Death in Paradise season 14 begins, Mervin is on his way back to the airport when he passes Naomi and Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) investigating a crime scene at the roadside — and a suspicious detail about the body grabs his attention to the extent that he decides to delay his return by a few more days, much to Naomi and Darlene's dismay!

We caught up with Don and Shantol to find out more about the upcoming series — and whether Mervin and Naomi will ever see eye-to-eye on their work...

Don Gilet and Shantol Jackson interview for Death in Paradise season 14

• Death in Paradise season 14 begins on Friday, January 31 at 9 pm on BBC One. All of the previous episodes are currently available to stream for UK viewers on BBC iPlayer. In the US, Death in Paradise season 14 lands on BritBox on Wednesday, February 19.

Don Gilet's first Death in Paradise series has been given an end-of-January release date by the BBC.

Death in Paradise season 14 will begin on Friday, January 31 on BBC One at 9 pm, the BBC has officially confirmed. It will mark Don's first series as DI Mervin Wilson after making his debut in the hit crime drama's Christmas special. Mervin's first case saw him investigate when three men, all unconnected apart from the fact that they were dressed as Santa Claus, were seemingly all shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time.

Now, Mervin will get a fresh set of cases in the new series. We already know a fair amount Mervin thanks to the Christmas special. His brusque style rubbed his colleagues up the wrong way, with even the normally cheerful Naomi (Shantol Jackson) finding him tricky.

The biggest revelation about Mervin was that he had travelled to Saint Marie to meet his mother for the first time. It was a fact he eventually shared with his boss, Selwyn (Don Warrington), and that gave the pair a chance to bond a little. Tragically, it turned out that Mervin's mother had recently died, so he never got a chance to meet her. Selwyn suggested that Mervin would get to know a little of his mother by staying longer on Saint Marie, and he will be staying longer on the island as we know for the foreseeable future he will be the island's lead detective.

Talking about Mervin's struggles with the pace of life in Saint Marie, Don said: "Everything in Saint Marie runs counter to how things are supposed to be done, as far as he's concerned. His approach is more suited to a London pace of life, but nobody, even back in London, works the way he does."

Meanwhile, fans await news on whether Aussie spin-off Return to Paradise will be getting a second series or not.

Death in Paradise season 14 will begin on Friday, January 31 at 9 pm on BBC One.

Return to Paradise is the latest spin-off from Death in Paradise, starring former Home and Away actress Anna Samson as London Metropolitan police officer DI Mackenzie Clarke.

The show starts with Mackenzie returning to her hometown of Dolphin Cove, where she's highly unpopular with many of the locals after ditching poor Glenn (Tai Hara) at the altar.

Now, that the first series has aired thoughts are turning to a potential second season, here’s everything we know…

Return to Paradise season 2 status

Return to Paradise season 2 has finally been commissioned, and filming has started. It's no great surprise, as the first series got decent viewing figures. Return to Paradise opened with over four million viewers (7-day figures) and then retained an audience of over three million for the remaining episodes. While it's not in Ludwig territory, it's not bad. The BBC also made quite a big thing of calling Return to Paradise part of the Paraverse along with Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise. So it would have been odd if it had been axed, however, there was quite a long wait between the end of the series and the news that it would be coming back!

However, as of April 2025, the BBC has confirmed it's coming back. Tim Key, Executive Producer, Red Planet Pictures says: "We were delighted that the world took Mack and the rest of the Australian team to their hearts and it’s a pleasure to be back on the beat with the wonderful cast and crew Down Under. We can promise another series full of ingenious murders, romantic complications and glorious Australian locations, all infused with the unique warmth and humour of the Paradise shows."

Where will the plot go?

Spoilers ahead!! The makers clearly hoped there would be a second series as the first ended on a massive cliffhanger. Mackenzie was about to leave Dolphin Cove for London when she heard her ex Glenn, say to their pet dog that he still loved her. And we're pretty sure Mackenzie still loves Glenn. Thus, everything is perfectly set up for their romantic journey to continue in the second season. Also, the team now feels well established. Especially fun is the awkward relationship between Mackenzie and Detective S.C Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith). We really loved the moment Colin buys Mackenzie a coffee only for her to throw it in the bin!

The BBC teases: "Series two will reunite us with Detective Sergeant Mackenzie ‘Mack’ Clarke (Anna Samson), who’s longing to get back to the UK and the life she’s always craved. But for now she’s stuck in Dolphin Cove, dodging her ex-fiancée Glenn’s (Tai Hara) upcoming wedding after overhearing his unexpected declaration of love in the series one finale - a confession that she can’t unhear.

"Luckily for Mack, her compulsion to solve impossible cases serves as a great distraction, and there’s no shortage of murders to investigate. From the literary world to state-of-the-art shark labs, dating apps and rock concerts, Mack and her team face challenging mysteries with their unique blend of humour and tenacity. But Mack’s biggest challenge of all? Finding a way to exist in Dolphin Cove as the ultimate outsider."

Return to Paradise season 1 is available on BBC iPlayer now.

A new lead detective arrives on the shores of Saint Marie in the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 with Don Gilet making his debut as Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson.

The 90-minute special will be available to watch for FREE on BBC iPlayer. If you're on holiday while it's on, watch Death in Paradise on iPlayer from anywhere with a VPN.

Londoner Mervin isn't exactly delighted to be on Saint Marie, but he is intrigued by the case he has to solve: how were three men — all unconnected apart from the fact that they're dressed as Santa Claus — shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time? Yes, it's quite a poser for Mervin!

Joining Don Gilet are regulars Don Warrington (The Commissioner), Shantol Jackson (Naomi), Ginny Holder (Darlene), Élizabeth Bourgine (Catherine) and Danny John-Jules (Dwayne). Plus guest stars Jim Howick (Ghosts), Angela Griffin (The Wives), Marcus Brigstocke (The Unbelievable Truth), Steven Hartley (Happy Valley), Elizabeth Carling (Hotel Portofino), Michael Salami (Supacell) and Dex Lee (Doctors).

The Christmas special is a must watch for fans especially as it will give us a sense of what type of detective Mervin will be ahead of his first full series in charge in Death in Paradise season 14. Here's how to watch Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 online from anywhere in the world and for free in the UK...

How to watch the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 in the UK for free

The Death in Paradise Christmas special is on Sunday, December 22 at 8.30 pm on BBC One. It will also become available to stream on BBC iPlayerat that same time.

BBC One and iPlayer are both free to watch from, for TV licence fee payers.

If you're trying to access iPlayer while outside the UK, you might want to try a VPN to allow you to watch from abroad. Scroll down for more details.

How to watch the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 in the US

American fans will have to wait slightly longer than UK viewers with the Christmas episode arriving on Britbox on New Year's Eve, or Tuesday, December 31.

A subscription to Britbox costs $8.99 per month or $89.99 per year, and there's a 7-day free trial for people who haven't previously checked out the platform.

For Paradise fans, Britbox is the place to go, with the Return to Paradise Christmas Special also streaming on the platform as well as the entire previous run of Death in Paradise.

• Sign up for Britbox here

How to watch the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 in Australia

The Death in Paradise Christmas special lands on Britbox in Australia on Monday, December 23 which, due to time zones, is also when it airs in the UK.

Britbox is where all the other Paradise videos are including the entire run of Death in Paradise and the other 2024 Christmas specials.

Britbox costs $9.99 for a month and $99.99 for an annual pass, making it one of the cheaper streaming services in Australia.

• Sign up for Britbox here

How to watch Death in Paradise Christmas 2024 from anywhere with a VPN

You can watch Death in Paradise on the BBC iPlayer streaming service as described above by using a VPN — no matter where you are in the world!

Normally streaming services like iPlayer will know where you are trying to tune in from and block you if you're not in the right country but a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an app that hides your location. That means you can access your usual sports and entertainment services even while you're traveling abroad.

Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our VPN experts.

How to use a VPN to watch any stream

• Download the app at NordVPN
• Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
• Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!

There's a brand new detective in Death In Paradise this Christmas as EastEnders and Shetland star Don Gilet joins the cast as DI Mervin Wilson — and in the grand tradition of new Inspectors on the island of Saint Marie, he doesn't get off to the best of starts...

Since the departure of DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little), the rest of the team has kept things ticking over at the police station. When a holidaymaker is murdered while dressed as Santa, however, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) realizes that he needs to step up his search for a new DI.

As luck would have it, he's informed that a detective from London named Mervin Wilson is currently on holiday in Saint Marie, so DI Wilson is seconded to the team to help with the investigation. But DI Wilson has had a horrible time on the island, and is desperate to get home — so he's not at all happy to be forced to stick around!

We caught up with Don to find out what it was like to join the long-running crime drama and about his link to Ghosts actor Jim Howick...

Don Gilet interview for the Death In Paradise Christmas special 2024

• The Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 will air on Sunday, December 22 at 8.30 pm on BBC One in a Christmas TV highlight. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
• It will head to BritBox in the US on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2024. In Australia, the Death in Paradise Christmas special lands on Britbox on Monday, December 23.

Return to Paradise episode 6 sees DI Mackenzie Clarke crack a classic locked room case, while she wonders what to do about Glenn...

Mine owner Vince Ogden describes to a tour group, including Colin, how his ancestor Charles struck coal. Next, they head to the "haunted shower block" where the miners would wash after their long shifts. Vince describes how Charles gambled away the profits at the bookies in Dolphin Cove. Colin appears to be one of those tourists who has to film everything!

Vince describes how Charles took his own life with a knife. Vince says Charles was found by his great-grandfather who set off an alarm and Vince says you can still sometimes see his ghost… and then it looks like Vince has seen a ghost (this proves important!) It turns out to be the last tour he's giving. His son Finn asks him if he's going to blow his inheritance on the "wicked stepmother". She tells him it's Vince's inheritance and not his. Father and son appear to hate each other.

His daughter Lottie later knocks with a pie she's baked. She says it’s "mum’s recipe". Later at the bar, Colin is asking Glenn about when the big day is and he says it’s an ongoing discussion. Daisy seems a little more eager than Glenn to get the wedding sorted. Mackenzie is also at the bar and so is the "wicked stepmother". Mackenzie and Colin talk but are interupted by the alarm from the mine. Vince is found dead by the same blade as his ancestor Charles used. The door was locked and bolted from the inside.

DI Jack Mooney says Mackenzie has been cleared

As they look at the body, Colin says it appears Vince has taken his life just like Charles did. Mackenzie gets a phone call and it's DI Jack Mooney in London! He tells Mackenzie she's been cleared! He says they found someone else was tampering with the evidence. Jack says she's free to come back. And ideally, he wants her back asap as he's snowed under. She's rather ruffled by the news.
They go to speak to the family and the "wicked stepmother", whose name is Priya. She says Vince had been moody and paranoid recently. Finn adds he was miserable. Lottie steps away and says to Mackenzie she hates the way Finn and Priya are at each other's throats. She says she had a tough relationship with her dad. She says he was a cruel man. Mackenzie asks her if she knows what was in the box on top of the chest and she says no.

Colin wonders why a man about to get millions of dollars would take his own life. Mackenzie is wondering where the pie Lottie took him is. She finds the pie in the oven — why would a man about to take his own life put a pie in the oven?
Back at the station, Mackenzie says they need to work out how the killer escaped from a locked room and why the alarm went off.

Mackenzie goes to talk to Philomena. She tells her she's been cleared. Philomena asks if she will return to London and Mackenzie says she will but then starts crying. Philomena isn't exactly sympathetic and tells her to stop crying and then Colin wanders over! Colin has found the will and Priya inherits everything. She says she’d never talked about it and didn’t know. They’d be married for eight years. Mackenzie asks Priya if she is aware Vince took a call on the landline a couple of days before. She says she does remember and he said something like "I keep my promises". She doesn't know what it meant.

Colin's print is on the murder weapon!

Glenn says he's found a clear print on the murder weapon and it's Colin's! He held it on the tour. They joke with Colin that they’ll have to put him in the cells. When he leaves Mackenzie tells Glenn she plans to head home back to London. They share an awkward hug. Glenn says she will miss the wedding. Well, she’s got form there! Felix and Reggie have a witness who saw Vince and Finn unloading a boat with drugs in the middle of the night. They were also arguing. They go interview Finn. Rather than drugs they find cigarettes. He says they argued because the cigarettes were out of date.

Colin looks back at the filming of his mine trip. He appears to spot the moment Vince reacted strangely as if seeing a ghost. As Mackenzie swats mosquitos at her home, Jack rings and wants her back in London. He says she can come over for dinner with him and Anna. Anna, hang on is Jack back with Anna (played by Nina Wadia in Death in Paradise?! Colin then turns up and she tells Jack she has to go. She then whacks Colin claiming it was to kill a mosquito! He plays Mackenzie the footage and on the blade we see a reflection of a woman. The mystery woman is Dot, Vince’s supposedly dead first wife!

They go to talk to the family again. Lottie admits seeing Dot but she says Dot isn’t the killer. She was with Lottie at the time of Vince's death she says and she'd got what she wanted from the boxes — letters from Dot to Lottie. It’s revealed Vince never passed them on to Lottie. Lottie says she doesn’t know where Dot is.
Felix and Reggie run into Dot and bring her to the station. Dot says she took the letters and went straight to Lottie. She says Vince had her sectioned as a power play. Vince was a bully who loved being in control. She says she wished she killed him, but she didn’t. She says when she left Vince the pie was on a table not in the oven (this is bound to be crucial!).

Mackenzie goes to see Glenn and they share a moment over the fact Glenn has stockpiled her favorite chocolate milk drink in the fridge for her. And then she does her thing and cracks the case! They head to see Daisy. They ask what Priya was drinking. Mackenzie shares a moment with Glenn about working out the case and Daisy looks on. She can't fail to notice the chemistry between Mackenzie and Glenn.

Mackenzie gathers the suspects. Mackenzie says the key question is how did the killer escape a locked room. And the answer is they didn't. She tells Priya she was at the surf club at the time the alarm went off. She says Dot and Lottie both have clear motives, but again how did the killer escape? She turns to Finn and asks him how he escaped.

Mackenzie says the clever bit was that Priya and Finn had hated each other for years. They were in it together! They are the killers! They pretended the door was bolted and then Priya locked it. Mackenzie says they were in love! Mackenzie spotted Finn had the bottles of prosecco that Priya loved in his fridge. More conclusively she checked his phone records.

Mackenzie says the final straw for Priya was Dot's return. She knew that Vince could do what he did to Dot to her. We see Finn killing Vince, breaking the bolt and turning on the alarm. He did that so as to get an independent witness to the mine, which was Lottie. Unbeknown to Lottie Priya locked the door. Thus making it look like the murder was impossible. Lottie then broke down the door. They are arrested. Mackenzie says if you don't have love you don’t have anything and she appears to be talking to herself!

Return to Paradise ending explained

Back at the station, the gang gives Mackenzie a boomerang as a departing gift. Colin tells Mackenzie she's "very odd" before adding she's a "tremendous detective".
She goes outside to talk to Philomena, who returns to Mackenzie her warrant card. They get a little emotional. Back at her home, Mackenzie has her case packed.
She heads to the beach bar, where Daisy, Glenn and the whole of Dolphin Cove are. Daisy and Glenn are making speeches at their engagement bash. Daisy shows off her ring. Mackenzie stands there looking very awkward. Daisy and Glenn kiss.

Cab driver Trevor tells Mackenzie she has five minutes otherwise he's off. She takes the chance to have a final word with Glenn. Mackenzie congratulates him. "I don't really fit here", she says. Glenn says he's going to miss her. Trevor beeps. She walks off to the cab. Frankie the dog jumps in the back of the cab. Trevor says she has two minutes to return Frankie. "Shut up Trevor or I’ll stay" she replies!

Glenn welcomes Frankie back and thinking they’re on their own tells the dog he still loves Mackenzie! But Mackenzie hears him! And the series ends neatly setting up a potential season 2...

Death in Paradise fans will be delighted to hear that Don Gilet is making his debut as the new lead detective earlier than expected.

The BBC has announced its Christmas TV schedules and Death in Paradise is on earlier than normal this year. Usually, we make our festive trip to Saint Marie on Boxing Day, but this year's special, which sees Don's debut as Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson, will air on Sunday, December 22 at 8.30 pm on BBC One.

Meanwhile, the Beyond Paradise Christmas special 2024 will air on Friday, December 27 at 9.00 pm on BBC One (check out our Christmas TV guide for more shows to enjoy).

Back to Death in Paradise and the Christmas special will run for 90 minutes.
Teasing the plot of the Christmas special, the BBC says: "We're back on the beautiful island of Saint Marie, and this time with a new detective inspector in tow. Londoner Mervin Wilson ruffles some feathers as he clashes with the island's way of life. But he quickly sinks his teeth into one of the team's most puzzling murder cases yet: three men, all unconnected apart from the fact that they're dressed as Santa Claus, and seemingly all shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time. As Mervin wrangles this impossible murder, his colleagues struggle with their new boss's unusual working methods. And Dwayne's Christmas with his father doesn't exactly go to plan…"

Joining Don Gilet are regulars Don Warrington (who plays The Commissioner), Shantol Jackson (Naomi), Ginny Holder (Darlene), Élizabeth Bourgine (Catherine) and Danny John-Jules (Dwayne).

The guest stars for the Christmas special are Jim Howick (Ghosts), Angela Griffin (The Wives), Marcus Brigstocke (The Unbelievable Truth), Steven Hartley (Happy Valley), Elizabeth Carling (Hotel Portofino), Michael Salami (Supacell) and Dex Lee (Doctors).

The Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 will air on Sunday, December 22 at 8.30 pm on BBC One. The Beyond Paradise Christmas special will air on Friday December 27 at 9.00 pm on BBC One. See our TV Guide for full listings.

Return to Paradise episode 4 sees DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson) investigate the murder of an eco-warrior.

We open with some eco-warriors walking through a wood before cutting through a fence marked "DANGER". Activist Byron Jones makes a video statement that the land is meant to be protected for kola conservation but tomorrow a timber firm is cutting the trees down. There's a bit of arguing between the activists and then they start chaining themselves to a digger.

In the morning, they awake to find Byron has been murdered! Mackenzie bumps into Daisy and Glenn by the beach. They chat about Glenn's upcoming footy game, which Mackenzie clearly finds boring. When Daisy goes off, Glenn asks Mackenzie for his engagement ring back. Wouldn't he want a different ring after what happened last time?!. OK, it's his grandma's, but still! Anyway, Glenn wants to pop the question to Daisy. But does he really?!

Philomena breaks it to Mackenzie that not only does she want her to work on patrol at the footy game, but she also wants her in uniform. At the scene of the murder, Colin says the victim was whacked over the head. They cut free the protesters. Colin is a big fan of kolas, but Mackenzie points out that most of them have Chlamydia! Lovely!

Mackenzie notes oddly Bryon was wearing only a single sock. This is bound to be key! Operations manager Fiona found the body and they speak to her. She says they have security cameras covering the perimeter. Mackenzie thinks Fiona is lying about something as she said "honestly" twice. They intereview the protestors — Bryon's husband Ken Sen-Jones, Bryon's brother Henry Jones and Maggie Mitchell. Maggie won't say a word other than a bit of singing, but the others reveal they broke in around 2 am to the site. They reveal they felt the chains shaking in the middle of the night. When Mackenzie suggests Bryon is the leader, Maggie lets slip that she founded the movement when "Bryon was still in nappies". Felix says there's no evidence of anyone else entering the site from the camera footage.

Where's Glenn's ring?!

At the station, it's revealed that Bryon was arrested over a previous protest which saw some miners get hurt when someone tampered with a bulldozer. However, Bryon was acquitted. Mackenzie asks Felix to see if any of the victims are in Dolphin Cove. Mackenzie is confused by the victim only wearing one sock.
Glenn confirms that Bryon was whacked on the head. Mackenzie seems to think one of the protestors did it but Glenn reckons it's unlikely given they were all chained to the digger. He reminds her about the ring, and she assures him she knows where it is. Does she?!

Reggie comes over to Mackenzie's to help her find the ring! Reggie wants to hypnotize Mackenzie to help her find it! Suddenly Mackenzie remembers throwing the ring off on her wedding day and they start searching the garden. She digs it up eventually!

The next day, Mackenzie and Colin discuss that Bryon's phone records show him calling only one unlisted number. They call the number and observe as Fiona picks up! Mackenzie wonders how Fiona knew to go to the exact spot where the protestors were. She claims to have heard them yelling when she reached the entrance to the site but Mackenzie says it was over 1km away from where they were so she couldn't have heard. Mackenzie has worked out that Fiona knew Byron was there. Fiona was paying Byron for information!

In a weird partnership, Byron got money to keep the group going while Fiona got advanced warnings of protests so she could contain them. On the night of the murder, she claims she was staying with her sister. Colin says her alibi checks out. Felix reveals there was a noise complaint on the night of the murder and they work out that the brothers were having an argument. But what about? At the headquarters of the group, they talk to Henry who says he and his brother were very different. He hands over some files from the mining incident. They start searching for the victim's phone and Mackenzie finds it. And she finds the missing sock! Colin finds some tablets, which turn out to be painkillers. Henry explains Byron became addicted after using them for a shoulder injury. Henry says Bryon's husband wouldn't have been happy if he'd found out. Mackenzie thinks Bryon being under the influence of drugs explains the one sock. Colin's not convinced.

At the station, Philomena gives Mazkenzie her football patrol kit! Mackenzie produces a copy of the calendar she found at the headquarters. It has colored dots on it. Why? At the timber firm, Ken Sen-Jones is kicking off. Felix bundles him into the car. Mackenzie confronts him and points out that the dots on the calendar are for an ovulation cycle and suggests they had a surrogate lined up. She says by spending all their money and taking drugs Bryon had ruined their chances of having a baby, thus a perfect murder motive. Felix goes to see Maggie, who’s refusing to talk to him. Cue the entry of Reggie undercover as an environmentalist. Maggie invites Reggie into her camper van for a cup of tea.

Bryon's killer is revealed

Glenn reveals that Bryon wasn't drugged up and so Mackenzie wonders why he then was only wearing one sock. Mackenzie goes all weird about the ring and Philomena turns up. Back at the campervan, Reggie tries to get info out of Maggie. She says that a "leech" tried to take away the protest group. The next morning, Mackenzie, Colin and Felix study the footage from Henry's head camera. It shows Bryon wearing a bandana on his wrist, but it is missing from his body. Reggie walks in and reveals Bryon proposed a motion to bar Maggie from the group and it passed. She also found Maggie's got a one-way ticket to Tasmania. Mackenzie and Colin go to speak to Maggie but she denies killing Bryon and says she's off to Tasmania for a protest.

At the station, Colin makes a discovery about the 1-7-S-K written on the file about the mining protest. The 1-7 refers to the crime act he was charged under. But what about the S-K? Mackenzie looks at a newspaper article about Bryon's trial and there's a photo of Fiona Kollos! S-R stands for Sarah Roberts, whose maiden name was Kollos. So they work out Fiona's sister was one of the victims in the mining incident.

They go to talk to Fiona, who admits she wanted Bryon to suffer. She says, though, her plan was to expose him for being on the take from a logging company. She denies killing him. Mackenzie is still trying to work out how you kill someone when you're chained to a digger. So she takes the team along, including Glenn, and chains them all to a digger! She quickly rules out the three protestors working together. As she goes to unchain Reggie, they have a whispered chat about Glenn. Reggie mentions digging for the ring and this sparks something in Mackenzie's mind! She's got it! She says she needs the bandana and she knows where it is.

She gathers the suspects. She goes back to earlier in the evening on the night of the murder. She says Henry and Bryon argued. Henry shoved Byron at headquarters and he hit his head which they know because the splinters in his wound were from floorboards. He used the bandana on the wound not realising his injury was a ticking time bomb. His head injury explains Bryon's odd behaviour such as only wearing one sock. Mackenzie says Henry must have been aware Bryon was dying from a head wound especially as he had medical training and yet he did nothing. Mackenzie says Bryon eventually had a seizure due to a bleed on the brain. She says the blood on the bandana proves that Henry was the killer. That is why Henry took the bandana. That is why when they were cut free of the chains, Henry pretended to vomit in the woods. He took the chance to dig a hole and bury the bandana!

Henry also planted the painkillers to make it look like that was why Bryon was acting oddly and to misdirect the police. He also took Bryon's money to make it look like he was spending his money on drugs. She also reveals that Henry was the one taking money from the loggers and not Bryon! He also gave the file on the mine incident to the police to make it look like Fiona was the killer. That explains why Bryon acted like he didn't know Fiona when he saw her because he didn’t know her for real! And that made Bryon realize what Henry had done. Bryon then produces her key piece of evidence — the bandana with Henry's DNA all over it. Henry tearfully admits his crime.

Back at the station, Mackenzie agrees to cover the footy game. Mackenzie, now in uniform, sees Glenn after the game and gives him his ring back. Glenn then weirdly tries to put the ring back on her finger! Mackenzie recoils but there's clearly something there still between them...

The Beyond Paradise Christmas special 2024 will see DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) back on the case for some festive mysteries in Shipton Abbott.

Yes, it really is getting rather crowded in the so-called "Paraverse" with the Aussie spin-off Return to Paradise currently airing on BBC One, while the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 has already aired with Don Gilet making his debut as the new lead detective.

Plus there's also a new series of Beyond Paradise and Death in Paradise to look forward to in 2025. And possibly a second series of Return to Paradise assuming it goes well and gets recommissioned.

The Christmas episode sees Humphrey and Esther try to unravel whether a widower's ghostly visions are a manifestation of grief or something more sinister.

Kris tells us about the ghostly plot: "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 skeptical and doesn't believe in coincidences. But for him, the thrill comes from unraveling the mystery, which is what gets him excited about the job."

Here's everything we know about the Beyond Paradise Christmas special 2024…

Beyond Paradise Christmas special 2024 release date

The Beyond Paradise Christmas special 2024 will air on BBC One on Friday, December 27 at 9.00 pm. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer, where you can catch up on past series.

We have a Christmas TV guide with all the big shows to look forward to this Christmas. It will be available on BritBox in the US on Christmas Day, 2024.

What's the plot?

Spoilers ahead if you've not finished watching Beyond Paradise season 2… so Humphrey and Martha (Sally Bretton) were meant to get married in the final episode of the series, but it all got a bit much and they didn't. So the Christmas special will hopefully move this plot along.

The BBC has now teased the plot saying: "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?"

It will be interesting to see if there's any crossover with Return to Paradise. Perhaps Humphrey has an Aussie relative living in Dolphin Cove? With DI Jack Mooney turning up in Return to Paradise, there's been a crossover between Death in Paradise and the Aussie spin-off. DI Neville Parker turned up in Beyond Paradise when Humphrey went to Saint Marie. So surely it's time to join everything up with a Beyond Paradise/Return to Paradise crossover?

Beyond Paradise cast

Kris Marshall and Sally Bretton star again. Also in the cast are Zahra Ahmadi (The Bay, Tracey Ullman's Show, EastEnders) as DS Esther Williams, Dylan Llewellyn (Big Boys, Derry Girls) as PC Kelby Hartford and Felicity Montagu (This Time with Alan Partridge, Landscapers, Vanity Fair) playing office support civilian, Margo Martins.

The guest stars include Mark Heap, Rosalind Adler, Tamla Kari and Seann Walsh.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Behind the scenes and more

Created by Robert Thorogood and Tony Jordan, Beyond Paradise is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International and is produced by Red Planet Pictures, part of the Asacha Media Group company, which was recently acquired by Fremantle. Tony Jordan, Tim Key and Belinda Campbell are executive producers for Red Planet Pictures, Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC and Robert Schildhouse and Stephen Nye for BritBox International. Lindsay Hughes is producer.

Return to Paradise is a Death in Paradise spin-off starring Anna Samson as DI Mackenzie Clarke. Here's everything that happened in the first episode...

Return to Paradise opens on the beach in Dolphin Cove. We see some surfers. Stuart Grainger, the president of the local surf club, introduces himself and shows off the trophy they will be competing for. He declares the surf carnival open. In the bar, Stuart smugly kisses his partner and dismissively tells waitress Becky to get cleaning. Becky gives him a look.

We see a property for sale board with husband and wife estate agents Susan and Stuart's pictures on. Stuart shows someone around the property while someone on a motorbike looks on. Back at the beach, the surfers pull a body out of the water. And it’s Stuart! He has a knife plunged in his back. And the theme tune starts...

We see DI Mackenzie Clarke in a cab to Dolphin Cove. When the cab driver, Trevor, realizes it's her he throws her out of his cab for what she did. She's obviously not liked! He drives off and leaves Mackenzie stranded miles away from Dolphin Cove. She starts walking…

She arrives at her beach property, which looks not a million miles away from the shack in Death in Paradise. Certainly, it has a great view. Detective S.C Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith) inspects the body on the beach with Constable Felix Wilkinson (Aaron L Mc Grath). It turns out to be Colin's first murder case. Their boss, Senior Sergeant Philomena Strong (Catherine McClements), turns up. Colin says he's talked to Susan and the victim Stuart had a 2 pm appointment with a buyer called Grant at a property. Philomena breaks it to Colin that they need a senior detective on the case. Mackenzie talks to a crying woman on the phone.

Colin interviews the man, Grant, looking at the property, who says he left about three leaving Stuart to lock up. Grant says he knew Stuart but not well. Mackenzie walks into the house and asks where Stuart is! Colin says he's unavailable. Mackenzie replies: "He's dead, that's why his receptionist is crying. You're a detective so it wasn't natural causes. Murdered then". Colin looks highly uncomfortable as Mackenzie rapidly pieces together parts of the case. She explains she's a London cop. She heads outside and spots what looks like a surveillance camera! She notes Stuart's stuff is in the house but he was found in the water. Together they watch the camera footage. Grant left at 2.59 pm and the body was found around 4 pm. On the camera footage there's no sign of Stuart leaving the property. But how did he then end up dead on the beach 2km away?

She observes that the place isn’t cheap and that Grant is a mechanic. Colin checks his notes looking baffled. Mackenzie says: "Grease under his fingernails, pay attention!” She wonders why a mechanic would come to see a house he probably can't afford. The boss turns up and swiftly packs Mackenzie on her way, saying they have all the help they need. “Check his lungs,” Mackenzie says and then makes it clear she's going. Mackenzie phones London and we see a postcard from Saint Marie! The person she's calling declines the call.

The next day, Philomena learns that she’s not getting a detective to help on the murder case. She’s gutted, we wonder who might be able to help?! Mackenzie is cleaning her mum's house out. Philomena turns up and asks for her help. Mackenzie says she’s got too much on in London, but Philomena tempts her in with details of the case.

Mackenzie heads to the police station, which looks remarkably similar to the one in Saint Marie complete with a murder board. She's introduced to Felix. She doesn’t hang about. She looks at the photos of the body and asks why Stuart’s blazer is missing a button. What happened to it? The button is clearly going to be crucial! Police volunteer Reggie Rocco (Celia Ireland) walks in and she's actually pleased to see Mackenzie and gives her a big hug. Reggie is a retired teacher who now volunteers with the police. Colin reads out the victim’s phone messages: "She knows about us and she's fuming. We need to meet". Colin says Stuart deleted the message after he’d sent it to waitress Becky.

They go to intereview Susan who says she was on a run between 3 and 4 pm on the day of the murder. Susan says she knew Stuart was having an affair with Becky. Susan says Stuart had ended it with Becky. Reggie and Felix go to investigate someone’s letterbox being knocked over.

Becky seems a lot more upset than Stuart's wife about his death. She says she was in love with him. She says he didn't dump her and was going to leave his wife and move in with her. She claims he didn't because Susan made him sign a pre-nup so if they divorced he'd get none of the family fortune. Mackenzie spots that Becky is pregnant!

Hooray! It's DI Jack Mooney!

Later, Mackenzie hides her number and again tries London — and DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O’Hanlon) picks up! She asks him if there’s going to be an inquiry and he indicates he can't talk but says it will be months before he can update her on what's happening. He puts the phone down on top of some files about Mackenzie, which references Operation Nightshade (drug trafficking) and Operation Blackout (cybercrime). Colin comes into the house and Mackenzie says the house is her mother's. Colin smirks and says you can sometimes see a lady bathing out the back naked. And Mackenzie says yes, that’s her mum! Awkward!

Mackenzie asks if there’s anything from forensic accounts and Colin says that's him and he’ll get onto it tomorrow. The autopsy is tomorrow as well. "Oh yeah, no rush," says Mackenzie sarcastically. Lloyd hits back that they're a small team without big city resources. He does have the last week of security footage from the house and Mackenzie starts whirling through that. The next morning, Colin turns up with two coffees at Mackenzie's. Colin said there's no evidence at the house and no evidence a killer has cleaned up either. Mackenzie says she doesn’t drink coffee and throws it in the bin! Turns out she's been up all night looking at the footage. There's not much other than Stuart coming in and out of the house while always glued to his phone.

We meet Glenn

Colin says Glenn Strong, the boss's son, is the pathologist. Mackenzie clearly knows Glenn and looks worried. She ducks out of seeing Glenn. Glenn emerges from the water after surfing. He says that the murder weapon is just a standard kitchen knife and there are no prints. Glenn looks stunned when Colin says Mackenzie is on the case. Colin comments she's not winning many friends and Glenn replies she's a good person deep down. "How deep?" quips Colin.

Back at the station, Colin asks Reggie if there's anything between Mackenzie and Glenn. She says nothing except Mackenzie leaving Glenn at the altar six years ago, flying to London, and never speaking to him again! Meanwhile, they've identified the motorbike that knocked over the letter box. It's owned by a criminal called Zayne who lives with Becky! They go to talk to Zayne who makes a dash for it. He passes Mackenzie who joins in the chase and she turns out to be a lot quicker runner than Colin or Felix and executes a perfect rugby tackle to take Zayne down on the beach. Zayne admits to being at the house on the day of the murder and seeing Stuart and the mechanic. He says he's no longer living with Becky and went around to hers just to pick up his engagement ring. Mackenzie suggests being dumped for a rich estate agent is a good motive for murder. But Zayne says he was lurking at the house to wait for Becky, not Stuart.

The team has their suspects: Zayne, Becky, Susan, and Grant. Colin says Becky had a key to the house but Mackenzie points out there’s no evidence Stuart was killed there.

At home, Mackenzie finds a dog waiting for her, Frankie. Frankie is closely followed by Frankie’s owner, Glenn. He says there was water in Stuart's lungs and Mackenzie says she knew it! Glenn says the victim drowned and was stabbed! He drowned before the knife wound killed him. Glenn says there's a maximum five-minute window between the knife being used and Stuart going into the water. She says they need to time how long it takes to get from the house to the nearest water and if it’s more than five minutes they know Stuart was killed in the house. Poor Glenn does the running and it takes more than 10 minutes to get to the sea, so Mackenzie knows he wasn't killed in the house. Glenn clearly wants to talk, but Mackenzie shuts him down.

Back at the station, Colin says mechanic Grant's finances were a mess and he was in debt to Stuart. Also, it seems he had a childhood crush on Stuart’s wife, Susan. Mackenzie says they all have motives but how did they do it? Reggie says it’s like they’re investigating the wrong crime and that comment resonates with Mackenzie. "If we could fit the crime to the evidence, what crime would that be and who benefits," she ponders. Mackenzie heads to the coastline with Colin and finds something, we presume the missing button!

Stuart's killer is revealed

In true Death in Paradise/Agatha Christie style Mackenzie gathers the suspects. She says the murder makes no sense until you look at it from the other direction. Stuart was murdered but he wasn't meant to be the victim. She continues Stuart publicly declared he was meeting someone at the house and knew where all the security cameras were at the house and the blind spots. And the buyer he was showing around was no such thing as Grant clearly couldn't afford it. Stuart was creating an alibi, she declares, so he could kill his wife!

Stuart, taking advantage of the blind spots on the cameras, slipped out of the house with the idea of intercepting his wife on her run and killing her by pushing her off the cliff. He then planned to return to the house and leave in full view of the camera with his accomplice Grant. He'd then be able to marry Becky, bring up their baby, and inherit all his wife's money.

Mackenzie then reveals that Grant warned Susan of what her husband was planning because he's always loved her. And then we see Susan plunge the knife into her husband’s back! They struggle and he falls off the cliff to his death. Well, he deserved it really! Susan denies it and says there's not a shred of evidence that Stuart was there. But then Mackenzie produces the button! Susan is arrested for Stuart's murder.

Back at the station, Mackenzie says sorry to Colin for throwing his coffee in the bin and explains she’s not really a people person. She says Colin can be her tenant, but he says he can't afford it, and she says just to pay what he likes. She goes to see Glenn and says she's off to London. Finally, Glenn confronts Mazkenzie about why she left and hasn't called him in six years. She says it was about her and not him. She wanted more than Dolphin Cove.

She goes to see her boss Philomena who says DI Mooney has explained how Mackenzie was facing suspension for tampering with evidence. She denies she was and says she was stitched up. Philomena believes her but says there's only one place in the whole of Australia that would let her be a detective and that's Dolphin Cove! And can she bring some milk in the morning… Mackenzie knows her fate!

Return to Paradise is officially a spin-off of Death in Paradise. But unlike the first spin-off Beyond Paradise, which follows past Saint Marie favorite DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), this Aussie version isn't about a character from Death in Paradise. Indeed, other than a quick cameo by Ardal O Hanlon as former DIP lead DI Jack Mooney, it's a bit of a stretch to call this a spin-off!

However, once Anna Samson appears on the screen as DI Mackenzie Clarke you forget all this and suddenly you feel like you truly are in the so-called "Paraverse". Anna told us she believes her character is like DI Richard Poole, Death in Paradise's first and I think best detective. Mackenzie has that awkward brilliance Poole displayed while struggling to deal with social situations.

Indeed Mackenzie has managed to offend the people of Dolphin Cove, the fictional Aussie setting, so much that when a cab driver realizes it’s her he kicks her out of his car! Mackenzie is on leave from London, where she's a top cop working with DI Jack Mooney. But she's left London under something of a cloud and ends up back in a place she loathes. Desperate for help on a murder, the local police chief Philomena Strong (Catherine McClements) — a sort of Commissioner Patterson type — asks Mackenzie to lead the case, much to the upset of Detective S.C Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith) who thinks he can crack the case by himself.

Death in Paradise has always hinged on the central relationship between the lead detective and their deputy and luckily Return to Paradise on early evidence gets this right. There are some nice comedy moments between Mackenzie and Colin. On discovering Mackenzie is living at her mum's place, Colin gleefully says you can often see someone bathing naked out the back. Mackenzie replies yes that's her mother! There's another great moment where Colin buys Mackenzie a coffee only for her to just dump it in the bin and declare she doesn't like coffee! The supporting cast is all perfectly fine, but it's Anna's show and your engagement lifts every time she's on screen.

The first murder she has to solve is very Death in Paradise with an estate agent found with a dagger in his back on the beach. He was last seen miles away from where his body was found, so how on earth could he have got there? If you’re a DIP fan you’ll enjoy all the nods to the series like the murder board in the police station. One thing Return to Paradise has over Beyond Paradise is that Mackenzie is investigating murders, which are much more interesting than some of the lower-level crimes DI Humphrey Goodman gets stuck with in Beyond Paradise.

In some ways then Return to Paradise is actually closer to Death in Paradise than Beyond Paradise. It has that fish-out-of-water vibe that Beyond Paradise lacks as Humphrey is now settled with Martha.

If you love Death in Paradise there's more than a good chance you'll enjoy Return to Paradise. And if you’ve never seen it in your life then you don’t actually need any prior knowledge to appreciate Return to Paradise. It's a fun, gentle crime series lifted by a great central performance.

Return to Paradise is airing on BBC One on Fridays at 8 pm. The whole series is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

Warming up the cold winter months, popular sun-kissed crime drama Death in Paradise expands beyond the Caribbean and Devon as it heads Down Under — and welcomes its first-ever female lead detective — for BBC One's latest spin-off, Return to Paradise.

Picking up the baton from first spin-off Beyond Paradise, this new six-parter — filmed in Sydney and the Illawarra coastal region of Australia — sees Anna Samson (Home & Away) follow in the footsteps of franchise favorites Ben Miller (as DI Richard Poole), Kris Marshall (DI Humphrey Goodman), Ardal O’Hanlon (DI Jack Mooney) and, most recently, Ralf Little (DI Neville Parker), as DI Mackenzie Clarke, who returns to her hometown, Dolphin Cove, after being accused of tampering with evidence while working for London’s Metropolitan Police.

Mackenzie fled Dolphin Cove six years earlier, leaving her fiancé Glenn (Home & Away's Tai Hara) at the altar. As Mackenzie gets drawn into helping local police investigate a string of complex murders, alongside sidekick DSC Colin Cartwright (Nolly’s Lloyd Griffith), can she make peace with her past? Anna, 34, tells us more…

How does it feel to be the first female lead detective in the Death in Paradise ‘Paraverse’?

"I’m pleased as punch to be playing the first female in the franchise but it was also incredibly surreal… and nerve-wracking. I was full of joy when I heard I’d got the part - then it suddenly hit me that I now had to do this thing! There's pressure in taking up the mantle of not only these wonderful, maverick detectives, but these very charismatic, beloved English male actors. I can't emulate or replicate what they’ve done; I’m bringing ‘me’ to the show."

How would you describe your character, Mackenzie?

"I listened to Kris Marshall talking once about Humphrey and saying these characters are a study in loneliness. Mackenzie certainly feels like a bit of an outsider in the world and that she doesn’t 'fit', so she's blind to anyone in Dolphin Cove that may want to be her friend. Mackenzie brings a great sense of guilt back with her to Dolphin Cove but she doesn't worry about being liked, which was fun to play."

What can you tell us about the first investigation?

"There's something delicious about who gets murdered in our show; whether it's a real estate agent or wellness influencer, you're not sorry to see the person go, ha, ha! Mack is renting out her mum’s house and visits a real estate agent only to find DSC Colin Cartwright there investigating his murder! Mackenzie puts gloves on at the crime scene and gets involved."

Mackenzie and Colin make quite the double act. What’s it like working with Lloyd?

"I’m really pleased with the chemistry the two of us have on screen. We have less time to shoot this show than the British versions, which means long days on set, and Lloyd and I spending an unbelievable amount of time together. We had to get to know each other and trust each other pretty quickly."

The first episode pays homage to Death in Paradise when Series 6 DI Jack Mooney — played by Ardal O’Hanlon — appears. What brings him to the show?

"This is a wonderful nod to the original series. There’s a phone ringing and a shot of London that reels you in… then we see it’s DI Jack Mooney calling! Mooney is Mackenzie’s boss at the Met Police, which she left under a cloud of suspicion. Mooney’s overseeing the ‘trouble’ but he can only tell Mackenzie so much as it’s all very secret. I didn’t meet Ardal - he was filming in London while I was shooting in Australia - but I would’ve loved to."

Would you like Humphrey to turn up in Dolphin Cove, perhaps?

"Yes! I want them all in this show, ha, ha! To prepare for the role, I watched all the Paraverse detectives to understand how an actor works within this genre and where I could push the humour. I’d say Mackenzie most overlaps with Ben Miller’s DI Richard Poole from Series 1 in terms of the way they interact socially with the world. But I love them all."

How does Return to Paradise compare to Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise?

"While Return… is similar in spirit, it's not a carbon copy. I don't think Mackenzie being female changes the show’s DNA, I think being in Australia changes it more; because it's not set in the Caribbean, we don't have that culture clash. Mackenzie grew up in Dolphin Cove, ran away and is coming home to people who don't embrace her straight away. So, like the other series, our detective is still a fish out of water — but in a town she knows."

What’s it like filming in your native Australia?

"Death in Paradise is huge in Australia and I know there’s great pride from those who live in the Illawarra area that we’ve filmed there and that we're celebrating how incredible that part of the world is. It really is astonishingly stunning."

All six episodes of Return to Paradise will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6 am on Friday 22 November, with the series airing weekly on BBC1 from 8 pm that night.

Death in Paradise has revealed the guest stars for this year's Christmas special including Ghosts actor Jim Howick.

Jim, best known for playing ghost Pat in the sitcom, will be featured in the first case of the island's new detective, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet).

Angela Griffin (The Wives), Marcus Brigstocke (The Unbelievable Truth), Steven Hartley (Happy Valley), Elizabeth Carling (Hotel Portofino), Michael Salami (Supacell) and Dex Lee (Doctors) will also feature in the Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024.

It's not clear yet who'll be the suspects and who'll be suffering their last Christmas as the murder victim. It has though been revealed that Dwayne's father (Ram John Holder) features in the episode.

Teasing the plot, the BBC says: "We're back on the beautiful island of Saint Marie, and this time with a new detective inspector in tow. Londoner Mervin Wilson ruffles some feathers as he clashes with the island's way of life. But he quickly sinks his teeth into one of the team's most puzzling murder cases yet: three men, all unconnected apart from the fact that they're dressed as Santa Claus, and seemingly all shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time. As Mervin wrangles this impossible murder, his colleagues struggle with their new boss's unusual working methods. And Dwayne's Christmas with his father doesn't exactly go to plan…"

Back for the special is series regulars Don Warrington as Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, Shantol Jackson as DS Naomi Thomas, Ginny Holder as Officer Darlene Curtis, Danny John-Jules as Officer Dwayne Myers and Élizabeth Bourgine as Catherine Bordey.

Don Gilet is taking over as the show's lead detective following the departure of Ralf Little as DI Neville Parker. The Christmas episode will be the first time we see DI Mervin Wilson and then he will feature in Death in Paradise season 14, which will begin early next year.

Don, who was once a guest star on the show, said: "I am delighted to have returned to the wonderful island of Guadeloupe and this time to be stepping into the well-worn shoes of the Detective Inspector. It's been a real pleasure filming such a beloved series alongside the hardworking cast and crew. I can't wait for the fans to see how DI Mervin Wilson fares on the island, how he fits within the Saint Marie police team and what secrets may unfold…".

Meanwhile, fans also have the new Aussie spin-off, Return to Paradise, to look forward to. Return to Paradise will start on BBC One on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm (see our TV guide for full listings) and it will be available as a boxset from November 22 on BBC iPlayer. We don't have a US release date yet for Return to Paradise.

Death in Paradise fans have been wondering about the link between the original show and its new spin-off, Return to Paradise… and it's finally been revealed that it's DI Jack Mooney!

While the first spin-off from the hit crime drama, Beyond Paradise, has an obvious connection to the original as it follows the adventures of former Saint Marie detective DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall), it wasn't clear what the actual link was between Return to Paradise and Death in Paradise beyond sunshine and murders.

However, we now know that Ardal O'Hanlon appears as DI Jack Mooney in the first episode of Return to Paradise, which begins on BBC One on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm.

Return to Paradise follows DI Mackenzie Clarke, a high-ranking officer in the London Metropolitan Police, who’s forced to return to Australia when she’s framed.

Now, star Anna Samson has revealed that DI Jack Mooney is her character's London boss.

She tells us: "Yes, this is a wonderful nod to the original show. There's a phone ringing and a shot of London that reels you in — then we see it's DI Jack Mooney calling. He is Mackenzie's boss at the Metropolitan Police, which she left under a cloud of suspicion. Mooney's overseeing the ‘trouble’, but he can only tell Mackenzie so much, as it's all very secret.

"I didn’t actually get to meet Ardal as he was filming in London while I was shooting in Australia, but I would love to."

Anna continues that she hopes that the other detectives on Death in Paradise can make appearances.

“Yes, I want them all in this show! To prepare for the role of Mackenzie, I watched all the Paraverse detectives to help me understand how an actor works within this genre, and where I could push the humor. I’d say my character most overlaps with Ben Miller’s DI Richard Poole in terms of the way they interact socially with the world. But I love them all."

Other key cast includes Lloyd Griffith (Ted Lasso, Nolly), Tai Hara (Home and Away, Colin From Accounts, Austin), Catherine McClements (Total Control, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries), Celia Ireland (Wentworth, Total Control), Andrea Demetriades (Mother and Son, The Artful Dodger) and Aaron McGrath (Gold Diggers, Preppers).

Return to Paradise begins on BBC One on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm in the UK. All episodes will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer from that date. We don't have a US release date yet.

Death in Paradise has at last revealed first-look pictures of Don Gilet as Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson.

Don will make his debut as Mervin in the upcoming 2024 Death in Paradise Christmas special, following Ralf Little's departure as DI Neville Parker at the end of the last series.

Teasing the plot, the BBC says: "Mervin arrives on the idyllic isle of Saint Marie from his home in London. While assisting with a case following a short trip, the team discovers Mervin may have an ulterior motive for being on the island…”

Death in Paradise experts will know that like Ralf Little, Don has actually been in the show before. He popped up in "Stab in the Dark", an episode that went out in 2015 back when Kris Marshall was on detecting duties on Saint Marie as DI Humphrey Goodman.

Talking about joining the show, Don says: "I am delighted to have returned to the wonderful island of Guadeloupe and this time to be stepping into the well-worn shoes of the Detective Inspector. It’s been a real pleasure filming such a beloved series alongside the hardworking cast and crew. I can’t wait for the fans to see how DI Mervin Wilson fares on the island, how he fits within the Saint Marie police team and what secrets may unfold…"

Don, who’s known for parts in EastEnders, Sherwood, Shetland and Doctor Who, previously said: "Being offered the new lead role in Death in Paradise feels like a deeply loved and incredibly precious jewel has been placed in my hands. This is a big show, with a big heart and the love continually grows for it. It is my intention to never lose sight of that and to remain grateful, humbled and dedicated. Even during those testing times when every sinew is screaming at me to run off the set and dive into the sea, swimming pool or an ice-cold beer — whichever happens to be closer at the time!"

In the Christmas special and Death in Paradise season 14, Don will be joined by Death in Paradise regulars Don Warrington, Shantol Jackson, Ginny Holder, Élizabeth Bourgine and Danny John-Jules.

In other exciting Death in Paradise world news, Return to Paradise, the Aussie spin-off, finally has a release date. It will arrive on BBC One on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm and it will be available as a boxset from that date.

Death in Paradise is shown on BritBox in the US.

Death in Paradise spin-off Return to Paradise has at last been given a release date by the BBC as the so-called "Paraverse" expands.

The Aussie take on the hugely popular murder mystery TV series will land on BBC One on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm. It's been given a primetime slot by the broadcaster who’s hoping it will match the success of the existing spin-off Beyond Paradise.

Return to Paradise stars former Home and Away actress Anna Samson as brilliant London Metropolitan police officer DI Mackenzie Clarke who's forced to return home to Australia after being accused of tampering with evidence.

The main twist here on Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise is we are following the adventures of a female detective, rather than a male cop. Mack returns to her childhood home of Dolphin Cove, which is stunningly beautiful and a place that she loathes!

The makers tease: "Having fled the town six years ago, infamously leaving her ex- fiancée Glenn (Tai Hara) at the altar, Mackenzie is not welcome here.

"But with no other job options, and a unique talent for solving a mystery, no matter how challenging, a reluctant Mack joins the team at Dolphin Cove Police Station. Once a case lands on her desk, she can't rest until she’s figured it out, and the killer is in handcuffs. It’s that tenacity and work ethic that might just, over time, help Mackenzie win over her new colleagues, and the people of Dolphin Cove.”

Other key cast includes Lloyd Griffith (Ted Lasso, Nolly), Tai Hara (Home and Away, Colin From Accounts, Austin), Catherine McClements (Total Control, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries), Celia Ireland (Wentworth, Total Control), Andrea Demetriades (Mother and Son, The Artful Dodger) and Aaron McGrath (Gold Diggers, Preppers).

Return to Paradise begins on Friday, November 22 at 8 pm on BBC One having already been on in Australia. Meanwhile, Death in Paradise season 14 will start early next year, while Beyond Paradise season 3 will air next spring. There are also Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise Christmas specials to look forward to.

It will be interesting to see what fans make of the new spin-off...

Ex-Death in Paradise star Ralf Little has responded to the launch of a new puzzle book where fans are challenged to solve murders on Saint Marie by joking he'd be useless as he could never crack the cases featured in the series.

In what sounds like the perfect Christmas gift for lovers of the BBC hit, Penguin has made a puzzle book, released on November 7, that promises "150 murderously challenging brain-teasers to test your wits".

The book asks do you have what it takes to solve murders on Saint Marie? To which Ralph quipped on Instagram: "No. Didn't figure it out once when reading the scripts. Luckily Neville is cleverer than I am."

Ralf of course was the show's longest-running detective as DI Neville Parker before departing the series at the end of season 13. If you have better detecting skills than Ralf, you might fancy getting the puzzle book.

Publisher Penguin says: "On the idyllic island of Saint Marie, there's been a murder.

"Fresh off the plane, you are the island's last hope of finding an answer to this bewildering crime that's puzzled detective inspectors for years. Only one question matters: do you have what it takes?

"The official puzzle book to accompany the beloved long-running TV series, this fiendishly entertaining book — featuring 150 mind-bending puzzles — whisks you away into the world of Death in Paradise, casting you among your favorite characters and training your brain along the way.

"So, grab a mojito and your magnifying glass . . . it's time to find out whodunnit."

Puzzle-solving seems all the rage on television at the moment. David Mitchell's series Ludwig — which we feel is basically Death in Paradise in Cambridge — sees him playing a puzzle setter who has to impersonate a detective to find his missing twin brother. 

Ludwig features a number of puzzles during the series, which were set by Alan Connor, a real puzzle-setter who also worked as a question editor on Victoria Coren Mitchell's show Only Connect.

We wouldn't be at all surprised if someone was working on a Ludwig puzzle book. But for now, perhaps take the chance to buy the Death in Paradise puzzle book!

Meanwhile, Death in Paradise season 14 will arrive on BBC One in early 2025.

It's a long wait for Death in Paradise season 14, so in the meantime I seek out other cosy cop shows and I've found an absolute gem in Ludwig.

Essentially, Ludwig is Death in Paradise in Cambridge. Funnily enough, David Mitchell was actually lined up to star in the first series of Death in Paradise, before pulling out because he found love with his future wife, Victoria Coren. Bless!

David didn't want to be out in the Caribbean for six months away from Victoria, so he turned down the part of DI Richard Poole, eventually played perfectly by Ben Miller.

Back to Ludwig, which sees Mitchell play John "Ludwig" Taylor, a man who lives a quiet, lonely life setting puzzles. But then his identical twin cop brother James goes missing, and his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) pleads with him to help. To find James, John impersonates him at the police station and soon discovers he's rather good at solving murders.

Like Death in Paradise, Ludwig plays up on the whole fish-out-of-water vibe with John struggling to adapt to his new environment, just as every new lead does in DIP.

There are lots of other similarities. Just like Ralf Little's DI Neville Parker, John is nerdy and truly brilliant at solving crimes. He is ably helped by his team, with Dipo Ola's DI Russell Carter taking on a similar supporting act to Joséphine Jobert's DI Florence Cassell in Death in Paradise.

The relationship John has with his boss, DCS Carol Shaw (Dorothy Atkins), also reminds me of the one Kris Marshall's DI Humphrey Goodman had with The Commissioner (Don Warrington). There's respect between them, but also a sense of fear! I especially love the way that John pauses slightly before addressing Shaw as ma'am at the end of each sentence.

Like Death in Paradise, Ludwig also makes much of its beautiful setting. Indeed, in Ludwig episode 3, John and Russell literally go on a tour of Cambridge as they try to solve the murder of a guide in a church.

Just like the Death in Paradise leads, John is a single man who's rather lonely. The Death in Paradise cops have all suffered romantic turmoil; in John's case, it seems he's always been in love with his brother's wife, Lucy. If we do get Ludwig season 2, then hopefully that relationship will be explored further.

Each series also has cracking guest stars, with Felicity Kendal, Sir Derek Jacobi and Rose Ayling-Ellis among the suspects in Ludwig.

If you've not seen Ludwig — the whole series is available now on iPlayer — and especially if you love Death in Paradise, I'd highly recommend giving it a watch. After all Death in Paradise season 14 won't be on our screens until January 2025...

The BBC has released first-look pictures of Death in Paradise star Tahj Miles in his first big drama since leaving the hit series.

Miles, who shocked fans by departing as Marlon Pryce halfway through Death in Paradise season 13, is appearing in Mr Loverman, the forthcoming drama based on Bernardine Evaristo's best-selling 2013 novel of the same name.

In his role as Daniel Walker, the grandson of the exuberant protagonist Barrington Jedidiah Walker (played by Lennie James), Tahj is clearly playing younger than his 23 years as he's pictured below as Daniel in school uniform.

Teasing the plot, the BBC says: "Barrington Jedidiah Walker, Barry to his mates, is a seventy-four-year-old, Antiguan-born, exuberant Hackney personality, renowned for his dapper taste and fondness for retro suits. Carmel, his wife of 50 years, senses that Barry has been cheating on her with other women. Little does she know what’s really going on: a secret, passionate affair with his best friend and soulmate, Morris.

"Now facing the final chapter of his life, Barry has big choices to make that will force his whole family to question their futures.

"Bringing to life Bernardine Evaristo's ground-breaking exploration of Britain’s older Caribbean community, 'Mr Loverman' is a life-affirming story about family, love, and being true to yourself."

Also starring in the eight-part series are Sharon D Clarke (Doctor Who, Informer) as Carmel Walker, Barrington's wife of five decades; Ariyon Bakare (Life, His Dark Materials) as Barrington's best friend and soulmate, Morris De La Roux; Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black, Time season 2) and Sharlene Whyte (Small Axe, Stephen) as Barrington and Carmel's daughters, Maxine and Donna.

In Death in Paradise, Tahj Miles rapidly made a big impact as Marlon, who was a petty crook given a chance by The Commissioner to join his police team. He was initially very immature and at times it didn't look like he’d succeed as a police officer. But Marlon grew into a great cop before having to leave Saint Marie so his sister could go to a top school.

Mr Loverman is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One this Autumn.

Return to Paradise has finally dropped its first trailer, with the makers of the upcoming BBC show declaring it's "a new Aussie take on Death in Paradise".

The six-part crime drama, the second Death in Paradise spin-off after Beyond Paradise, stars former Home and Away actress Anna Samson as London Metropolitan police officer DI Mackenzie Clarke who's forced to return home to Australia.

The new trailer contains several nods to Death in Paradise. Just like its parent show, it's clear that a lot of the action will take place around beautiful beaches, with a body being seen found on the shore with a knife in it. If you look closely you can also see they use the same distinctive yellow crime scene tape they use in Death in Paradise. 

While in a scene that could be straight out of DIP, DI Mackenzie Clarke is seen rushing down the beach before rugby tackling a suspect. Return to Paradise is also clearly intent on having the same comedy-drama style and it looks like the team dynamic will also be similar. Plus the police station in Return to Paradise is like the one in Saint Marie, even having the same type of crime board with photos pinned up!

The main difference between the two shows is that rather than a male lead detective, we have a female character driving the series. Death in Paradise has always had male leads and despite speculation they might cast a woman to replace Ralf Little, they've again gone for a man for Death in Paradise season 14, with Don Gilet taking over detecting duties.

As for the plot of Return to Paradise, the makers tease: "Having fled the town six years ago, infamously leaving her ex- fiancée Glenn (Tai Hara) at the altar, Mackenzie is not welcome here.  

"But with no other job options, and a unique talent for solving a mystery, no matter how challenging, a reluctant Mack joins the team at Dolphin Cove Police Station. Once a case lands on her desk, she can't rest until she’s figured it out, and the killer is in handcuffs. It’s that tenacity and work ethic that might just, over time, help Mackenzie win over her new colleagues, and the people of Dolphin Cove." 

Return to Paradise will air on BBC One in late 2024 it's been confirmed although we don't have an exact date. It will probably head to BritBox in the US, while it will be screened on ABC in Australia.

Death in Paradise season 1 episode 1 has made our best Death in Paradise episodes of all time list and here we look back at what happened. The episode is notable not just for being the start of the hugely popular series but also for delivering one of TV's best twists. Obviously, there are spoilers ahead, here's what happens...

Death in Paradise opens with us seeing Officer Lily Thomson (Lenora Crichlow) for the first time. She's billed as "the long-suffering rock at the heart of the Royal Saint-Marie Police force". She interrupts a man playing basketball. The man in question is Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) who then speaks the first-ever line in Death in Paradise which is "Oh, man!". We head to Saint Marie police station where Fidel Best (Gary Carr) is there with a man and a goat. "I'm sorry sir time's up. If she was your goat she'd have gone to you. This goat remains unclaimed," he says. Also in the station is DI Charlie Hulme (Hugo Speer). 

"Got him chief," says Dwayne as he leads a man into the station who is handcuffed. The prisoner is Marlon Collins, played by Sean Maguire who'd go on to reprise the role in the show's 100th episode during Death in Paradise season 13. "Maybe you should stop stealing yachts," says Dwyane as he locks him up. Charlie announces he's leaving early for the night and departs the station. 

We're then at a party, which is gatecrashed by a mysterious woman. Someone accesses a safe. Then a gunshot rings out and an alarm is set off. We see the mysterious woman again. Fidel takes a call at the police station. Lily also takes a phone call and her ringtone is "I Shot The Sherriff" (this phone call later proves vital in the case). Fidel tells Dwyane that a panic room has gone into lockdown and they have the codes to unlock it. Dwyane though is distracted by the radio and Lily says she will do it. 

The mysterious woman says: "We've got a problem" on her mobile as the police arrive at the house. Lily goes into the house. Lily starts saying "No, no" as she enters the panic room and asks Lawrence (Karl Collins), one of the guests, to call an ambulance. Inside the panic room, Charlie Hulme is dead! Cue the famous title music…

We see a plane land. "I have just been informed the airline has lost my luggage," says DI Richard Poole (Ben Miller), in our opinion the best Death in Paradise detective. With him are Lily and The Commissioner. "We don't need outside help," Lily complains. "Charlie Hulme was a British cop. They want a British cop to lead the case," replies The Commissioner. 

The Commissioner tells Richard that 30 percent of Saint Marie's population is French. "French, great, just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse," replies Richard. 

Richard steps into the station and makes a series of demands. "This is not going to go well," comments Dwayne. "DI Hulme has been dead 48 hours, is this all you’ve got?” complains Richard to Lily as he holds a thin file. Lily shows Richard a photograph of the party and says everyone was on the guest list except for our mystery woman. 

Lily takes Richard to the shack, which she explains is where Charlie was living. Richard finds the place is a tip and there's a tree in the shack! Richard has a call with his boss and Lily beeps him from the jeep. As Richard heads to the jeep, we see our mystery woman from behind a tree, watching him. "So how did a British policeman get mixed up with an aristocrat," ponders Richard as he and Lily visit the house where Charlie was found. Lawrence explains to Richard that he was outside serving guests when a gunshot was heard from the study and alarms went off. Richard shows him a picture of the mystery woman but he says he didn't see her. 

Meanwhile, back at the station Dwayne does some digging about Richard and finds out the police back in London had a party to celebrate Richard going! Back at the house, Richard is using his laser tape measure. Richard wonders why Charlie was holding a travel guide to Europe when he was found dead. Richard rules out suicide. At that point, James Lavender (Rupert Graves), the aristocrat, introduces himself to Richard. He explains that when the gun went off he was down on his beach. James says he was down there for privacy with a special friend and we see him clearly cheating on his wife. So James is a cad, but is he a murderer? "My wife Sarah (Coralie Audret) spotted us," says James. James explains after a short argument he returned to the beach. He denies owning a gun. He said he hid after the gunshot sound until the police arrived. 

James says only he and his wife knew the combination to the safe and he didn't tell the code to Charlie. His wife Sarah says she was in the shower when the alarm went off and she then got dressed. She denies inviting Charlie to the party. Sarah also denies opening the safe or giving Charlie the code. "She's lying," says Lily as they leave. Richard replies: "One of them must have opened the safe, but why? We've got a British policeman murdered in a rich man's panic room, an old book clutched in his hands, a safe that's open and a vase that's smashed. As for suspects, there are only two people without an alibi." James and Sarah are the two suspects. But Richard has a further issue: how did the murderer kill Charlie and then escape from a locked room? Richard is frustrated that all the evidence has been sent to another island for testing. 

Meanwhile, the mystery woman is searching the shack. Richard spots her, so she pretends to be a cleaner. Richard breaks the news about Charlie and she cries. 

Richard tries to chase his luggage up and freezes when he spots a lizard — yes it's the first appearance from Harry the Lizard! Richard sniffs a towel and it triggers a memory. 

The next day Richard walks into the office and asks where he can get a gun with some blank rounds. Lily tells him the book and vase are back from Guadeloupe (in reality where Death in Paradise is filmed). 

Richard and Lily go to the house and challenge Sarah. Richard says she lied because she did know Charlie. It turns out Richard smelt her perfume on Charlie's towel. He then accuses her of murder. She says she didn't kill him because she loved him. Sarah admits to giving Charlie the safe code because he was investigating her husband. So did James kill Charlie to stop his investigation? She explains that Charlie had said if she could get hold of the book in the safe he could put James away in prison. It's then revealed that a gun has gone missing. Back at the shack, Richard, still wearing his ridiculous suit, looks at the book and wonders why it's so important. Lily tells him he needs a break and they go for a walk. Back in the shack, he starts rebuilding the shattered vase from hundreds of tiny pieces. 

While trying to have a shower, Richard finds a key. It appears to be a key for a safety deposit box. Richard and Lily head to the bank to check it out. Inside they find forged passports and loads of cash, Lily thinks Charlie was involved in human trafficking. Also inside is a photo of James Lavender's boat! 

Poor Richard then gets a trip on Dwyane's motorbike to check out James's yacht. Richard, Dwayne and Lily search the boat. They find evidence of people smuggling. The mysterious woman is on the boat! She dives into the sea. Lily and Dwayne dive in. Bur Richard takes a small boat and corners the woman. They take the woman away. She is taken into the cells and refuses to answer any questions. 

Lily and Richard head off to talk to James. But they find James dead on his beach. "He must have shot himself," says Lily. And it's the same gun that was used to kill Charlie. 

Back at the station, Richard is shocked to find no sign of the mystery woman. The Commissioner walks in and says: "Detective Inspector, can I introduce you to Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey!" Yes, the mystery woman was Camille of course. It turns out she's been working undercover to bring James down. The Commissoner explains they couldn't tell Richard as she believes there's a corrupt police officer helping James. "It’s not likely to be me is it, I've been in Croydon for the last 13 years," says Richard, making quite a good point! Richard declares that Charlie must be the corrupt officer and he has loads of evidence. Lily suggests to Richard that she completes the paperwork on the case and he could be on the first plane off Saint Marie. "How was Charlie killed from inside a locked panic room?" wonders Richard, as it's clear he's not ready to leave just yet. 

Richard reveals he's put the vase back together. The vase has a clear bullet hole in it. Richard says the whole case depends on what gun was used to shoot the vase. Fidel shines a light through the vase thus working out where the bullet should have landed. Dwayne turns up with a metal detector and they find the bullet. "The bullet that shot the vase on the night of the murder was a .38 caliber fired by a bloody loud service revolver." Richard then gets a phone call about his lost luggage which clearly triggers a thought about the case. "They never put my luggage on the plane," he says. "Yes, of course!" he shouts. He's cracked the case! Fidel and Dwayne think he's suffering from heatstroke! "Fidel, James Lavender had a mobile phone on him when he died get it for me. I'm also going to need the .22 pistol he was holding when we found his body."

In Lavender's house, Richard declares: "I should have realized the lessons of my luggage sooner. You see my case was never loaded on the plane it remained in Heathrow. So when the hold was opened in Saint Marie it looked like it had disappeared whereas in reality, it was never in there in the first place. In the same way, when the panic room was opened we thought the killer had disappeared but in reality, the murderer was never in there."

Now addressing Sarah, Richard continues: "When Charlie investigated your husband he set in motion a chain of events that would lead to his murder and your husband's."

We start seeing a flashback to the night of the murder. Richard continues: "On the night of the party I think James discovered Charlie in the panic room and realized he had to kill him. The only problem being James doesn't know his way around a gun as he told us so he only managed to shoot the vase. At which point Charlie does the only logical thing and locks himself safely in the panic room. Now James has just tried to kill a policeman. So what does he do? He goes back to his beach where I presume he disposes of the service revolver before making a call. In fact he must have made a phone call. He didn't kill Charlie Hulme so who did he get to do it?"

Richard explains everyone heard the gun James fired but didn't hear the shot that killed Charlie, meaning no one knows when that happened.

The murderer is revealed

"I know who the murderer is and so do you Sergeant Thomson because it's you. You murdered Charlie Hulme." She replies: "Are you insane?" Dwyane puts the cuffs on her. 

Richard explains that the murder only bought Lily time. So she planted the safety deposit key in his shower so Richard wouldn't find Charlie's safety deposit book with evidence linking him to people smuggling that Lily had planted. 

Lily then killed James Lavender and made it look like he'd killed himself. Richard says logically Charlie must have been alive as he must have been the person to shut down the panic room. "And if he was alive when he locked the room down he must have also been alive when Sergeant Thomson opened it up." We then see a flashback to Lily shooting Charlie. 

Richard then gets James's phone and says if James rang Lily on the night of Charlie’s murder that is going to be very incriminating. He makes the call and appropriately Lily’s "I Shot the Sherriff" ringtone is heard. 

Richard explains she killed Charlie because of the book he'd got from the safe. Richard explains that Lily swapped the book containing evidence of her wrongdoing that Charlie was holding for another book, the travel book. 

Richard finds the book on her shelf and it even has Charlie's blood on it. He says it has all the evidence in it to prove James's human trafficking. Richard says Lily is repeatedly mentioned in the book and there's a fingerprint in Charlie's blood on it which is likely to be hers. Lily tries to justify her double murder by saying she'd been passed on for promotion and decided to take the money offered by James! Dwayne calls Richard "Chief" which he likes. Lily is seen in the Saint Marie cell.

Back at the shack Richard nearly steps on Harry. Then at the station, The Commissioner explains to a fuming Richard that he's going to be staying on the island a little longer. But his luggage is finally here. Camille then walks through the door and The Commissioner breaks the news to both of them that they will now be working as a team...   

David Mitchell was originally cast for the lead detective role in the first series of Death in Paradise, its creator has revealed.

However, the Would I Lie to You? star turned down the part because he'd fallen in love with his future wife Victoria Coren.

The whole history of Death in Paradise could have been different then with David, rather than Ben Miller, playing DI Richard Poole in the opening series of the hugely popular detective hit.

Writer Robert Thorogood, who dreamt up Death in Paradise, told OK! Magazine: "David was originally penciled in to be the lead in Death in Paradise. When the show was green-lit, he was attached, but it was about then that he'd fallen in love with Victoria.

"He was very, very polite about it as you can imagine and said: 'I'm really sorry, but I can’t go to the Caribbean for six months. I've just started dating Vicky Coren."

Robert added: "We were very lucky actually because Tony Jordan — who was one of the masterminds of the show — had been keen from the start to call it Death in Paradise rather than name it after the detective. He said, 'We’ve got to make it so that if a detective changes, we still have a show.

"When David said he couldn't do it, it didn't feel so catastrophic. We just went looking for another person who could play an uptight, white, middle-class, private school-educated, neurotic lunatic and we were very lucky to get Ben to do it. That's worked out well."

It seemed to work out well for everyone. David Mitchell married Victoria in 2012 — one year after the original series of Death in Paradise went out. The couple have two children together, Barbara and June. David has gone on to enjoy huge success with Would I Lie To You? and his game show Outsiders. Meanwhile, Ben Miller turned out to be wonderful as DI Richard Poole, in our opinion the best Death in Paradise detective, and Death in Paradise season 14 will air next year… 

Meanwhile, Robert Thorogood also penned the "Marlow Murder Club" mysteries and The Marlow Murder Club season 2 is on the way, with Samantha Bond again starring. 

Former Death in Paradise leading man Ben Miller is starring alongside Sally Phillips in Austin, a new comedy heading to the BBC.

The eight-part series, which he co-created, sees Miller play much-loved children's author Julian Hartswood, whose life threatens to be destroyed by a social media storm. Not only could his career be over but so could his marriage to his illustrator wife Ingrid (Sally Phillips).

However, when Austin (Michael Theo, making his acting debut), the neurodivergent son that Julian never knew he had, turns up out of the blue his life begins to change.

The makers tease: "Could embracing this modern nuclear family be Julian's route back from cancellation? Will Ingrid ever forgive him? One thing is for certain: if Julian thinks Austin is going to be a pushover, he's in for a rude awakening".

Speaking about landing the Australia comedy series for the broadcaster, Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition says: "Irresistibly charming, humorous and heart-warming, BBC viewers are sure to find Austin a sheer delight from start to finish".

Ben Miller co-created the eight-part series with Darren Ashton (Spreadsheet), Joe Tucker and Lloyd Wolf. The cast also includes Gia Carides (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Big Little Lies) and Roy Billing (Jack Irish, Underbelly).

The hugely popular star, better known to millions of Death in Paradise fans as DI Richard Poole, can also be seen soon alongside Annie-Marie Duff in C4's Suspect season 2. Ben plays Detective Superintendent Richard Groves in the thriller, released on Channel 4 on Wednesday, July 17 at 9 pm (see our TV Guide for full listings). The series also stars Dominic Cooper as Jon, Tamsin Greig as Natasha Groves and Gina McKee as Kate. 

We don't yet have a release date for Austin. It's interesting that Ben is playing a children's author in Austin as of course he is real-life children's author. His books include "How I Became a Dog Called Midnight" and "Diary of a Big Bad Wolf".

The Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 is extra exciting as it will be our first chance to see the new detective.

Following Ralf Little's departure as DI Neville Parker at the end of the latest series, Don Gilet was announced as his replacement.

Don's first case as Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson will feature in the Christmas special before he's seen in Death in Paradise season 14.

The plot sees Mervin investigate when three men, all unconnected apart from the fact that they're dressed as Santa Claus, are seemingly all shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time.

Don explains to us: "Three victims are shot at the same time, with the same gun, in three different places. That's irresistible to Mervin! He likes mysterious, mind-boggling things because they keep his brain active. But it's very frustrating when he gets to a point where he doesn't think he can crack it."

Here's everything we know so far…

Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 release date

The Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 will air on Sunday, December 22 at 8.30 pm on BBC One in a Christmas TV highlight. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.

It will head to BritBox in the US on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2024. In Australia, the Death in Paradise Christmas special lands on Britbox on Monday, December 23.

Death in Paradise Christmas special 2024 plot

The feature-length case sees Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson arrive in Saint Marie and he's not impressed! "Everything in Saint Marie runs counter to how things are supposed to be done, as far as he's concerned," explains Don. "His approach is more suited to a London pace of life, but nobody, even back in London, works the way he does."

Shantol Jackson (Naomi) adds about the team's reaction to Mervin: "Their initial reaction to Mervin is not so great! He's quite blunt, impatient and not very kind. All the cons you can think of, he ticks those boxes. He has a particular way of working, and he's just trying to adjust to this pace. But, over time, the team appreciate his work method. We'll see if he grows to appreciate them, though!"

Teasing the plot of the Christmas special, the BBC says: "We're back on the beautiful island of Saint Marie, and this time with a new detective inspector in tow. Londoner Mervin Wilson ruffles some feathers as he clashes with the island's way of life. But he quickly sinks his teeth into one of the team's most puzzling murder cases yet: three men, all unconnected apart from the fact that they're dressed as Santa Claus, and seemingly all shot with the exact same gun at the exact same time. As Mervin wrangles this impossible murder, his colleagues struggle with their new boss's unusual working methods. And Dwayne's Christmas with his father doesn't exactly go to plan…"

Death in Paradise cast

Joining Don Gilet are regulars Don Warrington (who plays The Commissioner), Shantol Jackson (Naomi), Ginny Holder (Darlene), Élizabeth Bourgine (Catherine) and Danny John-Jules (Dwayne). But Joséphine Jobert has made it clear that she won’t be back as Florence.

The guest stars for the Christmas special are Jim Howick (Ghosts), Angela Griffin (The Wives), Marcus Brigstocke (The Unbelievable Truth), Steven Hartley (Happy Valley), Elizabeth Carling (Hotel Portofino), Michael Salami (Supacell) and Dex Lee (Doctors)

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Death in Paradise Christmas special behind the scenes and more

Death in Paradise is a Red Planet Pictures production for the BBC made with the support of the region of Guadeloupe and internationally distributed by BBC Studios. The feature length Christmas episode and series 14 is executive produced by Tim Key and Amy Rodriguez for Red Planet Pictures and Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC, and series produced by Sue Howells.

Return to Paradise, the upcoming Death in Paradise spin-off set in Australia, has finished filming.

Former Home and Away actress Anna Samson, who plays the show's lead character DI Mackenzie Clarke, revealed the news on Instagram. Other key cast in the show include Lloyd Griffith (Ted Lasso), Tai Hara (Colin From Accounts), Catherine McClements (Total Control), Celia Ireland (Wentworth), Andrea Demetriades (The Artful Dodger) and Aaron McGrath (Gold Diggers). And Anna posted a picture with some of the cast, saying: "I got to spend the last three months with these three lads. I love them more than I can say. We wrapped our show this week and my heart is broken that they will no longer be contractually obliged to spend time with me."

Return to Paradise, which has been shot around Sydney and the Illawarra coastal region, follows Mackenzie Clarke, a high-ranking officer in the London Metropolitan Police, who's forced to return Down Under after being accused of tampering with evidence.

The makers tease: "Having fled the town six years ago, infamously leaving her ex- fiancée Glenn (Tai Hara) at the altar, Mackenzie is not welcome here.  

"But with no other job options, and a unique talent for solving a mystery, no matter how challenging, a reluctant Mack joins the team at Dolphin Cove Police Station. Once a case lands on her desk, she can't rest until she's figured it out, and the killer is in handcuffs. It's that tenacity and work ethic that might just, over time, help Mackenzie win over her new colleagues, and the people of Dolphin Cove." 

Return to Paradise is the latest extension to the Death in Paradise universe. Beyond Paradise, which stars Kris Marshall as DI Humphrey Goodman, was the first spin-off and has proved a huge hit. Return to Paradise will be shown on BBC One in late 2024, while it's likely to head to BritBox in the US. It will be screened on ABC in Australia. Meanwhile, Death in Paradise season 14 will air next year.