Death in Paradise fans were stunned by a vital omission from the show's 100th episode — no, not Kris Marshall, but Harry the Lizard!
A string of fan favorites either appeared or were referred to when Death in Paradise season 13 kicked off on Sunday night on BBC One, but amazingly the show made no mention of Harry. It also oddly didn't name-check Kris Marshall's character, DI Humphrey Goodman.
Harry has been a part of the show ever since the first series when Ben Miller played DI Richard Poole. And viewers were disappointed when he inexplicably didn't turn up.
"Hope the Lizard has recovered from his non appearance," wrote one fan. "It’s like everyone was there. Except Harry. Why?" tweeted another.
Death in Paradise director Steve Hughes explained that they had shot a scene with Harry but had to cut it. "Lots of people missed seeing Harry in tonight’s episode. We actually shot a scene with him but there was so much going on, we didn't have time to keep it in!," he tweeted.
Ralf Little revealed once that a previous Death in Paradise director thought Harry was real! He is of course a CGI effect.
The 100th episode though did at least see DS Camille Bordey (Sara Martins), who featured in the show's first-ever episode, make a return. DI Neville Parker video called her for help as he investigated who shot The Commissioner only to find she was about to give birth! By her side was her mother Catherine and Camille returned later in the episode, along with her baby daughter. Bless!
Camille wasn't the only character from the show's first episode to return. Former EastEnders star Sean Maguire played a crook back in 2011 and he was back as the same character, Marlon Collins. Marlon was now helping at The Commissioner's yacht club, but was he really a changed man? Or did he have something to do with The Commissioner's shooting?
We saw Marlon Collins in a brief flashback from the show's first episode, which also included brief glimpses of Richard Poole, Charlie Hulme, Lily Thomson and Dwayne Myers.
The references to former characters didn’t end there. The Commissioner received a giant teddy bear from his niece, Ruby Patterson, who featured in 15 episodes.
While Neville stared longingly at a photo of Florence Cassell, who he fell in love with only to discover she didn't feel the same way.
Hopefully, Harry will make an appearance when the BBC One drama continues on Sunday at 9 pm. The second episode sees the local community rocked by a murder at a care home when a game of bingo gets horribly out of hand. But could someone really kill over something so trivial?
