Hugo Speer is the incredible link!
Death in Paradise and Father Brown are two of the biggest detective shows on the box and they both share a remarkable link - Hugo Speer played each show’s first ever cop!
Yep, The Full Monty actor was in the very first episodes of both Death in Paradise and Father Brown. What’s even stranger is that he was a detective in each show and that they have both gone onto be huge global success stories.
Everyone thinks that Ben Miller was the first detective in Death in Paradise, but actually the first Brit cop you see on screen is DI Charlie Hulme, played by Speer.
Miller’s character, DI Richard Poole, is only sent to Saint Marie from London because Hulme is murdered quickly during the very first episode of Death in Paradise, which started in 2011.
MORE: SHOCK EXIT on the cards as this Coronation Street legend departs the cobbles
Poole - who is ironically murdered himself in a later series - has to work out how Hulme was shot dead despite apparently locking himself in a panic room.
Meanwhile, Speer starred in the very first episode of Father Brown, which begun in 2013, as Inspector Valentine. As Valentine Speer has lasted a lot longer than he did in Death in Paradise, appearing in 12 episodes, including one in the current series on BBC1.
And that’s not the only odd connection between the two hit shows. Death in Paradise legend Sara Martins, aka DS Camille Bordey, featured in the drama’s first episode, where she was involved in hunting down the killer of DI Hulme (Speer). After leaving the sunny Caribbean set series, Sara popped up in... yep, Father Brown as Lisandra Flambeau in a 2018 episode!
It’s a small world in detective land!
Both Death in Paradise and Father Brown continue on BBC1.
