It’s daft but Caribbean whodunit is definitely my poison
DEATH IN PARADISE Thursday - BBC1, 9pm
RIGHT, cards on the table. I’ll bow to no one in my admiration for the comic genius of the late Caroline Aherne. Not only did her creation of the spoof chat show presenter Mrs Merton give us one of the funniest characters in recent television history, it also delivered one of the best lines of the past 20odd years.
I’ve quoted it here before and I make no apologies for doing so again. It came when Debbie McGee appeared on the show and Mrs M – all blue-rinse and faux sincerity – asked her: ‘So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?’
Better still was to come when Aherne and her co-writer Craig Cash developed The Royle Family, which ranks as one of the greatest sitcoms ever. It featured too many brilliant lines to repeat here, but there is one in particular – and, yes, it has also been mentioned in these pages previously – that I always come back to.
Picture the scene. The nouveau riche parents of teenager Anthony’s (Ralf Little) new girlfriend are visiting the Royles’ modest dwelling. Let’s just say that they aren’t slow to speak about their lavish spending and extravagant lifestyle.
The boasting reaches a climax when they mention that they’re about to head off on a cruise, followed by a trip on the Orient Express. ‘There’s a lot of murders on the Orient Express,’ murmurs grandmother Norma (the late Liz Smith). ‘You’d want to watch that.’
Nothing takes the humour out of something quicker than trying to analyse why it is funny. The clever thing about that line, though, is that everyone knows the observation is based entirely on a once-off murder from the pen of Agatha Christie.
By contrast, the body count in Death In Paradise is rising all the time. No getting away from it, they pop their clogs in suspicious circumstances at an enormous rate on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.
Behind the light-hearted atmosphere, though, certain similarities with La Christie are nonetheless in evidence.
The bottom line is that we are still talking about violent crime in the unlikeliest of locations. Or, to use a different comparison, this is a little bit like Midsomer Murders being played out in a tropical setting. Except with a bit of
gentle humour thrown in.
It is now in its seventh series and, despite several changes to the cast line-up in recent years (Ardal O’Hanlon is the new DI, Jack Mooney), the formula remains pretty much identical. A couple of bumbling, almost cartoonish cops? Check. A rather easy-on-the-eye female officer? Check. Posh people getting bumped off in bizarre circumstances? Check.
Of the male characters, only Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (the great Don Warrington, best known to some of us as Philip from Seventies sitcom Rising Damp) looks like he is capable of putting his trousers on the right way around. But his team of hapless misfits always manage to get their man, despite their own best efforts at times.
Last Thursday’s episode returned to the familiar theme of Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) and his complicated personal life. But the main plot line was as ludicrously bonkers as ever.
It centred around a blind woman who dies on stage while a faith healer is supposedly trying to work his magic on her. The sinister twist comes when it emerges that Mr Mumbo Jumbo’s cup of holy water had been poisoned. I know, I know. Please try to stop laughing down the back.
If it is difficult to treat Death In Paradise seriously, then the one thing to be said in its defence is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously either.
This is essentially balm for weary eyes. And when that comes in the form of Detective Sergeant Florence Cassel’s (Joséphine Jobert) short shorts, it is hard to argue.