Beyond Paradise
Kris Marshall & Sally Bretton tell Rachael Davis about returning to their beloved Death In Paradise characters for BBC One spin-off Beyond Paradise
BACK in 2017, Death In Paradise fans were gripped by the conclusion of DI Humphrey Goodman and Martha Lloyd’s willthey-won’t-they love story. Humphrey followed Martha back to London to declare his undying love for her, leaving Saint Marie’s sunshine behind and living happily ever after.
But what happens after the happy couple disappear into the sunset?
In new spin-off series Beyond Paradise, we are catching up with Humphrey and Martha – with Kris Marshall and Sally Bretton reprising their roles – back on British soil as they begin a new adventure in Martha’s Devon home town of Shipton Abbott.
Having left London, the nowengaged couple are starting a new life by the seaside, with Martha pursuing her dream of running her own restaurant and Humphrey joining the local police force.
At the station, he meets his new colleagues: DS Esther Williams, played by EastEnders’ Zahra Ahmadi, Pc Kelby Hartford, played by Derry Girls’ Dylan Llewellyn, and Margo Martins, played by Felicity Montagu of Alan Partridge fame.
Beyond Paradise has plenty that Death In Paradise fans will love – crimes and puzzles abound – and the new series brings the same lightness, humour, mild peril and gorgeous backdrops that will delight fans both old and new.
“When you first talk about the potential of coming back with anything, never mind a spin-off, it’s incredibly heartening,” says Marshall, 49, of being asked to return to Humphrey.
“And I think for it to happen with a character that I love so much is even better.
“When I got the first two episodes to read… I just loved it. I just absolutely loved it.
“It’s got the DNA of this show that everyone loves, Death In Paradise, but it has its own sort of strand of DNA, its own uniqueness to it. It’s like it’s an offspring, but it’s a completely different offspring.”
“I first heard about the possibility of Beyond Paradise in the middle of the first lockdown,” adds Bretton, 42. “It was nothing but joy when I heard that they were thinking about it.”
The creators of Beyond Paradise, like many Death In Paradise fans, were desperate to know what happened to Humphrey and Martha after they left the series some six years ago, and this is what sparked the genesis of the new series.
“I think we really, really, really, really wanted to know what happened to Humphrey and Martha – and the audience do as well, we think,” says writer and executive producer Tony Jordan.
“We watched that amazing story in Death In Paradise, we saw Humphrey run alongside the aeroplane and he’s on his little motorbike, trying to catch her, and then they disappeared off into the sunset, and we were literally sitting around in the office, saying, ‘I wonder what happened to Humphrey and Martha? Do you think they were happy, they stayed together?’
“So that was kind of the kernel of the idea, really – we started to talk about what they would do, where they would be, and what they would be doing… How could you literally be beyond paradise? What happens after your happily ever after?
“And then we had to bolt on, if you like, a story of the week, because we wanted to do the puzzle again. We didn’t necessarily want to do murders, we want to mix up the crimes. And so those two things started to forge together to make Beyond Paradise.”
When we meet Humphrey and Martha in Beyond Paradise, they have 'just relocated from London down to Devon in the south-west of England and (are) trying to find their way with their new life', Marshall explains.
“Having moved in with his mother-in-law, there are certain challenges!
“Wherever he goes, he leaves a sort of mini tidal wave of madness behind him and he’s causing that tidal wave to ripple through the village of Shipton Abbott.”
In swapping the Metropolitan Police for the local coastal police force, Humphrey might be looking for a quieter life – but Shipton Abbott has its fair share of crimes and mysteries to solve.
At the heart of the policing action is young Pc Kelby Hartford who, as actor Dylan Llewellyn says, is a 'good lad with good drive' and 'golden retriever energy' which sees him put his all into looking after his home town – including chasing criminals around the town on foot in career-first action scenes for the Derry Girls and Big Boys star.
You would be forgiven for being dubious about a Death In Paradise spin-off set in the UK – after all, how can our rainsoaked isles compete with the glorious Caribbean sunshine of Saint Marie?
However, Beyond Paradise shows Britain at its most beautiful – chocolate box towns, stunning coastlines, and some beautiful summer sun to boot.
Beyond Paradise starts on BBC One at 8pm on Friday, February 24.