‘Death in Paradise’ marked a new era last night, with its third home-grown detective taking up residence in the beach shack and setting about solving the disproportionate amount of violent crime on the tropical island of Saint Marie.
DI Jack Mooney, whom we first met two episodes ago in the London-based double bill, played by Irish actor Ardal O’Hanlon, had barely put his suitcases down before a years-old murder of a local newspaper editor had to be reopened.
Humphrey may have gone, but everything else stayed the same, as Jack set about interviewing the suspects one by one, looking puzzled at the whiteboard, sipping some rum at Katherine’s Bar, and finally having a Columbo moment, before assembling everyone in the last 13 minutes.
Despite the similarities to every previous episode ever, not every fan was happy with the change of faces - it seems several are still missing the bumbling Humphry…
However, Ardal had plenty of his own fans ready to welcome to the island...
For some, mere change is always good...
While one had a novel idea for getting the best of both worlds...
Kris Marshall departed the show in the previous episode, with his character Humphrey opting to stay in London with his love Martha. It was, similarly, Kris Marshall’s big heart that moved him to quit the show after four series, saying it was too difficult to be apart from his family, during the six months the show is filmed in the Caribbean.
Catch up with ‘Death in Paradise’ on BBCiPlayer.
