Death in Paradise bosses address major differences in new spin-off Beyond Paradise

Death in Paradise bosses Tony Jordan and Tim Key have addressed the major differences between the original show and its spin-off series Beyond Paradise.

The new BBC One spin-off series will see Kris Marshall reprise his role as DI Humphrey Goodman as he solves mysteries in the Devonshire town of Shipton Abbott.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other press, Jordan and Key addressed the first episode in the series in which Humphrey has to solve a mystery that is not a murder.

kris marshall as di humphrey goodman, sally bretton as martha lloyd, zahra ahmadi as ds esther williams, dylan llewellyn as pc kelby hartford and felicity montagu as office support margo martins, beyond paradise

Todd Anthony//BBC

When asked whether this was a deliberate move to differentiate it from Death in Paradise, Jordan said: "Yeah, definitely. Tim's brief for the show was really cool. It was: 'What we need is exactly the same as Death in Paradise, and completely different from Death in Paradise!'

"We're not purposely avoiding comparisons, because there will always be comparisons, but we're doing things that will make it a different show," he added.

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"We're not ruling out murders and we'll have them when someone kills someone! Then Humphrey will investigate it," explained Jordan. "But we want to do different types of crime because that's really interesting. It allows you to go to different places and stops you from being tied so rigidly to a certain format."

Explaining that they wanted to avoid "establishing a very heavy format from the beginning," Key said that every episode will have a "clever puzzle" in it but that viewers will "never quite know what's going to come next".

"But we can do anything in this show – that's the joy of it. We can wrong-foot people and have some fun with it," Key added.

Noting another major difference between the shows, Jordan said that Beyond Paradise will feature a more serialised story between Humphrey and his fiancée Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton) saying: "We genuinely invest in this journey that we're sending Humphrey and Martha on."

Beyond Paradise launches on Friday, February 24 at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Death in Paradise series 12 airs on Friday nights on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.

Death in Paradise

BBC Death In Paradise - Series 11 [DVD] [2022]

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BBC Death In Paradise - Series 10 (Includes 4 Exclusive Postcards) [DVD] [2021]

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Reporter, Digital Spy

Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.

A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.

In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.

Daniel Kilkelly

Daniel has been writing about soaps on Digital Spy since 2004 and took over as Soaps Editor in 2010.
He has interviewed hundreds of soap stars over the years, from Bill Roache to Lacey Turner, and regularly visits the sets of Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks for behind-the-scenes trips and press events.
He has served as an awards judge on numerous occasions for the likes of the BAFTA TV Awards, RTS Programme Awards and British Soap Awards. In 2020, he was Highly Commended for Best Section Editor at the BSME Awards.