TV Review: Death in Paradise

WITH winter closing in there’s surely no better time to fill the dark evenings with a sun-soaked murder mystery series, and with its Caribbean setting, gentle humour and easy-going story this was just right for a bit of easy escapism.

It started with a death in a panic room, and since the victim was a British cop it demanded the arrival of Ben Miller’s Richard Poole, complete with stuffy British suit, stuffy British attitude and electronic tape-measure.

Predictably he was uncomfortable with the easy-going pace of the local police, and the fact that half their jail is taken up by a goat. And since his old colleagues threw a party after he left, it suggested that maybe he wouldn’t exactly warm to it.

But even though there was extreme heat, leaping lizards, lost luggage and a thorny puzzle to cope with he soon found himself comfy under the clear-blue skies.

For a programme involving murder, betrayal, corrupt coppers and people-smuggling it was all very light-hearted - a million miles from the current trend for edgy, gritty gruesome detective shows, but engaging enough in its own way.