History Series / DeathInParadise

DI Parker was preceded by DI Richard Poole ([[Series/TheArmstrongAndMillerShow Ben Miller]]) in Series 1 and 2, DI Humphrey Goodman ([[Series/MyFamily Kris Marshall]]) in Series 3 through 6, and DI Jack Mooney ([[Series/FatherTed Ardal O'Hanlon]]) in Series 6 through 9.

** Ardal O'Hanlon similarly grew homesick and began missing his wife and children due to the long time away shooting the series. [[https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2020/0129/1111554-ardal-ohanlon-left-paradise-for-stand-up He also admitted]] that he was worried his stand up comedy skills were getting rusty and that he wanted to get back into comedy.

The show has a revolving cast of regulars, and none of the four main cast from the first series are still part of the lineup. Only the supporting characters Commissioner Patterson and Catherine Bordey (the mother of one of the original detectives, owner of the bar the main cast hang out at, and later the Mayor of Saint Marie) remain from the premiere.[[note]]There's also Harry the lizard, but he isn't a credited role.[[/note]]

* TwoDunIt: The murderers in [[spoiler: "The Blood Red Sea," "The Complex Murder," "Murder At The Polls", "La Murder Le Diablé", and the 2021 Christmas special.]]

* AssholeVictim: Particularly applies to [[spoiler:David Cartwright, a former criminologist who became particularly obsessed with a past case; after two years in 'retirement', he set up a chain of evidence that allowed him to commit a murder in a manner where Neville ''knew'' Cartwright killed an innocent man but was unable to prove it. When Neville is framed for Cartwright's murder, even Neville's team have to acknowledge that it's possible Neville did it considering how smug Cartwright was]].

** JP's wife Rosie is an odd example; she's a recurring character in Series 5, but is an entirely offscreen presence after that. [[spoiler:She eventually reappears in Series 10, played by a different actress.]]

** In "Christmas in Paradise", Parker has his EurekaMoment when he is listening to the suicide note the VictimOfTheWeek's recorded on his phone two minutes before his death for the umpteenth time. He suddenly realises what he is hearing, or, rather, ''not'' hearing: [[spoiler:despite the victim supposedly commiting suicide on the beach, there is no sound of the sea. Once he realises that the suicide didn't occur on the beach, the victim's last words take on a whole new meaning]].

* NoRegrets: At the end of "Dishing Up Murder", after the culprits have been exposed and arrested, one of them speaks up and says the VictimOfTheWeek was an AssholeVictim if ever there was one, and not one of them would have acted differently, even knowing that they'd end up getting caught and going to prison.

* NotListeningToMeAreYou: In "Rue Morgue", Camille is summing up interview results while Humph frets over his ex-wife turning up unannounced. When challenged, he's able to recite everything Camille said back to her... before seguing straight back into fretting.

* ImmoralJournalist: In the Season Seven premiere, "Death From Above", Mooney converses with the tabloid journalist that published the tawdry story about the murder victim; after politely saying goodbye, Mooney hangs up and finishes, ''"you amoral, spineless, parasitic, bottom-feeding hack!"''

* ArsonMurderAndLifesaving: In "A Murder in Portrait", Ruby stops a fleeing suspect by dumping a trailer load of coconuts on hill, causing the suspect to swerve his scooter and crash. It is later revealed that coconuts continued down the hill and crashed through a wedding, resulting in an extremely irate bride. Ruby is called on the carpet by the Commissioner, who is also her uncle. He starts off by by telling her that what she did was reckless, but then goes on to say that a good police officer needs to be able to think on their feet, and that her actions resulted in the capture of the suspect, and that lead to the evidence which ultimately cracked the case, so as far as he is concerned, she did the right thing.

* RubiksCubeInternationalGeniusSymbol: Played with in "Stumped in Murder". Humphrey finds a Rubik's Cube in the evidence and starts attempting to solve it to take his mind of his personal problems. He fails completely until he has his EurekaMoment. He rushes to TheBigBoard and starts rambling to himself, twisting the cube without looking at it as he does so. Florence then points out that he has solved it.

As of April 2023, the show stars [[Series/TheRoyleFamily Ralf Little]] as DI Neville Parker, Shantol Jackson as DS Naomi Thomas, Tahj Miles as Trainee Officer Marlon Price and Ginny Holder as Trainee Officer Darlene Curtis.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: One killer is a well-known and much-loved TV presenter, and TheSummation takes place in the studio for his show. When he proclaims that nobody will ever believe Neville over him, Neville announces that the entire summation (including video evidence) has just been broadcast live on air.

* AffectionatePickpocket: In "Steamy Confessions", Marlon hugs J.D. after J.D. lets him off with a warning instead of arresting him. Marlon uses the opportunity to lift J.D.'s badge which he later uses in an attempt to pass himself off as a police officer.

A spinoff series, ''Series/{{Beyond Paradise|2023}}'', launched in February 2023. It follows the exploits of DI Goodman, now back in Britain and based in "a picturesque town with a surprisingly high murder rate".

** In one episode, automated door records, witness testimony, video footage, and the coroner's report all indicate that an out of shape scientist climbed alone up the side of a volcano at night to monitor some anomalous seismic readings, had a heart attack and died. Humphrey looks at the scene for a minute and asks why the man didn't have a flashlight...

* DeathInTheClouds: Parker and the team in the second episode of Series 11 are left with the mystery of who killed a skydiver mid air when their body is found stuck in a tree with a knife in his back. They assume that someone must have killed him on the plane he was jumping from and then threw the body outside, but video proves that he was alive when he jumped, and that no one went with him, leaving them confused. [[spoiler:Turns out that the skydiver had deliberately jumped out of the plane at a different point to everyone else so that he could he reach the ground first, run to the airport and then confront the pilot of the plane when he landed several minutes later. They get into a fight, the pilot kills him, but has enough time to put the body back into the plane, take off, throw the body out of the plane where the victim originally jumped from, turn back around and then land before the rest of the sky diving party came back to the airport.]]

* DeadPersonConversation: In season 10 episode 6, [[spoiler: Poole offers Camille some consoling words while Catherine's in a serious condition in hospital.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: In two episodes, Season 5 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 4, gay characters are depicted. Both times, they're the murderers.
** [[spoiler: Season 11, Episode 8]] also features a murderer who turns out to be gay, though [[spoiler: it's {{Downplayed}} as he's a SympatheticMurderer who is avenging the death of his lover, a Soviet dissident the Victim of the Week ratted out to the KGB.]]

** [[spoiler:Doug Anderson in the sixth episode of season 2. He's a drinker and as it turns out, he worked with a friend in a StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder scheme.]]

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: In Season 12, Episode 3, the murderer is revealed to be [[spoiler: the local shopkeeper who'd been involved in the episode's subplot helping Marlon investigate the smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes - as it turns out, he's actually a confidence trickster who the victim had left for dead several years earlier who sought to take his revenge.]]

* FakedKidnapping: The daughter of the VictimOfTheWeek and her boyfriend do this to try and get money to runaway in the first episode of series 11.

** Zig-zagged in Series 11 ep.2 [[spoiler:where a wife and her brother in law (who was also her lover) staged an attack on the brother in law, and then try and frame the husband for it by planting evidence and have the brother in law leave a fake message on the wife's mobile during the "attack" namedropping his brother. What they couldn't account for was that the husband was caught on [=CCTV=] having a cigarette at the same time, initially clearing him. It turned out that the husband then took a walk after his cigarette, saw his brother lying on the floor unconscious after the wife had knocked him out after the staged attack to make it look more real, and decided to finish him off, since he knew they were having an affair.]]
* FrameUp: Attempted in various episodes, notably in "Stumped In Murder," [[spoiler: where a friend of the VictimOfTheWeek attempts to make his suicide look a murder to set up someone who was blackmailing him,]], "La Murder Le Diable," [[spoiler:where the two killers try to make it look like it was an ex-employee of theirs who was prone to alcoholic blackouts,]] and Series 11 ep. 2 [[spoiler:where a woman and her brother in law/lover try to frame the woman's husband's for an attack on his brother, but the husband is cleared because of a cast iron alibi. Subverted when it turned out that the husband did actually kill him, making it an odd case of FramingTheGuiltyParty]], and Series 11 ep.5 where the [[spoiler: killer tries to make it look like the care assistant gave the victim the wrong medication.]]

* JustBetweenYouAndMe: The killer does this to Florence, who they have held at gunpoint while confessing in Series 11 ep.4 [[spoiler: Their EvilGloating gives Florence enough time to shoot them before they shoot her.]]

** In Series 11 ep 5 it turned out that [[spoiler:the killer that replaced the VictimOfTheWeek's natural supplements with aspirin, which the victim was allergic to, and then tried to make it look like the care assistant that cocked up the medication round by giving the victim the wrong tablet.]]

** In Series 11 ep.4, a man is found dead in a locked and bolted office with a gun in his hand, and a suicide note written on his computer, but Parker is suspicious when he learns that a drug lord is visiting the victim, and Florence (who's working undercover for said drug lord) leaves him a message on his Dictaphone.
* NeverTheObviousSuspect: Usually played straight, if the evidence points very neatly to one suspect, or the police think that that they have the case solved halfway the episode, then you can almost guarantee that it will ''not'' turn out to be that person. However Series 11 ep.2 played with this; [[spoiler:thanks to a FrameUp by his wife and her brother in law/lover, all the evidence points to the fact that it was the husband, but he was caught on [=CCTV=] having a cigarette at the time of murder, so Parker clears him, only for it to turn out to have been him along.]]

** Series 11 ep.4 features only one person who can be the killer once Parker rules out suicide, and it is indeed them. The main conflict of the episode is how the team can investigate the murder without breaking Florence's cover, since she working for the killer (who is also a drug lord) in a undercover mission for the Jamaican Police.

* {{Patricide}}: The murderer [[spoiler:In the first episode in Series 11, who killed her own father.]]

* SiblingMurder: The killer [[spoiler:in the third episode of Series 11.]]

** A VictimOfTheWeek uses a playing card variation to enter the [[spoiler: closed and locked police station]] in Series 8.

* SmugSnake: The murderer in Series 12, Episode 6 - a celebrated criminologist, who murdered a man specifically to toy with Neville, and taunts him after the summation that he had engineered the situation so Neville couldn't prove it in court. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode, the {{Cliffhanger}} suggests that his taunts and manipulations have enraged Neville so much that he murdered him.]]

** Series 11 ep.4 also didn't have a summation gathering, instead Florence gets the killer to [[JustBetweenYouAndMe confess while the killer holds her at gunpoint]].
** Series 11 ep. 8 also doesn't have a summation gathering, as the detectives instead confront the murderer on his own without the other suspects, [[spoiler:likely because his motive involved the relatively sympathetic goal of avenging his secret male lover]].

** The victim in the first episode of Series 11, who after being [[spoiler:stabbed by [[{{Patricide}} his own daughter]]]] managed stem then bleeding enough to drive a couple of minutes up the road to a payphone, only to die while phoning for an ambulance.