Smallscreen Reviews
Review: 'Death In Paradise' on BBC One
By Ian Cullen Oct 27, 2011, 1:53 GMT
This new series from the BBC One is an off-beat procedural, which stars comedian and actor Ben Miller (Primeval, Armstrong and Miller) in a role that seems made for him.
Synopsis: Detective Inspector Richard Poole is sent to investigate an impossible murder on a tiny Caribbean paradise island.
This new series from the BBC One is an off-beat procedural, which stars comedian and actor Ben Miller (Primeval, Armstrong and Miller) in a role that seems made for him.
When Detective Inspector Poole is sent to a paradise island to investigate the seemingly impossible murder of another British police officer, who has been stationed there, he finds himself shell-shocked by the cultural differences and the searing heat and does not want to be there. He lets his new work colleagues know about it.
"Death in Paradise" is comedy drama in which much of the comedy is provided by Poole's new workmates who are more laid back and used to island life than the new Detective Inspector is.
A fact that is fully emphasized by Poole refusing to wear clothes more in keeping with what the islanders wear. He stoically keeps to wearing his suit.
The first episode is a mystery, which has somewhat of an unexpected conclusion. A member of the local police that DI Poole is working with has committed the murder and nearly got away with it too.
The murderer was played brilliantly by Lenora Crichlow, who by virtue the fact that she is working rather closely with Poole throughout the show, isn’t the obvious suspect. Crichlow, of course, is best known to fans of the original UK series "Being Human" as Annie the ghost, which is a role she’ll reprise for the fourth season, which begins in early 2012 on BBC THREE.
A few, fun moments in this series are all resourced related. Upon arriving at what will be his new home, Poole asks how he can log his computer onto the network, but there is no network.
It’s a very small police force with one car that is policing a tiny island. So when it comes to emergencies, one of the officers working with Poole uses his own motorcycle with sidecar to handle urgent calls when more than one police unit is required.
The blending of comedy, a fish out of water premise and the procedural elements to this series make it a joy to watch, and seeing Ben Miller act as the stereotypical stiff-arsed Brit is always fun to behold. It is a style of role he has been doing for a good few years now on the hit UK series "Primeval."
But getting to see Miller do that role as the lead character in a series instead of a supporting role will be interesting to watch as we learn more about DI Poole over the rest of this series.
"Death In Paradise" will continue to air on a weekly basis on BBC 1 at 9pm and if next weeks preview is anything to go by. It looks like we could see some fun developments as this series continues on for the next seven weeks.
Monsters & Critics' contributor Ian Cullen is the owner and lead writer for the popular science fiction and comic book news site www.scifipulse.net. Ian also hosts the SFP-NOW podcast, which comes out weekly and is available for download on iTunes and smart phones.
