Warming up the cold winter months, popular sun-kissed crime drama Death in Paradise expands beyond the Caribbean and Devon as it heads Down Under — and welcomes its first-ever female lead detective — for BBC One's latest spin-off, Return to Paradise.
Picking up the baton from first spin-off Beyond Paradise, this new six-parter — filmed in Sydney and the Illawarra coastal region of Australia — sees Anna Samson (Home & Away) follow in the footsteps of franchise favorites Ben Miller (as DI Richard Poole), Kris Marshall (DI Humphrey Goodman), Ardal O’Hanlon (DI Jack Mooney) and, most recently, Ralf Little (DI Neville Parker), as DI Mackenzie Clarke, who returns to her hometown, Dolphin Cove, after being accused of tampering with evidence while working for London’s Metropolitan Police.
Mackenzie fled Dolphin Cove six years earlier, leaving her fiancé Glenn (Home & Away's Tai Hara) at the altar. As Mackenzie gets drawn into helping local police investigate a string of complex murders, alongside sidekick DSC Colin Cartwright (Nolly’s Lloyd Griffith), can she make peace with her past? Anna, 34, tells us more…
How does it feel to be the first female lead detective in the Death in Paradise ‘Paraverse’?
"I’m pleased as punch to be playing the first female in the franchise but it was also incredibly surreal… and nerve-wracking. I was full of joy when I heard I’d got the part - then it suddenly hit me that I now had to do this thing! There's pressure in taking up the mantle of not only these wonderful, maverick detectives, but these very charismatic, beloved English male actors. I can't emulate or replicate what they’ve done; I’m bringing ‘me’ to the show."
How would you describe your character, Mackenzie?
"I listened to Kris Marshall talking once about Humphrey and saying these characters are a study in loneliness. Mackenzie certainly feels like a bit of an outsider in the world and that she doesn’t 'fit', so she's blind to anyone in Dolphin Cove that may want to be her friend. Mackenzie brings a great sense of guilt back with her to Dolphin Cove but she doesn't worry about being liked, which was fun to play."
What can you tell us about the first investigation?
"There's something delicious about who gets murdered in our show; whether it's a real estate agent or wellness influencer, you're not sorry to see the person go, ha, ha! Mack is renting out her mum’s house and visits a real estate agent only to find DSC Colin Cartwright there investigating his murder! Mackenzie puts gloves on at the crime scene and gets involved."
Mackenzie and Colin make quite the double act. What’s it like working with Lloyd?
"I’m really pleased with the chemistry the two of us have on screen. We have less time to shoot this show than the British versions, which means long days on set, and Lloyd and I spending an unbelievable amount of time together. We had to get to know each other and trust each other pretty quickly."
The first episode pays homage to Death in Paradise when Series 6 DI Jack Mooney — played by Ardal O’Hanlon — appears. What brings him to the show?
"This is a wonderful nod to the original series. There’s a phone ringing and a shot of London that reels you in… then we see it’s DI Jack Mooney calling! Mooney is Mackenzie’s boss at the Met Police, which she left under a cloud of suspicion. Mooney’s overseeing the ‘trouble’ but he can only tell Mackenzie so much as it’s all very secret. I didn’t meet Ardal - he was filming in London while I was shooting in Australia - but I would’ve loved to."
Would you like Humphrey to turn up in Dolphin Cove, perhaps?
"Yes! I want them all in this show, ha, ha! To prepare for the role, I watched all the Paraverse detectives to understand how an actor works within this genre and where I could push the humour. I’d say Mackenzie most overlaps with Ben Miller’s DI Richard Poole from Series 1 in terms of the way they interact socially with the world. But I love them all."
How does Return to Paradise compare to Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise?
"While Return… is similar in spirit, it's not a carbon copy. I don't think Mackenzie being female changes the show’s DNA, I think being in Australia changes it more; because it's not set in the Caribbean, we don't have that culture clash. Mackenzie grew up in Dolphin Cove, ran away and is coming home to people who don't embrace her straight away. So, like the other series, our detective is still a fish out of water — but in a town she knows."
What’s it like filming in your native Australia?
"Death in Paradise is huge in Australia and I know there’s great pride from those who live in the Illawarra area that we’ve filmed there and that we're celebrating how incredible that part of the world is. It really is astonishingly stunning."
All six episodes of Return to Paradise will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6 am on Friday 22 November, with the series airing weekly on BBC1 from 8 pm that night.
