TV Worth Watching is a new series highlighting my favorite television viewing. I am a big fan of UK television, so you are sure to see many UK shows and movies featured here. — Douglas
I love mystery series, and I have featured many here in the TV Worth Watching series. Add one more to the list with Death in Paradise from the BBC and currently airing on KCET here in Los Angeles. It is a funny, witty, and excellently written mystery with a “fish out of water” element in the main character, a Chief Inspector with the London Metropolitan Police Force who finds himself in an island world he cannot quite comprehend. As usual, lots of of our favorite UK actors show up as guest stars in the series, which is always a treat. Former Doctor Who, Peter Davison, shows up in the current season (3) as a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who is suspected of trying to kill the star of his latest film.
From KCET.org web site…
Sent to the tiny island of Saint-Marie to solve a mysterious murder, Detective Inspector Richard Poole is a total fish out of water. A quintessentially British cop, he would much prefer the London drizzle and a freshly pressed shirt to blue seas, sparkling sands and gorgeous tropical weather. This warm, light-hearted detective series takes place against a stunning Caribbean island backdrop – as far away from the grey skies of London as you could possibly get. What Richard finds is a ramshackle station and a very different type of policing. The fact that there’s a goat in one of the cells says it all. He can’t get out of there fast enough, but there’s a job to do and he does it brilliantly. His reward – a permanent posting to the island, his own personal hell on Earth. He may be stuck there, but he’s not going to let his standards slip. He’ll bring British rigor to this relaxed Caribbean workplace. Always in a suit and tie, eschewing sandals for a stout brogue, he’s the very embodiment of the Englishman abroad. He can get through his ordeal, if only he could find a decent cup of tea.
Death in Paradise – Episode 1 (YouTube)
More information on Death in Paradise:
- Pilgrimage with Simon Reeve
- All Creatures Great and Small
- BBC Who were the Greeks? (3 episodes)
- Poirot
- Shock and Awe – The Story of Electricity
- Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England
- Mechanical Marvels Clockwork Dreams
- Springwatch 2013
- Torchwood
- Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course
- Hamlet starring David Tennant
- Zen
- I, Claudius
- Foyle’s War
- Wreck-It Ralph
- The Story of Science from BBC (6 parts)
- Inspector Montalbano (Il Commissario Montalbano) – Italy