We like watching Death In Paradise. (The first series is my favourite.)
Something occurred to me tonight: What is it with the English detectives and lizards? Growing up in San Diego, it was a treat to catch an alligator lizard. It was always fun to spot anloes in New Orleans. I loved the geckos in, and outside, of our Air B&B in Hawaii. Lizards are cool. So why do the English Inspectors seem, at least in earlier episodes, to have issues with ‘Harry’?
They didn’t grow up in San Diego. They’re not used to seeing reptiles in the house. Some of them probably wonder if it creates, or indicates, a hygiene issue. For all of them, it serves to indicate the exotic nature of the place they’ve come to.
It wasn’t just Harry: Richard Poole hated everything about the Caribbean in general and Saint Marie in particular. The fact that only toward the end of his tenure did he start to take the stick out of his butt didn’t help.
There was someone else on an episode yesterday, but I don’t remember now if it was a detective. May have been a tourist. I should have just said ‘English’, maybe?
He is a CGI anole. Typically they live 2-5 year but some exceed even 8 years in captivity. 10 years is the max. So clearly Harry current is not the original Harry. We’re on season 14 I believe.
I stumbled on something interesting the other day. Detective Inspector #5, Mervin Wilson is played by Don Gilet. Don Gilet appears in season 4 episode 1 in 2015 as the villain of the week.
Oh, if anyone was wondering, he’s due to return for season 15 which is already filming.
Richard Poole: The first detective inspector, played by Ben Miller. Stick up the arse Brit. Seasons 1 & 2
Humphrey Goodman: sent to Saint Marie to investigate Poole’s murder and remained on the island. He is played by Kris Marshall. Seasons 3-6 partial.
Jack Mooney: The third detective, portrayed by Ardal O’Hanlon. The Irish one. Seasons 6-9 Partial for 6th & 9th.
Neville Parker: The fourth detective, played by Ralf Little. The allergic to everything one. Seasons 9.5–13
Mervin Wilson: The most recent detective, with Don Gilet stepping into the role. Known for being curt and rude. Season 14+
0voters
Damn that poll was hard to set up, I couldn’t get a ranking poll to work.
Ovation doesn’t show the series in order. They’ll have sequential episodes, but they bounce around with the series. We’re seeing a lot of 'Jack Mooney’ (Ardal O’Hanlon). We keep hearing him as Father Doyle.
I see there is now a poll. I voted for Richard Poole because he was the ‘fish out of water’ and very obstinate about it. Humphrey Goodman keeps reminding me of that movie where he goes to the United States because American women go nuts for British accents. (Christmas movie with Hugh Grant. I can never remember its name.) Jack Mooney, as I said, reminds me of Father McGuire. I don’t see the other detectives as much because, as I said, Ovation bounces around and it seems they like to show the earlier seasons. But I like all of the detectives. (And FWIW, Camille is my favourite DS.)
Love Actually. Personally I find it a profoundly stupid film but it does seem to have a following.
Ardal O’Hanlon does seem to struggle to escape the shadow of Father Dougal but I did like him in this. He was also briefly in a superhero sitcom which was not worth watching (not down to him; it just didn’t work overall).
(Just looked that up - My Hero ran for SIX SEASONS? Between this and Love Actually my tastes clearly differ from the general public’s).
Anyway - Kris Marshall is another one who has been typecast to death but nonetheless I did like the Humphrey episodes. He may have benefitted from placement - not there for the first season but sliding in right when the series was really hitting its stride and leaving before it got tired. I was less enamoured of his spinoff series, though.
Ben Miller has been the only one that I actually liked (but I haven’t seen any episodes with the current guy). I also respect his decision to leave because he didn’t want to spend that much time away from home and family.
I think the next Inspector should be Camille, coming back as a DI. I’d watch that.
Speaking of accents, the accents of the “local” characters seems all over the map, and some of them seem pretty labored. I say this as a person who has almost no experience previously listening to people from the Caribbean. Anyway, I understand actors doing accents, but as an audience member I shouldn’t be so aware of some of them.