Blazer and trousers Jacquemus / Knitted polo Oliver Spencer / Socks London Sock Company / Shoes Ami Paris / Jewellery Kris’s own

Beyond Paradise, Tony Jordan’s small-town procedural, is more than a simple spinoff of the globally beloved Death in Paradise. While it captures many things that repeat viewers and long-time fans love about the original series, it also holds its own as a perfect program for the entire family. Currently in its second season, the TV Times Awards Best New Drama for 2023 follows the life and antics of Kris Marshall’s Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman as he heads the small police force in the close-knit community of his wife’s hometown, Shipton Abbott. As one might expect from a picturesque fictional town, the crimes DI Goodman and his team encounter are not always of a violent nature–they run the gambit from premeditated murder to petty theft. Life in Shipton Abbott is not without its challenges. Over the course of the season, the show beautifully captures the various sides of country living, leaving an audience invested not only in the day-to-day adventures of the police department but in the lives of the loveable cast of characters as well, all anchored by Marshall’s endless wealth of effortless charm.   

Principle talked with Marshall about how his character has changed since Death in Paradise, filming in Cornwall and Devon, how he thinks he has most improved as an actor since he first started, and more.

Blazer, shirt, and trousers Oliver Spencer / Jewellery Kris’s own

You’ve played DI Humphrey Goodman for a decent amount of time now. How do you think he has grown the most since Death In Paradise?

That’s a really good question. I first started playing him 10 years ago, so you have to mark the passage of time; otherwise, it’s just going to be a little ridiculous. I think one of the things that was important to convey was the gap between his leaving Death In Paradise and his arrival in Beyond Paradise. It was marked by COVID, for one thing. We all had two and a half years of madness due to a pandemic. We’re all a little bit touched by that, in a way. I don’t think anyone comes out of that kind of thing unscathed mentally. If it’s two years of your whole life, and let’s say you live 80 years, that’s quite a significant amount of time. So, it was important to mark how he’s changed by that. He’s also been back at the Met Police in London during that gap. That has affected him slightly, but not in a bad way. Now, he’s slightly more grown up. He’s still the same sort of quirky, Colombo-esque cop that he always was, but he is a little more experienced now. But the great thing about him is that he’s not guarded. He’s a very open, inclusive person. I really like that about him. It makes him great fun to play.

How do you think you’ve changed the most since then?

Another great question. How have I changed? Much the same as he has, actually. My kids were getting older when I was doing Death In Paradise. I was living the dream out in the Caribbean and having an amazing time. I had a very, very young family. They were very transportable. You could literally take a pushchair and a few nappies and take them wherever you wanted to go. My eldest is now 11. He’s got his own friends. He’s got his own life. He wants his independence. He doesn’t want to be carted around the world by me. You have to factor that into your life. I’m a little more considerate of my family’s wishes now, which is another reason why Beyond Paradise is such a great job for me personally. It’s shot in Devon and Cornwall and I’m from the west country. I spent an enormous amount of time in Devon and Cornwall in my 20s, living and surfing. I have a great affinity for the area and the bucolic Celtic-ness of the place, its music and rhythms. When the sun is shining, it is God’s country. But it’s also quite a stark place. Despite the beauty and obvious wealth down there, there are huge pockets of deprivation as well from the fading industries of fishing and clay mining. I don’t want to get too serious about it, but in a way, it adds to the whole diaspora of the place. That part really touches on the area’s slightly pagan vibes, which I really like.

Blazer, shirt and tie Sandro Paris / Shoes Ami Paris

How does getting to film in Cornwall and Devon affect how you get into character?

At this point, the character is so ingrained. It’s now as simple as pulling on the crumpled jacket to coin a Colombo-ism. I’ve always gleaned facets from my favorite TV detectives growing up: Colombo, Monk, and Jim Rockford. In terms of playing the character on a day-to-day basis, Humphrey is pretty simple. But I like the setting of Devon because technically, it is set in Devon, and even though we film in both places, it infuses the crimes. They are slightly quirkier. We distance ourselves somewhat from Death in Paradise because we don’t always have murders. I think some people love that and some people don’t love it so much. Before I go to work, I soak up the place. I really do. We film July till November, so we follow a pretty rich gamut of the seasons. We cover a lot of weather. I am and always have been a really big water person. I was a big surfer growing up. I wasn’t particularly good, but I loved it. I did it all over the world for fun. I love the sea. So every morning before work, I’m in the sea. I’m in the sea after work. I go hiking up on the Moors. It’s a huge part of who I am. We talk a lot about mental health these days and how the great outdoors is so good for your mental health. When you’re on a big shoot like Beyond Paradise, which is 70 hours a week for 23 weeks straight, one after the other, while it looks and is bucolic and lovely, it’s also quite hard work. I use Devon and Cornwall to keep my mental health stable. 

Something I really liked about the show is that while it is a crime procedural, it is, at its heart, a cosy comedy. Is there any media you’re a fan of that has that kind of small-town vibe?

It’s not the same vibe, but in terms of the small-town aspect, Ozark was a great show. I was a huge fan of that. I know it’s a completely different small town. There’s an amazing book by Tim Winton called Breath. It is a novel about surfing, but it’s also about how people deal with dynamics in a small town and the average day-to-day. It’s quite wild and encompasses all the kinds of things that you find in Cornwall: coastal living, how you get a lot of blow-ins from out of town who come in and weekenders, and how they affect the people who live there.

Back in December, Beyond Paradise won Best New Drama at the 2023 TV Times Awards. Did that put any pressure on the cast and crew for season 2?

There’s always pressure to maintain what you’re achieving, but at least you’ve achieved it in the first place. In a way, it puts on the pressure, and differently, it alleviates that pressure. I think we were the BBC’s biggest new drama last year with a million viewers. That’s a great validation of what you’re doing. So, there is pressure to carry on and not drop the ball, and it remains to be seen if we will be able to do that, as series two hasn’t come out yet. We’ll see how that goes. [laughter] Two awards that we’ve won so far have been audience awards, so that’s a really great validation of what we’re doing. There are quite a few of the cozy procedural crime dramas. It’s quite a busy marketplace, so you need to stand out. I think what Tony Jordan, the creator, has done is quite unique in terms of the way the crime is solved at the end of the show, and the high it has as well in the fact that it deals with issues that people live with all wrapped up in one hour. For me, it’s alchemy. I don’t know how they do it.

Blazer, shirt, sweater vest and trousers Ami Paris

Do you find it more of a challenge or a joy to be able to play the same character over a longer period of time than a season or a film?

That’s another really great question. I’ll come clean with you. Pretty much all my career, I’ve played a character for two or three seasons and then got a bit bored, or something else has come up that makes me want to move on and try something else. The theme of my career is that I’ve done something for two or three years, it’s been really successful, and then I’ve moved on. I’ve gone away for a little bit, done a bit of theatre or something in the US, and then come back and done something else, eventually to leave that. I’m being a bit glib when I say I get bored, but I do want to challenge myself and life gets in the way and influences your decisions. It’s great to have been in a position to be able to do that. However, sometimes, I do it, and I go, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Humphrey Goodman is more of a revisitation because, obviously, I had a big gap between Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise. I went off, and I did other stuff. It’s a mixture of both, really. It’s the fun of playing a new character with the nice cosy foundation of revisiting an old friend. 

Speaking of playing characters for different lengths of time, you’ve been lucky enough to have had a long career. How do you think you’ve improved most as an actor since you first started?

Wow, that’s a really good question. There are two parts of acting. There is acting and reacting. I think I’ve gotten better at the reacting part. I may even have gotten slightly worse at the acting part. [laughter] I mean that in a good way. When you’re in your 20s, or even earlier, before you become successful, you have a real fire. I’m not saying I’ve lost that fire in any way, but that fire can’t be the same as it was when you were younger. That fervent and almost naive confidence sort of burns through you because you’re desperate to succeed and play all sorts of different characters. For example, when I first started doing bigger roles in movies, before My Family and Love Actually, the producers or the director would say to me something like, “Look, we think this character should shave his head.” I’d go, “Yeah, shave my head. Shave it all off.” Anyone would suggest something, and I’d go, “Yeah, that’s great for the character. Amazing, do it.” Then, of course, you spend a lot of time in the industry, and I’m not saying you become more cynical, but you learn to think about how things will affect you in the long run. Shaving your hair off for a six-week film is fine, but it’s going to cause further issues down the line. That is the acting side I was talking about. On the other side is reacting, which is more about listening and the other lower rhythms of the character you’re playing. Really digging into the reactive side of things is something I’ve improved on as an actor. I’ve also become more adept at working with a camera over the years as well. If you’re going to do a long speech and you’re doing 25 takes or five shots for a long scene, you’re not going to want to use up all your energy in the first few minutes. You become a bit more experienced, like an old dog. [laughter]

Blazer and trousers Rowing Blazers / Long-sleeved polo Arket / Socks London Sock Company / Shoes Ami Paris

Are there any accomplishments or roles that you are particularly proud of? 

There are loads. I’m proud of all my work for different reasons. I’m really proud of my commercial stuff because it’s something that’s been a theme throughout my career, and I’ve really loved it. But I’m also really, really proud of my lesser-known work. I did a show with Andrew Scott nearly 20 years ago called My Life In Film, which I feel is some of my best work. I did a show called Funland, which was written by the guys who did The League of Gentlemen and got nominated for a BAFTA. I was really proud of that. I’m quite proud of the movie The Merchant of Venice. I did a show in the US called Traffic Light. I’m very proud of that. I’ve done some really fun movies. I did a movie called Oka! I literally went and lived in the Congo jungle and did a movie out there playing a character called Louis Sarno. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and did really well. I did three seasons of Sanditon. My character was a really complex character that I enjoyed playing. I get people coming to me every day–I love it. It’s cool and part of the job. It’s all good–usually about Love Actually or My Family or Death In Paradise or Beyond Paradise because those are my most commercial and popular things. It’s brilliant. But when people come up to me and say, “I know all those other things you did, but I really loved you in this tiny little film you did,” it’s really special. It’s the stuff you do for yourself that I find ends up meaning the most.

It’s nice to be able to have a long list of things that you’re proud of.

Or maybe it just means I started young, and I’m getting old. [laughter]

Blazer, shirt and trousers Oliver Spencer / Socks London Sock Company / Shoes Ami Paris / Jewellery Kris’s own

Going back to Beyond Paradise, the series opens with a murder mystery dinner. If you were to participate in one, which role would you hope to play, the murderer, the victim, the detective, or a suspect, and why? 

If you’re doing a murder mystery weekend or evening, I suppose it would be quite nice to play the victim. [laughter] It’s the least amount of work, and if you can just smuggle a few snacks down there with you, you’re good to go. You’d have an easier evening, and you can hit the bar earlier than everyone else. 

The show, both this one and the original, are obviously wildly popular. Why do you think they resonate so well with people, or why do they resonate with you? 

You could say it was just the British public, but it’s not. Beyond Paradise is pretty new and still in its infancy, but the show it comes from is global. We have a myriad of amazing murder mystery shows, but we don’t have quite as many that don’t take themselves too seriously. The reason why shows like Death In Paradise and Beyond Paradise feel progressive and are really successful is because they are cross-demographic. You can sit down and watch it with your family. It’s murder with nice hair. It’s not too grizzly. It’s a relaxing thing to watch. People can watch it together and bond over it. I’m really, really proud of the fact that a lot of stuff that I’ve done has bonded people. People used to tell me that they watched My Family religiously with a parent or both every Friday or every Sunday, and that was something they bonded over and did together. Now I have people who are in their teens coming up to me and saying, “Oh, I watched Death In Paradise with my mum, my dad, or my grandma, and it’s something we bonded over.” That really touches me. I think shows like this are important to people because they become something that they got to do with someone they love.

Blazer and trousers Jacquemus / Knitted polo Oliver Spencer / Socks London Sock Company / Shoes Ami Paris / Jewellery Kris’s own

How lovely. I know this is also kind of a tricky one to answer because of spoilers, but if you could give Humphrey any advice for season 2, what would it be?

My advice is always: the clue is in your surname. His surname is Goodman, which means a good man. Keep the right side of what you do. Your power is in your work. Use your neurodivergence in a way that shows you off to the best of your abilities.

Finally, let’s pretend you’re planning a weekend getaway to Shipton Abbott. What’s your itinerary?

First I would go to the beach because I’m a beach person. If the surf’s up, I would have a surf. There is a little bit of surfing in Shipton Abbott from time to time, even though it is on the south coast. I would have a Shipton Abbott Pastybut pasty and then I would go to the Shipton Abbott Arms and tuck in for the night to a log fire.

Blazer, shirt, sweater vest and trousers Ami Paris

Season 2 of Beyond Paradise is available on BBC iPlayer now, with episodes also airing each Friday at 9pm on BBC One.