Featuring elaborate plots, entertaining characters and spectacular settings, BBC One detective series Beyond Paradise is proving a big hit with viewers. Where is it filmed and which are its best-known locations?

By Maria Hodson

Published: Friday, 07 April 2023 at 12:00 am

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From Looe to the Tamar Valley, BBC One drama Beyond Paradise is packed with honeypot destinations and dreamy locations. Although its setting of Shipton Abbot is fictional, filming took place in some very real locations in the West Country. Surprisingly, however, for a show that pitches itself as Devon-based, it’s hard to spot any Devon locations. Did we miss something along the way?

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Beyond Paradise UK film locations

Looe, Cornwall

Much of the series is filmed in the coastal town of Looe, which plays the role of fictional (and purportedly Devonian) town of Shipton Abbot. This pretty Cornish fishing harbour sits between Plymouth, which lies 20 miles east, and Fowey, located 10 miles west. Looe Bridge joins East and West Looe and the village is blessed with a wide sandy beach, rich woodland and cobbled streets. Looe, aka Shipton Abbot, is where Detective Humphrey Goodman and his fiancee Martha Lloyd relocate to after their Caribbean adventure in Death In Paradise. Humphrey is working with a local team of coppers, while Martha is setting up a cafe with a former flame.

Looe’s wide, sandy beach appears in episode five, when Martha has an outdoor yoga class while grappling with relationship issues. As you do.

Humphrey also takes to the beach to ponder the difficult questions in life, but he prefers to perch on a rock.

The show features a raft of guest stars in each episode – Phil Daniels stars in episode two as a grizzled fisherman called Marvellous Harris, who sells Humphrey a dilapidated boat while they chat at Looe Harbour.

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Launceston, Cornwall

DI Humphrey Goodman and DS Esther Williams look for leads in the market town of Launceston, the ancient capital of Cornwall, which sits on the south side of a large hill and is overlooked by 11th-century Launceston Castle. So if you’re not in town to solve crimes, you can enjoy a spot of sightseeing and shopping.

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Port Eliot House and Gardens, Saltash, Cornwall

In episode three, Humphrey investigates the disappearance of a rare painting, and several of the scenes feature Port Eliot House and Gardens, which plays Shipton Manor. A large country estate in St Germans, Saltash with 100-acre Repton-landscaped gardens, Port Eliot is located on the north of a steep hill and offers views over the estuary and striking St Germans viaduct. The gardens boast a vast rhododendron garden, maze, bowling green, orangery and arboretum. There is plenty to enjoy without the need to pinch any historic artworks, but our fictional thief couldn’t resist. Determined to retrieve said artwork, Humphrey interviews the owner of Shipton Manor, Louise Fitzalan (Pooky Quesnell) on the estate.

The earliest written reference to Port Eliot is in a 9th-century Cornish liturgical fragment kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It refers to Ecclesia Lnanledensia, which is considered the pre-Christian name of this place. Once home to Augustinian monks, the house has been inhabited for 1,000 years and contains many artworks and treasures. The house and gardens are open to visitors.

 

Related content:

• Best walks in Cornwall
• Guide to Devon: things to do, places to stay and best walks
• Britain’s prettiest fishing villages

A fishing boat being winched up the beach at Cadgwith Cove in Cornwall/Credit: Getty

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Pentille Castle and Estate, Cornwall

Well, it is on the Tamar, but it’s still not in Devon. Built in 1698, Pentillie Castle is a country house set in Repton-designed woodland gardens on the Cornish bank of the river.

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Werrington Park, Launceston, Cornwall

Historic Werrington Park gets close in that it used to be classed as Devon, however since boundary changes in the 1970s, it is still very much part of Cornwall.

Better luck next season, Devon.

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