Warm and cosy detective series Death in Paradise<\/a> returns with a special seasonal episode<\/a>, and if your yuletide spirit is waning after one too many festive-themed shows (it\u2019s beginning to feel like Netflix\u2019s Jeffrey Dahmer<\/a> series is the only one without a Christmas episode) it may be the perfect antidote as it\u2019s not that Christmassy at all.<\/p>\n There is a subplot involving Neville\u2019s (Ralf Little) mum packing parsnips and sprouts in her suitcase so her son can have a traditional Christmas dinner, and there\u2019s a big tree ready to be decorated at the police station, but otherwise it is business as usual for the team when a woman is found murdered.<\/p>\n True crime podcaster Jennifer (Derry Girls\u2019<\/a> Siobhan McSweeney) is on the island of Saint Marie looking into a cold case \u2013 the mystery of the disappearance of nine-year-old Linus Peters, who went missing on Christmas Eve in 1977, a case that Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) worked on but was unable to solve more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n However, Jennifer is found dead from a gun shot wound near Linus\u2019s childhood home, and things get decidedly spooky when the police listen to her final recording and hear her call out to Linus and receive a ghostly reply.<\/p>\n As you\u2019d expect, there are a handful of people \u2013 including the Commissioner, of course \u2013 who have ties to the case, from Linus\u2019s brother Marvin (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) to a psychic named Danny Sheridan (Les Dennis), and it takes a scary night for Officer Marlon (Tahj Miles) at Marvin\u2019s home and some dogged police work before the killer \u2013 real or ghostly \u2013 is uncovered.<\/p>\n While Death In Paradise can be rightly criticised for being formulaic, that\u2019s also part of its charm, especially at Christmas as we\u2019re just as comfortably certain that Neville and co will catch the killer before the end credits as we are that Granny will fall asleep halfway through watching the episode after having one too many Baileys. (And the plot is simple enough \u2013 in a good way \u2013 that if she wakes up before the end, she\u2019ll figure out what is going on).<\/p>\n The show has always been as much about the fun performances as the crime that needs to be solved, and, while Ralf Little is somewhat sidelined with an annoyingly obvious swapped suitcase plot, regular cast members Tahj Miles, Ginny Holder (as Darlene) and Don Warrington all deliver enjoyable moments on screen in this episode.<\/p>\n Best of all, however, are the guest stars. Doctor Who<\/a> star Jo Martin \u2013 while criminally underused \u2013 is terrific as Marvin\u2019s best friend Rakesha, while Les Dennis is deliciously hideous as the deep-tanned, arrogant psychic who had contact with Jennifer before she died.<\/p>\n All expressive hands, grimaces and mischievous looks, he makes the most of every scene he is in and is so good at being a little bit naughty that our Christmas wish is that a casting director spots his performance in Death In Paradise Christmas Special and gives Dennis a truly nasty dramatic lead role that he can sink his teeth into in the New Year.<\/p> The Death in Paradise 2022 Christmas special will air on Monday 26th December, with season 11 available to stream on\u00a0BBC iPlayer<\/a>. Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Jo Berry Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am 3.0 out of 5 star rating Warm and cosy detective series Death in Paradise returns with a special seasonal episode, and if your yuletide spirit is waning after one too many festive-themed shows (it\u2019s beginning to feel like Netflix\u2019s Jeffrey Dahmer series is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27688,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-scaled.jpg",2560,1621,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-300x190.jpg",300,190,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-768x486.jpg",768,486,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-1024x649.jpg",800,507,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-1536x973.jpg",1536,973,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-christmas-special-review-a-ghostly-case-2048x1297.jpg",2048,1297,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jo Berry Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am 3.0 out of 5 star rating Warm and cosy detective series Death in Paradise returns with a special seasonal episode, and if your yuletide spirit is waning after one too many festive-themed shows (it\u2019s beginning to feel like Netflix\u2019s Jeffrey Dahmer series is the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/death-in-paradise-Jennifer-Langan-2b792f8.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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