Unlike a lot of British murder mysteries Death In Paradise boasts a much more exotic location, but where exactly is the show filmed? A joint production between France and the UK, BBC show Death In Paradise aired its first season back in 2011 and premiered its ninth season in 2020. For the first three seasons, the action centered on British detective Richard Poole (Paddington 2’s Ben Miller) who is sent to investigate the murder of the British head of a local police station on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, and ends up staying there permanently as the island’s new police chief.
After Richard Poole was murdered himself in the season 3 premiere, detective Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall of Love Actually fame) was sent from London to Saint Marie to solve the crime and eventually took over Poole’s duties. When Goodman returned to London in the sixth season of Death In Paradise, he was replaced by Jack Mooney (Father Ted’s Ardal O’Hanlon), who recently left the island in season 9 with a new detective Neville Parker (Ralf Little, The Royle Family) taking over the reins.
While the show is set on the fictional British Caribbean island of Saint Marie and its main town Honoré, Death In Paradise is actually filmed on the French Caribbean island group of Guadeloupe, with the Basse-Terre commune of Deshaies acting as a stand-in for the fictional Honoré. The beachfront shack each detective lives in is located on Anse de la Perle, one of Guadeloupe’s most beautiful beaches located a few miles north of Deshaies. Other Death In Paradise filming locations includes the Deshaies Botanical Garden, Zoo de Guadeloupe au Parc des Mamelles and the luxurious Langley Fort Royal Resort, which is also used as a base for production during filming.
A few episodes of Death In Paradise have been filmed outside of Guadeloupe. The season 6 two-part episode “Man Overboard” featured a murder investigation that took Humphrey Goodman back to London where he liaised with Jack Mooney to solve the case and was largely set in the British capital. Luckily for the Death In Paradise cast and crew, however, the majority of the show is filmed in Guadeloupe.
Death In Paradise isn’t the only production lucky enough to film in the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles island chain. The scene at the end of The Shawshank Redemption in which Andy and Red are reunited in ‘Mexico’ was filmed at a beach on the U.S. Virgin Island of Saint Croix, and the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise filmed at locations including Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.