Death in Paradise's new spin-off show - 'That's a wrap' as cast film final scenes in Australia
The cameras have stopped rolling on Return to Paradise, the much-anticipated Australian spin-off from the hugely successful murder mystery series Death in Paradise.
The BBC announced the series would be the first in the franchise to feature a female lead, following the shock departure of Ralf Little's character DI Neville Parker at the end of the thirteenth series of the original show.
Anna Samson, who played Mia Anderson in Home & Away, was announced as protagonist DI Mackenzie Clarke, an Australian expat who previously worked on some of the Metropolitan Police's most difficult cases while living in London.
After being accused of tampering with evidence, she returns from the UK to her native Australia and begins solving some "delicious whodunits" Down Under.
The actress recently took to Instagram to announce that the cast had finished filming the new show, and said she was "heart broken" that it had come to an end.
She said: “I got to spend the last three months with these three lads. I love them more than I can say. We wrapped our show this week and my heart is broken that they will no longer be contractually obliged to spend time with me.”
Viewers are set to see DI Clarke have a somewhat difficult return to Australia, which comes six years after she jilted her fiancé Glenn (played by fellow Home & Away alumni Tai Hara) at the altar.
She goes on to join the Dolphin Cove Police Station, which is a world away from her life at the Met Police, and attempts to win over her colleagues. The cast also includes Ted Lasso's Lloyd Griffith and Catherine McClements, who stars in Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.
The series will have six parts, and producers promise it will be every bit as good as the original. Co-creator and Executive Producer Peter Mattessi previously said: "I'm beyond excited to welcome Producer Di Haddon and our two fabulous directors Mat King and Tenika Smith who are coming together with our amazing cast to bring the world of Return to Paradise to life.
"We are having so much fun creating this brand-new mystery series that brings an Australian twist to one of the globe's most successful television franchises. We think audiences in Australia, UK and around the world are going to fall in love with our wonderful characters, our delicious whodunits, and our gorgeous coastal Australian locations."
Death in Paradise has already had huge successes with its spin-offs, as shown by the incredibly popular Beyond Paradise, which aired for the first time in 2023 and starts comedic genius Kris Marshall as DI Humphrey Goodman in Shipton Abbott in Devon.
