What happened to Ruby in Death in Paradise? Shyko Amos has talked about how rough viewers were on her at first
Ruby Patterson left Death in Paradise after two series. Here's how the show wrote Shyko Amos's character out, what the BBC said at the time, and Amos's own candid account of how viewers received Ruby at first.
Ruby Patterson arrived on Saint Marie in series 8 and was gone by the start of series 10 — one of the quicker turnarounds in a show famous for rotating its cast. Here's how it played out, on screen and off.
Who Ruby was
Shyko Amos joined Death in Paradise in 2019 as Officer Ruby Patterson: 26 years old, fresh out of police college, and — usefully for the plot — the niece of Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington). Ruby was chaos in uniform, allergic to deadlines and tidiness, and was taken under the wing of Officer JP Hooper (Tobi Bakare). She stayed for series 8 and 9.
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How she was written out
The BBC announced in July 2020, ahead of series 10, that both Amos and Aude Legastelois-Bidé (DS Madeleine Dumas) were leaving. On screen, the explanation came in the first episode of series 10 in January 2021: the Commissioner tells the team that Madeleine has accepted a promotion back in Paris — and has taken Ruby with her on secondment. That cleared the way for Josephine Jobert's Florence Cassell to return to the station.
The BBC's statement said Ruby had "made such a massive impact in such a short time" after two series bringing law, order, and joy to Saint Marie.
Neither the BBC nor Amos has ever spelled out the reason for the exit, or said whose decision it was.
What Amos said about the viewers
After the announcement, Amos posted a thank-you video on her YouTube channel — and was strikingly honest about Ruby's early reception. She recalled reading an article headlined "Ruby slammed, she's awful" and scrolling through comments calling the character annoying and boring.
"You were rough on me the first couple of episodes," Amos told viewers on YouTube in 2020, thanking them for eventually giving Ruby a chance.
She also conceded, laughing, that Ruby probably was a bit annoying — and that she could see it herself. By the end of her run, the character had turned enough of the audience that fans flooded her Instagram with disappointment when the exit was confirmed.
Where she is now
Amos — also known for 2018's A Very English Scandal — has not returned to Saint Marie. She has since set up a mindfulness and wellbeing space called The Mind Matters Practice, having found therapy and mindfulness around 2016, and has joked publicly about being back on the audition circuit. Ruby's secondment to Paris, meanwhile, remains technically open-ended — which in Death in Paradise terms means the door is never quite shut.
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