What is Death in Paradise based on — and how much of it is real?
Death in Paradise looks like it must be adapted from a cosy crime series — it has that Agatha Christie shape. It isn't. The show was invented for television, but there's a genuine true-crime story buried in its origin, and a real fishing village behind every sun-drenched shot.
Here's what's real, what's invented, and where the whole thing came from.
Where the idea came from
Creator Robert Thorogood entered his "Copper in the Caribbean" pitch into the Red Planet Prize, a new-writing competition run by producer Tony Jordan's company, and reached the finals in 2008. The pitch itself was sparked by a real case: the suspicious death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer in Jamaica during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, initially treated as murder and — because Woolmer held a British passport — investigated with a former Scotland Yard man at the helm.
"The idea for Death In Paradise came to me pretty much fully formed," Thorogood told Mature Times in 2017, recalling his surprise that a Metropolitan Police detective could end up running a Caribbean murder enquiry.
The Woolmer case was eventually put down to natural causes. The fish-out-of-water detective, though, stuck — and the BBC and France Télévisions greenlit the show in 2010, with the first episode airing on 25 October 2011 to around 6 million viewers.
Is Saint Marie a real island?
No. Saint Marie is entirely fictional — a British Overseas Territory with a French colonial past, described on the show as one-tenth the size of its neighbour Guadeloupe. Fans have noted the backstory reads like a blend of two real islands: Marie-Galante for the size and location, Dominica for the Anglo-French history.
The real places you're actually seeing
- Guadeloupe — the French Caribbean archipelago where every series has been filmed since 2011, mostly on its western Basse-Terre island.
- Deshaies — the fishing village on the north-west coast that plays Honoré, complete with the red-roofed church you see in the aerial shots. The cast and crew decamp there for around six months a year.
- The supporting islands — even the "private islet" episodes use real spots, such as Kahouanne, just off Guadeloupe's coast.
What about the books?
Here's the twist people get backwards: the novels are based on the show, not the other way round. Thorogood began writing tie-in mysteries starring original detective Richard Poole with A Meditation on Murder in 2015. The TV universe has since sprouted two spin-offs of its own — Beyond Paradise in 2023 and Australia's Return to Paradise in 2024.
Fifteen series in and sold to more than 200 territories, the formula hasn't budged. For the record: the first detective, Ben Miller's DI Richard Poole, was written out with an ice pick — on an island that has now hosted well over 100 murders. Property prices remain mysteriously stable.