BBC First

Unlike a lot of people lately, I watch still very much linear tv instead of streaming series on platforms.  AT home the tv is most of the time on and it's often on BBC First that is on.  It is a BBC channel for the Benelux market that reruns BBC drama's and detectives.  And we love them. 


Death in Paradise

Death in Paradise is the most favourite series in our family.  This 13 year old tv series is featured on the imaginary Antillean island Sainte Marie. It's British overseas territory with French history so the population is a mixture of Antillean French and British .  A British detective is sent to the island and runs the small police station of Honoré. 

Each episode is central to one murder that needs to be solved.  You see the elements leading to a murder, the discovery of the body, and then the DI and his team coming in to action.  Each time a small group of people are suspects but seem all covered by alibis , lack of motive etc.  They all need to get interviewed multiple times.  An impossible murder to solve...until the detective realizes that not everything is what it seems (eg was the murder really at that time: was the shotgun everyone hurt really the murder shot or not and if not, do all the alibis still stand, etc... or was the body cooled with some ice and hence death longer than imagined. Or was the murder a suicide made to look like a murder to incriminate someone etc etc).   

After his moment of realization all suspects are gathered together and the how , what etc is revealed with some flashbacks, in the style of an Agatha Christie. Only then as a viewer, you really understand how this impossible murder was in fact possible. 

It ends with a drink in Catherine's bar near the beach.   

The characters of the police force are fun while the detective is usually a bit more serious as well as the commisioner.  There's some small parts of their private lives but there is not focus on that. In total there's been 4 dectectives so far in the 13 years and season 13 just ended with a new detective leaving...so it's always a bit thrilling to know who will take the role of lead detective in the next season and if we'll like him. 

Beyond Paradise

Beyond Paradise was a new series launched in 2023 and the second season just started last week on BBC again. It is a spin-off from Death in Paradise.  The 2nd detective finds his love in Death in Paradise and follows her back to the UK (which triggers a detective switch in the series).  In Beyond Paradise he now works in an UK police force in a small coastal town.  His love from back then is now his fiancé and he's just as clumsy and distracted still as in the tropical series.  His pet duck is named after the commissioner in the tropical series and now and then there's more little cool references to Death in Paradise. 

Unlike death in Paradise, the episodes don't only deal with murder but also with burglary, lost children and any other theme that might cross in a police station. It also deals more with police politics from a local station  (full of fun characters though) and the pressure from a bigger regional station. And additionally, it focuses a lot more on the continuous story line of Humphrey's relational issues.  For that, it's quite a different series in atmosphere and approach (and less popular to Kabouter). 

At the end there is still a moment of realization by the detective but now he does not gather the suspects for a revelation moment but he explains what the case is about to his colleagues in a weird sort of flashback where he and his colleagues are spectators in the narrative.  It's a bit weird to get used to. 

Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders is a classic on TV1 of Belgian tv already for many many Friday evenings.  It plays on the UK countryside in little towns amid rolling fields and woods, with a small local pub with very low ceilings so it seems, tea houses, book stores and villages where there are literature festivals, or pagan festivities or where there is a gathering. 

The detectives investigate a case with a lot of driving around from witness to suspect etc...without ever being in the police station.  Typical in these series is that a murder is never alone.  While investigating, the murders continue but apparently that's no issue ever for the careers of these police men.  It's never seen as a failure because in the end after a murder of 3-4, the killer is found.  But as said, not before, often at night, some cruel murders are happening more and it's often for a long lost secret that needs to stay secret or ... Usually somebody's desilusional idea that takes them apart from reality, any morality or empathy. 

There's another couple of series that are often on but that I don't watch with much attention. 

Father Brown

A bit like Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher is always around when a murder happens, here a priest father Brown is always around and snooping around and talking to people...and in the end solving a murder. 

This is in the 50ies on the UK countryside

Rosemary & Thyme

Now murders take place on big country domains with glorious gardens where just by coincidence an ex-police officer and her friend are now gardeners... They find lots of clues in the garden, talk to the people. 

Mss Scarlet & The Duke

I've just seen the first episode, but this caught my attention as it had a female detective in the Victorian period. She inherits her father's private detective agency and struggles to position herself in the market.  I loved the combination of a crimi and a costume drama. 

Mss Fisher Murder mysteries

I didn't watch this yet but this seems set in the 20ies and it intrigues me just for the costumes. 

Then there's also Sherlock / Call the Midwife / Downtown Abbey/ Agatha Christie etc which I don't really watch. 

Similar series that are not on BBC first but which I watch when they are on on Friday evening on TV1: 

Lewis
Love the grumpy detective set in downtown Oxford. 

Shetlands

This is a series that is much more "Scandinavian " than all the rest. Much more dragging, not showing the best side of the world with detectives that can doubt or be demotivated, less energy with frustrations among people etc.  Love the down to earth. But so real.  And much more complex stories. 
but overall, I love the accent!  You just have to watch to listen to their accent. 

Unfortunately a series is very very short...it's just two - three episodes for one long story.  It leaves me hungry for more.