Kris Marshall and Sally Bretton star in Beyond Paradise, Christmas 2023. Photo: BBC

In keeping with the brilliant UK practice of making both Christmas and Boxing Day a day to stay home and watch great telly, Beyond Paradise will premiere its first ever Christmas special slated for broadcast this holdiay season on BBC1.

As with its predecessor, Death in Paradise, guest stars have traditionally queued up to be either the prime suspect or victim over the past 12 series. This year will be extra special as both Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise will have Christmas specials for your viewing pleasure. Kris Marshall will return as DI Humphrey Goodman for the Beyond Paradise special, welcoming former Vicar of Dibley star, James Fleet (Hugo Horton), to Devon.

Photo courtesy: BBC/Red Planet Pictures

In addition to Fleet, other guest stars that have signed up are BenidSorm icon Sheila Reid, Sanditon star Isaac Vincent-Norgate, Endeavour‘s Amalia Vitale and Kulvinder Ghir of Still Open All Hours and Foundation.

DI Goodman’s policing partner DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) will return for the special, alongside fellow cast members Dylan Llewellyn (PC Kelby Hartford), Barbara Flynn (Anne Lloyd) and Felicity Montagu (Margo Martins). Further cast confirmed include Chris Jenks, who returns to play Josh Woods, with Jade Harrison as CS Charlie Woods and Eva Feiler as Lucy.

Beyond Paradise will return in early 2024 for series 2 as will series 13 of Death in Paradise. A third spin-off titled Return to Paradise, set in Australia, was also announced in November for later in 2024.