Beyond Paradise confirms character exit – with potentially damaging consequences

Oh, Humphrey. Just when everything was ticking along quite nicely both at work and at home (except for his houseboat drifting out to sea while he was tucked up in bed with Martha, but we'll move swiftly on from that), the detective was hit with some crushing news in the Beyond Paradise season 4 premiere.

Following the exit of Chief Superintendent Charlie Woods (now based in Dartmouth), who had been the Shipton Abbott police team's sole ally at the top, they are once again vulnerable, as Humphrey swiftly learns.

After being summoned to The Hub by his new boss Mr Smith, he's informed that funding cuts are back on the table, meaning he has lay off one of Esther, Kelby or Margo.

"He's put in such a difficult situation because Humphrey has so much heart, and he's so passionate about his job and about his team," Zahra Ahmadi told Radio Times.

"It's so tricky for me to say this, because I have to be respectful towards Death in Paradise, but I think he's really found his pocket in Shipton Abbott.

"Perhaps that's also to do with the place he's at with Martha and his relationship, but he just sits really well in the pocket of his life where he's at in this present moment. And to have that compromised in the way that it is is really, really tough for him."

But putting aside the emotional dimension of this particular predicament, Ahmadi also raised the point that Esther, Kelby and Margo all have a role to play in keeping Shipton Abbott safe.

"I think everyone's so important, and everyone plays their part. And if you remove just one person, you really feel it," she said. "That's often how I talk about a cast and a crew."

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The conversation turned to the role of community policing, which is "done with heart" in a way larger operations simply can't, Ahmadi added.

"To be fair to police forces like the Met, it's massive, it's huge," she said. "How do you tackle those sorts of things on an intimate level, like you can with a small police team that are working very closely with the community and know a lot of the people that are either victims of crime or a perpetrator of crime – and that's why they're able to do such a good job."

Their relationships also extend beyond the professional, explained Ahmadi, which is what makes Mr Smith's directive doubly painful – and is another blow to their work.

"They are genuinely like a family unit. They get along as friends, sure, but I do think it is more familiar than anything else," she expanded. "They've all got their roles within the family, and that's why they're able to be so effective.

“And Humphrey knows, as well as it being a tug at his heart strings to have to get rid of someone that he really cares about and values professionally, he also knows how that will impact the policing they're able to do, which is also what he really cares about."

So, if it was Esther making the call, what does Ahmadi think she would she do?

"Oh my God. You know what, if Esther was given that decision to make, I think first and foremost, she'd really fight it, because she'd be very, very against it," he said. "She's been at Shipton Abbott since she was in Kelby's position, she lives and breathes it.

"And she has fully embraced Humphrey and welcomed him into the mix. She doesn't see him as a kind of random outsider. Now he is at the centre of the team. So she'd fight it, fight it, fight it."

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"But at the same time, Esther is capable of making difficult decisions," she added, before backtracking on that slightly.

"Actually, I don't know who she would–I mean, I wish someone asked me this question when we were filming, because then I would have had a bit more empathy for Humphrey at the time, because it is a really, really tough one."

When I float that, in the current technological climate, Margo could be replaced by an AI receptionist, Ahmadi concedes it's possible.

"And you know as well, let's be slightly political for a moment, we all hear what people say. As a woman, as you get older in society, you become slightly more invisible, people care about you less, people appear to value you less," she said.

"And obviously I don't agree or believe in that at all, but it could be a reflection of that. But that wouldn't come from Humphrey or Esther."

Perhaps, suggests Ahmadi, her character would sacrifice herself.

"I'm not trying to make Esther out to be some kind of saint, but I do wonder if she might fall on her sword, because I just don't know if she could bring herself to do it," she explained.

"The team needs Humphrey, without a shadow of a doubt. And Kelby and Margo mean so much to her, she sees the work they do. And I think she probably would feel that they've got their lead officer, and he would have a sidekick in Kelby and Margo there, so that probably they could manage to without her."

Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Beyond Paradise season 4 airs on BBC One and iPlayer on Fridays at 8pm.

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