Whisper it, but a Death in Paradise, Beyond Paradise and Return to Paradise crossover is one star’s big plan

Return to Paradise season 2 has only just dropped its first episode on BBC iPlayer in the UK (Aussies will have to wait until November 15 to watch it on ABC iview, while those in the US don't yet have a confirmed BritBox release date), but I'm already predicting that the hit detective show has a much bigger future.

While Mack (Anna Samson) is once again stuck in her hometown of Dolphin's Cove solving brand-new cases with brand-new guest stars, she's really the baby of the pack. Return to Paradise is the second spinoff show of the beloved Death in Paradise – which has 14 seasons under its belt – following the UK sequel Beyond Paradise.

In essence, this means the BBC has ended up with something of a 'Paradise-verse,' with multiple detectives situated across the globe solving grisly yet delightfully entertaining murders. But could the leading trio ever crossover?

Given how popular each show is in its own right, to me, it's an obvious choice to unite them for a single episode. When I ran the idea past Samson, not only was she up for it, but she revealed she's already pitched the writers' room some ideas.

Return to Paradise star Anna Samson thinks "all detective shows" could combine into one

Return to Paradise Series 2 | Official Trailer - BBC - YouTube

Watch On

"I think there should be total cross-pollination. Not just with the Paradise-verse, but all detective shows," she tells me. "I just think you want to grab detectives from other shows and put them in a completely mad bonkers character guest role, just for the satisfaction of the audience who obviously like their genre.

"We always have ideas on set the whole cast. We're always going, 'what about one in an amateur dramatic society?' We're always thinking of them and we're always pitching them to the poor writers who just have to kind of go, 'oh, yes, very clever, very good,' and just ignore us, basically.

"Because it's a very exciting thing to think. I could not come up with the puzzles. They are so complicated. The writers are geniuses. I could never come up with the puzzles, but the different worlds, you can certainly go, wouldn't it be funny to put a murder mystery there?"

We're already seeing this taking effect in Return to Paradise season 2, with Mack's immediate drama branching out to some unexpected places in upcoming episodes.

"We have an episode in season 2 that's about a dating app and the terror and trauma of modern dating online," Samson said. "With those kind of things, there's always great potential and fertile ground for comedy and drama in a very specific context, like rock and roll or dating apps, or the first episode is very much kind of marine biology, science, cold intellect."

Whether any of Samson's crossover ideas will actually come off remains to be seen, but I'm feeling positive (it's a huge budget saving for the BBC, for one). Get Samson, Kris Marshall and Don Gilet in one room and we've got guaranteed magic.

The best TVs for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best TVs
1. Best overall:
LG C5
2. Best under 1000:
US: Hisense U8QG
UK: TCL C7K
3. Best under 500:
US: Roku Plus Series
UK: Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.