by Anthony Frajman
The star of the beloved British series Beyond Paradise was recently in Australia to discuss the challenges of making the upcoming third season.
Crime series Death in Paradise is one of the UK’s most popular shows, with fans around the world.
A major favourite of the show was the eccentric Detective Humphrey Goodman, played by Kris Marshall.
After starring as Goodman in the original show from 2014-2017, in 2023, Marshall’s character was given his own spin-off series, Beyond Paradise.
Set once again in the fictional town of Shipton Abbott, season three sees Goodman take on an array of strange new crimes, while separately navigating his challenging personal life.
With season 3 dropping on BritBox Australia, and a new season to shoot shortly, Marshall spoke to FilmInk about his love of the character and what keeps him coming back.
In Beyond Paradise, you get to explore the personal life of your character a little bit more than in Death in Paradise. What’s that been like?
“I love the whole puzzles and jigsaws, the solving of the crime. And that’s something I’ve always loved. But, with Beyond Paradise, we explore a bit more of an emotional side of his life as well and his personal circumstances. It’s always nice for me to be able to have the opportunity to probe him a bit more. And it fleshes out the character. It makes him more of a rounded person and gives him a human side. He’s flawed and he’s human and he makes mistakes. It’s an opportunity to get your teeth into a bit more.”
You’ve been playing Goodman for many years now. A lot of roles, you do it once and that’s it. But this is almost the complete opposite of that. How enjoyable is it to flesh out the character?
“As an actor, filming’s very much a one and done thing. If it’s a movie, it may only be six to eight weeks filming, you have to get in there and get it shot and move on to the next thing. Whereas on stage, you can hone it over many, many nights and change your performance and improve it. You don’t normally get the opportunity to do that in TV and movies. I’ve always really played characters for like two seasons, three seasons, and then moved on to something else.
“So, to be able to have the opportunity to not only play this character for the best part of 12 years now, really, with a break in the middle. I get older, he gets older, and you get to grow with the character, and it gives me the opportunity to evolve him and have fun with him. It’s an opportunity for me to just keep coming back to him and seeing what more I can get out of him. And, that’s something you don’t often get unless you play a character for a long term.”
How do you think Humphrey has grown and changed in recent times?
“Well, when he first arrived in Death in Paradise, he was fresh out of a divorce. He was living in a hut on a beach with a lizard. And he was someone who’s looking for a future with somebody. He was very open about that. Now in Beyond Paradise, he obviously has Martha, and they are a couple, and that brings its own challenges. He gets older and so I have to change the character to match the age. It is all very well falling out of a window when you’re in your early to mid-thirties, but when you are in your fifties, it could probably grate a little bit, and you can’t just keep doing the same thing.
“The writers will come up with something and I’ll be like, ‘ah, guys, I’m not so sure that would work quite so well now, so how about if we did it like this?’ It’s really a collaborative process.”
What do you enjoy the most about playing Humphrey and his quirks?
“What I particularly love about playing Humphrey is that he’s a kind person. There’s no particular darkness to him. But I also love that other people think of him as a bit of an idiot when they meet him. And I love the fact that he can both disarm other people whilst arming himself. I’ve always wondered … he has these incredible crime solving abilities, but how much is his behaviour an affectation?
“He’s an extremely smart guy, but also, you don’t want him to be so out there that it’s not believable that he comes up with these incredible crime solving abilities. But also, you don’t want him to be so cynical that he’s putting on an act. So, in reality, it’s probably somewhere in between the two. He has a decent moral compass and he’s a pretty fun guy to hang out with. But also, he has this weirdness, and I’ve always been attracted to characters who have that kind of strangeness about them.
“Certain roles, you are bound by the parameters of those characters. Whereas, if you already are playing a character who is slightly an outlier, an outcast of some sort, then you’ve got so much further to go, you’ve got a real way to play with him.”
Can you talk a little bit about what’s in store for Humphrey in season three?
“Him and Martha, his partner, are on this fostering journey. In season one, they tried to go down the IVF route. It’s a storyline that resonates with a lot of people. I know a lot of people personally who’ve had an IVF journey. You want to get it right. It’s a big thing for a lot of people. It’s not only a big thing emotionally and physically, but financially as well. We’ve always strived to talk to the right people and do our proper research to get those things correct. Now, obviously, since in season one the IVF journey didn’t work out, and they decided that they were gonna not be able to have a family then, season two started going on this fostering journey, and in season three, they get a fostering placement.
“Again, it’s something we’ve researched, and we work really closely with a company called the Fostering Network back in the UK.
“They get a placement that might seem to be a bit more permanent. And of course, that brings its own challenges because fostering by its own definition is a temporary thing. And, the question is, as a human, we make connections with people, especially young, vulnerable, great kids, and people we feel we have responsibility for. So, you can’t help but get emotionally attached and, start to perceive that this might be a more permanent solution, to this temporary thing. But of course, it’s always temporary, and it’s easy to forget that. And when they start going to school, they stay with you, as a character in season three, Rosie does. So, that’s part of Humphrey and Martha’s journey, and he’s got all these great crimes to solve and there’s loads of fun, it’s a really light-hearted show as well.”
Do you have a favourite moment either in season three or so far in the series?
“I’ve got loads. One of my favourite moments is in season three, and I don’t want to give too much of a spoiler away… But, I love the physical comedy that he does, and to me, the bigger the stunt, the better. I’m not sure the producers like me doing big stunts, but he has a chance to go skydiving in season three. I was like, ‘look, get me in that plane. I’m going up skydiving’. And they were like, ‘you’re not going skydiving, we can’t get insurance for you’. So, they wouldn’t let me do the skydiving, but I got to do the next best thing, which is, let’s just say it involves a pretty high bridge… There’s a famous bridge that runs between the two counties of Devon and Cornwall in the UK. I grew up with influences like Michael Crawford, Jacques Tati and Harold Lloyd. That was the kind of influences I grew up with, who were all great physical comedians. It wasn’t just pratfalls, there was honesty to it and almost like a sadness. So, anything that involves that, that’s my jam. I love it.”
You’ve been with this character for so long, is there something that you’d like to happen or is there a direction you’d like him to go that he hasn’t yet?
“What I love is his ability to upset people who are pompous and in positions of authority and people who love their position of authority. He makes a v-line for them, because he undercuts them and he is not scared of them; he’s not scared of authority, even his own boss, he’s just not scared of people like that. He does it in a really disarming way.
“He doesn’t have that fear of losing his job because he knows that he’s good at his job. So, I think for me personally, anything where he could challenge authority. I always think that there’s a great story involving a really high up politician that he would be involved with, because he is not scared of getting into trouble. Maybe that’s because he’s slightly neurodiverse. I would like to see him really bring down someone high up, because he plays with them, and he loves the fact that because they just think he’s an idiot. I think that’s when he is at his strongest. Something like that would be great for me, anyone in real power and authority, especially when you get a really good actor playing that person.
“I have no idea what’s coming up in season four. We are doing a season four, season three literally just finished in the UK, so we’re all good to go for season four. But I have no idea what’s going on. As soon as I go back to the UK, I’ll start banging on some doors and get them to send me some scripts!”
Beyond Paradise is now streaming on BritBox Australia
Main Photo by Chris Pavlich
