This Is The Real Cornish Town In Beyond Paradise

The UK is all wrapped up in a love affair with cosy crime. Think The Thursday Murder Club, Vera, The Moonflower Murders and more. So fans of the genre will be pleased to see Beyond Paradise making a return to screens this evening (28 March), transporting us back to the pretty Devon coast to catch up with DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) and his fiancee Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton). Humphrey will face a series of baffling cases across the series, from a body discovered in a river to a long-standing farming feud to a spiking incident at sea. All of this is backdropped by the pretty village of Shipton Abbott – Martha’s hometown, and the perfect, quaint place to settle down after the duo’s Caribbean adventures in Death in Paradise. But where is Beyond Paradise filmed? Here’s how to visit Shipton Abbott.

Humphrey Goodman (KRIS MARSHALL) & DS Esther Williams (ZAHRA AHMADI) in Beyond Paradise. (BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Laurie Sparham)

Where Is Beyond Paradise Filmed?

Beyond Paradise is filmed in Devon and Cornwall in the south west of the UK. The main filming location is Looe, a small town in Cornwall that stands in for Shipton Abbott, complete with a picturesque fishing harbour, beaches and buoys bobbing in the crystalline waters.

Beyond Paradise series 3 was filmed in summer 2024. At the time, executive producer Tim Key said: ‘We are delighted to be back in the beautiful South West, filming what promises to be our strongest series yet, packed full of mysteries, surprises, challenges and lots of heart. We love making the show and the audience response to it is fantastic, and it’s especially exciting to welcome back Jamie Bamber to Shipton Abbott – we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been up to.’

Of course, the Beyond Paradise setting is Devon: DI Humphrey Goodman works for Shipton Abbott’s small police station, part of Devon’s larger police force. While the characters come into contact with the neighbouring county of Cornwall and plenty of Beyond Paradise is filmed across the county border, the Devon setting was very intentional. ‘Being a Death in Paradise show, we knew it had to be set somewhere beautiful and, in the UK, we are spoilt for choice,’ Tim said when the series was first released. ‘There were lots of conversations about where we take it, but we settled quite quickly on the West Country as we felt that Devon hadn’t had a huge amount of exposure in TV drama; Cornwall often nabs the glory.

‘We travelled around lots of different places and were on the hunt to find somewhere that felt like a real town over a seaside resort,’ Tim continued. ‘When we went to Looe, which is actually in Cornwall, it was a beautiful tourist town, but also a thriving community with fishing businesses, so we felt we had found our home.’

DS Esther Williams (ZAHRA AHMADI) & PC Kelby Hartford (DYLAN LLEWELLYN) in Beyond Paradise. (BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Joss Barratt)

Is Shipton Abbott A Real Town?

No, Shipton Abbott isn’t a real Devon town, so fans looking to visit will be disappointed when they type it into Google maps. The town we see on screen is Looe, a coastal town in south east Cornwall, around 20 miles west of Plymouth. A historic fishing village, Looe is home to around 5,300 people, and is cut in half by the River Looe.

Speaking on the first series, Tim said: ‘We last saw Humphrey and Martha together in 2017 when they left Saint Marie, returning to London. We find them now a few years on, having gotten a little tired of life in the city, where things haven’t worked out quite as they hoped, and they miss the peace and beauty of Saint Marie. On top of that, Martha’s father died recently, so she wanted to support her mother Anne by moving back to her hometown of Shipton Abbott in Devon.

‘The town is beautiful, situated near the coast, full of character,’ Tim says. ‘They are living with Martha’s mother, which is testing at times due to her house being quite small, and Humphrey being tall and clumsy!’

‘The fictional town is set slightly back from the coast, so we have all sorts of story worlds to dive into,’ Tim adds, ‘including the folklore of the town, which is touched upon in episode one. The series looks beautiful, and we were lucky with the weather as well!’

As well as the hometown of Martha, Dylan Llewellyn’s character PC Kelby Hartford is a local lad who grew up in the town. Shipton Abbott is ‘a close-knit community where everybody knows everyone,’ the star says. ‘Which means a lot of criminals they catch, he knows!’

Where Is Ten Mile Kitchen?

Martha’s coastal cafe, Ten Mile Kitchen, sadly isn’t real. It is filmed at Stables Cafe, a small joint in Port Eliot House and Gardens. While you won’t find Martha or her distinct locally-sourced menu there, you will find plenty of treats from small Cornish producers.

Find It: St Germans, Saltash PL12 5ND, porteliot.co.uk

Humphrey Goodman (KRIS MARSHALL) & Arthur Donalan (HUGH DENNIS) in Beyond Paradise. (BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Joss Barratt)

The Cast Of Beyond Paradise Series 3

There’s a mixture of returning regulars, familiar faces from Death in Paradise, and new stars for Beyond Paradise series 3, including guest stars Hugh Dennis and Caroline Quentin. With so many crimes to untangle, there’s a huge cast list on the books. Here’s who we know will feature.

• Kris Marshall as DI Humphrey Goodman
• Sally Bretton as Martha Lloyd
• Zahra Ahmadi as DS Esther Williams
• Dylan Llewellyn as PC Kelby Hartford
• Barbara Flynn as Anne Lloyd
• Felicity Montagu as Margo Martins
• Jamie Bamber as Archie Hughes
• Jade Harrison as CS Charlie Woods
• Melina Sinadinou as Zoe Williams
• Hugh Dennis as local councillor Arthur Donelan
• Bella Rei Blue Stevenson as Rosie, Humphrey and Martha’s newest foster placement
• Steve Oram
• Gabby Best
• Chizzy Akudolu as Reverend Kate
• Kevin McNally as George Ellis
• Caroline Quentin as Lotty Lewes
• Chris Jenks as Josh Woods
• Eva Feiler as Nurse Lucy
• Amalia Vitale as Hannah
• Angela Curran
• Abra Thompson
• Joseph Ollman
• Alexandra Gilbreath
• Alicia Charles
• Matthew Gravelle
• Brandon Fellows
• Abdul Salis
• Jason Hughes
• Silas Carson
• Syreeta Kumar
• Amy Morgan
• Oliver Hembrough
• Murray McArthur
• Dean Boodaghians-Nolan
• Selwyn the Duck

WATCH

Beyond Paradise series 3 kicks off at 8pm on Friday 28 March on BBC One. Catch up on BBC iPlayer.

Watch the trailer below.