Beyond Paradise's Kris Marshall on "existential threat" facing police station
It's a "bone of contention".
The fate of Shipton Abbott's police station has been uncertain for some time now in Beyond Paradise, and heading into season 2 it still remains at risk of closure in favour of the team moving to a more centralised base.
"The police station is facing an existential threat, as is common with many, many areas of life and business these days," explained Kris Marshall.
"Everything is on a one-way track to being homogenised and centralised, and so that obviously removes the soul of community policing, which is something that's close to Humphrey’s heart.
"And because of that, the station house, their mini, quirky station house, is directly under threat from being assimilated into the hub."
He added: "How that resolves itself, we'll just have to find out, but it's an ongoing thing."
That also creates tension between Humphrey and CS Charlie Woods (Jade Harrison).
"It's a bone of contention between Humphrey and his superior, who he finds awfully charming but bemusing in equal measure," he said.
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"Humphrey is, as we saw in Death in Paradise, not amazingly good with his immediate superiors. He's not brilliant with that hierarchy, he doesn't function well with that hierarchy, he finds it quite amusing and hard work.
"But obviously, he has to retain that professionalism of subordination."
And Humphrey's personal life isn't without unpredictability, either, as he explores the possibility of fostering with his fiancée Martha (Sally Bretton).
"They've been through the mill with IVF," he said. "And when they've come to the end of that and had the realisation that maybe it wasn't going to happen for them in the way they'd hoped, rather than pull up the drawbridge, they're like, 'Well, how else can we help?'
"There are kids out there who maybe are in transitional periods in their lives with their families and need support and help and a little bit of humour and cuddles and love.
"And Humphrey and Martha have those in abundance, so it's a quite a natural progression when they get their heads around it."
Beyond Paradise season 2 arrives on Friday 22nd March at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on.
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Authors
Abby Robinson is the Drama Editor for Radio Times, covering TV drama and comedy titles. She previously worked at Digital Spy as a TV writer, and as a content writer at Mumsnet. She possesses a postgraduate diploma and a degree in English Studies.
