‘You can be bossy and nice’: The ABC’s hit cosy crime show has found a surprising new audience

Stepping into the lead role on Return to Paradise, the Australian offshoot of the globally successful British whodunnit series Death in Paradise, was a gamble for actor Anna Samson.

The UK crime series is one of the most-watched shows – on the BBC and ABC – and its 14 seasons since 2011 have featured a line-up of male detectives, played by Kris Marshall, Ben Miller, Ardal O’Hanlon, Ralf Little and Don Gilet.

Taking on DI Mackenzie “Mack” Clarke, originally forced to return from London to her Australian hometown of Dolphin Cove, was rich with opportunity but vulnerable to comparison with its British counterpart. But high ratings, here and in the UK, as well as a Logie for best drama, have proven the Down Under spin-off worthy. And the gender of its lead? Irrelevant.

“The DNA of Death in Paradise hasn’t changed all that much because I’m a woman,” Samson says. “What has changed is some of the stories you can explore. You get different opportunities when you have a female in the lead. You can explore a dynamic between my boss [Senior Sergeant Philomena Strong], played by Catherine McClements, and myself as two powerful women on screen and two unique women on screen.

“And the Paraverse, our show and the UK series, is an inclusive franchise that’s about community. I don’t think you could keep going without having a woman at some point because of it being about that.”

Fans will remember the cliffhanger ending of series one. Mack has been cleared of any wrongdoing at London’s Metropolitan Police and is free to escape Dolphin Cove for the UK.

But she’s overheard her former fiance, forensic pathologist Glenn Strong (Tai Hara), who Mack jilted at the altar six years previously, telling his dog Frankie he still loves Mack. Strong is readying to marry Daisy, a bartender at the local club, but is clearly carrying a flame for Mack.

What will she do? Season two sees her “stuck again” in Dolphin Cove. Her London boss – Detective Inspector Jack Mooney, played by O’Hanlon – says she has unfinished business in Australia. Is it the will-they-won’t-they connection with Glenn? The unnatural level of mysterious murders in an Australian beachside paradise? Or simply the complex ambitions and self-awareness of the ever-wary and waistcoated DI Mack?

Samson says returning to her character was a no-brainer.

“I love playing Mackenzie because she’s not necessarily likeable all the time,” she says. “She’s not always worried about pleasing people and she doesn’t smile constantly to make herself palatable. Yet, she’s still our hero.

“It’s a mighty thing to put that waistcoat on every day and be a female character at the centre of this story who is not always likeable but is loved by characters within the story and the show’s audience.”

She’s also become a hero to a whole new demographic for the Paraverse – young girls through to teenagers.

“I’m so proud of that,” Samson says. “We all feel like we’re the outsider, no matter what, and that’s particularly potent when you’re a young girl wanting to find your place. They see Mackenzie who is the hero of the story and a bit of an outsider, and they relate to that.

“When we were filming I had a little girl on set, she was a background artist in one of the episodes, and she came up and said, ‘You can be bossy and nice’. And I said, ‘Yes, you can’.”

Actor and comedian Lloyd Griffith, who plays Mack’s colleague and British expat Detective Senior Constable Colin Cartwright, says returning to more sun-soaked location filming at Avalon and the “unbelievable” Illawarra coast was life-changing. But it was the depth of creator, co-writer and executive producer Peter Mattessi’s scripts and characters that propelled him from his hometown of Grimsby to Australia.

“In season two, we see Mackenzie become a better human and Colin become a better cop, basically through osmosis from working with each other,” he says. “Peter allowed me to contribute a little about Colin’s history and we discover his backstory, why he’s in Australia, what he left behind in England.

“It’s funny, I love living in London but there are so many elements of Australian life that I truly wish we had over here. That sense of community and just pure communication. We don’t really communicate that much in London. That’s greatly embodied in Mackenzie’s character. She’s very much head down, concentrate on the case, no time for friends, got to get this murder solved. It’s like being on the Tube in London. Whereas Colin is up-and-at-em, on the beach, saying hello to everybody.

“In this show, I play a little tubby bloke from Lincolnshire who’s obsessed with Australia. The acting muscles were activated but, let’s just say, there wasn’t much weight on the machines.”

Hara, who plays Mack’s love interest Glenn, says the secret to Return to Paradise’s success is Mattessi blending intricate whodunnits, idiosyncratic characters and a broad appeal approach.

“It’s a show you can watch with your entire family,” he says. “It’s quirky, it invites people to play along and although there are murders, it’s not too on-the-nose.”

Samson agrees.

“Even though it’s a show about murder, it’s kind and it’s about the nicest human things,” she says. “In season two, there’s plenty of knotty mysteries to solve but also questions for Mackenzie about the concept of home. Is it a job, people and community? Or is it a sense of self that you carry with you wherever you are?

“Mack and Glenn are working out what will happen, but also Colin is becoming someone she cares about and who cares for her, too.”

It’s also a show she has learnt to act in without being knocked sideways by the amount of Paraverse viewers.

“You have to forget how many people watch it,” she says. “I can’t think of that between action and cut because it’s not on Mackenzie’s mind, so it can’t be on mine.”

Return to Paradise (season two) premieres at 7.30pm on Saturday, November 15, on the ABC, and streams on ABC iview.

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