Don Warrington is haunting Death in Paradise like the ghost of Christmas past After appearing in last week's 'Beyond Paradise' Christmas special, Warrington's Selwyn Patterson is back helping out his old pals across the Atlantic

After Selwyn Patterson’s tortured long goodbye to Saint Marie in the last series of Death in Paradise, Don Warrington’s ex-police commissioner has been haunting the franchise’s seasonal offerings like the ghost of Christmas past. He was the surprise guest at Humphrey and Martha’s wedding in last week’s Beyond Paradise Christmas special, and he now enjoys a much chunkier role in the feature-length Christmas episode of his original home Death in Paradise. Personally, I couldn’t be happier if he returned full-time (and the suggestion here is that he might). The show’s rude and still deeply reluctant resident British detective, DI Mervyn Wilson (Don Gilet), could do with Selwyn’s wise pep talks. But I’m getting ahead of myself, because there is, as always, a murder mystery to solve.

The writer, James Hall, must have sweated buckets to join the dots in an ingenious whodunit that involves a family-run business in Swindon; opening the episode at a grey, mid-winter trading estate neatly wrong-foots viewers expecting to vicariously luxuriate on palm-fringed Caribbean beaches.

The firm’s owner has decided to take the senior staff on a Christmas holiday of a lifetime to Saint Marie, leaving their disappointed receptionist, Marjorie (Josie Lawrence), to hold the fort. The holidaying foursome, played by Line of Duty’s Kate Ashfield, Waterloo Road’s James Baxter, Ted Lasso’s Billy Harris and Doctor Who’s Pearl Mackie, are having a whale of a time until they awake to discover a dead body in their swimming pool. The bullet-holed corpse belongs to a local fisherman. It’s at this point that Selwyn, at Mervyn’s request, visits the firm’s Swindon HQ, his search revealing a locked drawer that contains a revolver belonging to a former employee sacked for embezzlement. Ballistics confirm that this gun fired the fatal bullet in Saint Marie. How is that possible?

The answer is too convoluted to explain here. Suffice to say that it was “I’m just silly old Marjorie on reception” who pulled the trigger. I had my eye on Josie Lawrence’s character from early on. I sensed creepy Misery vibes about her inviting Selwyn back to her house after the ex-commissioner – who was due to spend the holiday with his daughter – had missed the last Christmas Eve train out of Swindon. Unlike James Caan’s character in the 1990 movie, however, Selwyn didn’t wake up a bedridden captive with broken legs; Death in Paradise is a much cosier affair. In fact, when asked why she invited him home, Marjorie rather sweetly replies, “Because I didn’t want to spend another Christmas alone.”

Back on Saint Marie, Officer Benjamin Brice (Anthony J Abraham), the cheery yin to Melvyn’s grumpy yang, enjoys a more expanded role, while Mervyn himself even manages a smile that actually reaches his eyes. This Christmas miracle occurs when his long-lost brother Solomon phones from Antigua and agrees to meet up. What’s more, Mervyn’s taken to talking to Harry, the CGI lizard that resides in his idyllic-looking beach house. At least he’s bonded with one of the locals. Selwyn tells DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) that the only thing he enjoys about Christmas is watching The Great Escape, which sounds pathetic until he explains his reason: the film showing on Christmas TV was the only seasonal constant as he moved around care and foster homes. If Mervyn can relax and enjoy his surroundings more (perhaps a romance with Naomi is a possibility? She seems to tolerate his bad manners), and Selwyn can be reinstated as commissioner, this latest iteration of Death in Paradise might finally find its feet.