Return to Paradise is the latest spin-off from the BBC’s longrunning hit comedy drama series Death in Paradise.

The finale of the first season left a cliffhanger over the fate of lead character Detective Sergeant Mackenzie Clarke who returns to her home town on the Australian east coast, where she encounters former friends and the fiancé she previously jilted.

The show is created by James Hall, Peter Mattessi and Robert Thorogood, and was first seen in November 2024. The BBC previously announced a second series would be commissioned, and now The Daily Mail newspaper reports that production has begun on another six episodes in and around Sydney.

As well as Anna Samson who plays Mackenzie Clarke, the cast includes Lloyd Griffith, Tai Hara, Catherine McClements and Celia Ireland.

New cast members include The Artful Dodger‘s Andrea Demetriades and Gold Diggers‘ Aaron McGrath.   

Return to Paradise is the latest success story for the expanding “Paraverse”. Death in Paradise is one of the BBC’s most successful shows, with its popular premise of a ‘fish out of water’ British detective investigating crimes on the Caribbean fictional island of Saint-Marie. It has been credited for recruiting local cast and crew where it is filmed on Guadeloupe.

Death in Paradise has run for 14 series, with five different actors in the lead role. Kris Marshall, who played Detective Humphrey, was given the lead role in the spin-off series Beyond Paradise, in which he and his on-screen partner Martha, played by Sally Breton, moved back to Devon in the UK. This series focuses more on the couple’s personal lives but also has a central crime-solving aspect.