Where was Beyond Paradise filmed? Death in Paradise spinoff filming locations - is Shipton Abbott real?

During Death in Paradise’s sixth series, DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) left the Caribbean island of St. Marie behind him, starting a new life with fiancée Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton) back in London.

Beyond Paradise picks up six years later, with Martha and Humphrey moving to Shipton Abbott – a small town in Devonshire where Martha grew up, and where the pair are now hoping to start a new life. While Martha is finally realising a long-held dream of starting a restaurant, Humphrey joins the local police force, solving all manner of complex crimes and investigating mysterious misdemeanours.

Shipton Abbott, much like St. Marie, isn’t actually a real town – it was invented as a setting for the series. Here’s everything you need to know about the actual filming locations used for Beyond Paradise.

Is Shipton Abbott in Cornwall or in Devon?

In the world of Beyond Paradise, Shipton Abbott is in Devon – but most of the filming took place in Cornwall. Looe, a town on the coast, was a key location for the series, with one memorable set piece in the first episode taking place in, around, and over a river that runs through the heart of Looe.

“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,” said producer Tim Key. “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. The fictional town is set slightly back from the coast, so we have all sorts of story worlds to dive into. The series looks beautiful, and we were lucky with the weather as well!”

Filming for Beyond Paradise also took place in Tamar Valley, where the cast and crew were spotted by fans during production, as well as Bere Ferrers and Weir Quay.

Why Devon?

“We looked everywhere,” explained writer Tony Jordan. “I’m a Northerner, so I was looking at Blackpool at one point. We looked at Scotland, we were in the New Forest for a while, the Jurassic Coast. But something about the quirkiness of the show, you start heading towards Cornwall and now we’re on that kind of Devon Cornwall border.”

“I’ve always loved the West Country for its savageness, its savage beauty, its wildness and its quirkiness,” said Kris Marshall, who was born in Glastonbury and used to live not far from Looe. “When I first saw the first episode, I put in an email to Tim, I said, it’s very South Westerly. The show is very South Westerly, and I think there has to be – I think it’s got that theme running through it, that sort of bucolic quirkiness that the South West peninsula has.”

“It gives you the gives you the ability not only to have the beauty that you associate with Death in Paradise in Guadeloupe, but also the sense that there are characters to be had here,” concludes Jordan.

Crop Circle

One of the first bits of location filming for Beyond Paradise took place on a farm outside Cornwall. The fourth episode features a dead body found in a crop circle, which presented some complications – because the production needed to be filming in the house from the first episode at the same time.

“The very first day of filming, our director Sandy – who set the show up beautifully – was out in the crop circle,” explained Key, “because the farmer needed to cut the crop, and he’d already waited as long as he possibly could for us to film. So, we started with episode four – but we also had to film that house from episode one by the end of the first week, because [the owners] needed it for other reasons. We were jumping all over the place!”

Beyond Paradise stars on BBC One at 8pm on Friday 24 February. You can read more of our Beyond Paradise coverage here.