The Beyond Paradise Christmas special saw us heading back to the fictional Devon town of Shipton Abbott for the festive season, where DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) and DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) found themselves with some inexplicable break-ins to investigate, and Humphrey and his fiancée Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton) forged an unexpected bond with a young tearaway.
Here's what happened in this year's Christmas episode...
The episode opens with the voice of an as-yet-unknown local resident reading the segment of "A Christmas Carol" in which Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley as we see a gloved hand opening doors and windows to break into various Shipton Abbott houses — including the house of lovable reprobate Josh Woods (Chris Jenks).
The next morning, Martha is feeding Selwyn the duck on her and Humphrey's houseboat as Martha tells Humphrey that she needs to make all the food for the Christmas concert tonight. Over breakfast with Martha's mother Anne (Barbara Flynn), Humphrey explains that the police station is the subject of a full-scale cost-efficiency review. Anne thinks this is probably because they want to sell the building and turn it into flats — it's right in the center of town and must be worth a fortune. She suggests organizing a protest, though Humphrey is hopeful he can do a good enough job that she won't need to.
Meanwhile, at Esther's house, her teenage daughter Zoe (Melina Sinadinou) is complaining that her holiday job as an elf in Santa's grotto is "embarrassing" and "childish", pointing out that all her mates will be in town and no boys will want to ask her out after they see her like that. Esther reminds Zoe that she agreed at the family meeting to working over the Christmas holidays in exchange for driving lessons — and Zoe points out that a "family meeting" is just the two of them sitting at the table and Esther telling her what to do.
At the police station, PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn) is helping office support Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu) decorate the office when Esther arrives, and Esther tells them she is hoping for a quiet day as she still has presents to buy. Margo says she'll be spending Christmas day cooking for 43 in the church hall, while Kelby will be spending it with his family. The phone rings, and Esther suspects that she will not be getting that quiet day she was looking forward to.
At Police HQ, Humphrey is waiting for his meeting with Chief Superintendent Charlie Woods (Jade Harrison) in her office, attempting to get a glass of water from her fancy water dispensing machine, but he can't shut it off when his cup is full and ends up splashing water down the front of his trousers. CS Woods arrives and shuts the machine off, and Humphrey says that it's a bit tricky — they just have a tap at the station. Sitting down to begin their meeting, CS Woods explains that there's a wider review about individual station houses where they need to identify the SOPPS ratio — Successful Outcome Per Pound Spent. While she has sympathy with the need for local, community-centred police hubs, she has to prove that Shipton Abbott's station offers value for money, and tells Humphrey he needs to give her a good reason not to close it.
The station has now received four calls about break-ins, so Esther decides to start on her own and have Humphrey catch up with her when she's finished. Kelby brings in a shoplifter apprehended at the bakery — a young boy (Isaac Vincent-Norgate) who gives his name as "Rishi Sunak", his age as 27, and claims he lives in Canada. Margo places a call to social services while Kelby sits with young "Rishi".
Humphrey arrives to join Esther at the first break-in, where she explains that it looks like the same MO at all four locations. The first victim is Hannah Owen (Amalia Vitale), who is clearing up when they arrive and finds a roll of banknotes on her mantelpiece. Esther asks her to make a list of what's been stolen, and Hannah explains that that's the odd thing — nothing has been. Humphrey spots a smile pile of ashes in the fireplace.
As they are leaving, Esther theorises the burglar must have been disturbed, and she and Humphrey head off to the second location, the home of Josh Woods and his fiancée Lucy (Eva Feiler). Once again, Esther asks what was stolen, and Lucy says she doesn't think anything was taken, as far as she can tell. She doesn't think the burglar was disturbed either — she was in bed asleep upstairs and Josh was out cold on the sofa after a big night out. She says that she's checked all the presents and nothing's been taken, and Josh points out she hasn't finished wrapping everything yet, as he can see she bought him an iPad. Lucy scoffs at this suggestion. Humphrey notices another pile of ashes on top of their electric fire, but neither Josh nor Lucy can account for it. After Humphrey and Esther leave, Josh runs after them to stress that he didn't do this, given that he's usually the first person the police suspect whenever things go missing. Esther points out that even Josh isn't stupid enough to break into his own house and not steal anything.
The next home belongs to Kathleen Jones (Sheila Reid), who's disappointed that it isn't Kelby attending the callout as she has taken rather a shine to him. Like the other two break-ins, she confirms nothing was taken — even though the place is rather untidy, she knows where everything is. Humphrey spots a gold bracelet on the floor and asks if it's Kathleen's — she says no, she's never seen it before in her life. Sensing a theme, Humphrey goes to investigate her fireplace and finds another pile of ashes.
Back at the station, Margo and Kelby are still waiting for social services to arrive, and young "Rishi" is clearly bored. Kelby tries to bargain with the youngster that he'll let him have a go on Kelby's police bike if the boy gives his real name and address, but "Rishi" isn't having any of that.
The fourth and final home belongs to Frank Becker (Kulvinder Ghir) who, in confirming that nothing appears to be missing, mentions that he and his wife inherited their house from her mother. Frank was on his elder son's stag do last night and now only has half a moustache left as the result of a practical joke. He mentions that his sons have their parcels delivered to his house because he and his wife are always in, and he's been tripping over the box of a brand-new TV ever since he got home. Humphrey checks the fireplace and finds yet another pile of ashes.
As they leave, Humphrey and Esther are baffled as to why someone would break into four separate houses, only to burn something and then leave. Esther wonders if it could be witchcraft or some kind of pagan rite, and Humphrey says that whatever's going on, it definitely wasn't an intended theft because there's no way a burglar would have left without taking that new TV. He surmises that the only real lead they have right now is the bracelet, and he'll get the ash samples to the lab to see what they can determine.
At Ten Mile Kitchen, Martha explains to Anne that Archie (Jamie Bamber) is no longer a partner in the business, and Anne is surprised when Martha says she was never tempted to stray with Archie, commenting: "You've got more willpower than me. I could've spread mayonnaise all over him and eaten him in a sandwich." Martha's a little surprised to hear her mother talking this way, and Anne explains that she still feels attraction from time to time, catching the eye of a male customer. Kelby arrives and orders three coffees and two sausage sandwiches — one for him, and one for "Rishi".
At the police station, Humphrey determines that there are two questions they need to answer: why would you break in to a house with the sole purpose of burning something? And why those houses in particular? He's surprised to see young "Rishi" at the station, and Margo reveals that after three sherbet dabs she got him to admit his real name is Freddie. Humphrey asks Freddie if his mum and dad will be worried about him, and Freddie replies that he doesn't have a dad. Esther gets off the phone with the lab and tells Humphrey that all four sets of ashes originated from the same material source, confirming all four break-ins are linked, and also the cloth fibres found at the scene are from white cotton gloves. Freddie says it's obvious who the burglar is, sneaking into people's houses at Christmas wearing white gloves: it's Santa. Humphrey suggests they exhaust all other avenues before ruining everyone's Christmas by arresting Santa. Margo takes a call from Josh Woods who wants a crime number for the break-in, because he's just realised he's lost his gold bracelet.
Josh is brought in for an interview, and Humphrey asks what his bracelet was doing in Kathleen's cottage. Josh insists he didn't break in anywhere last night, he was at a party until around 2am which other people can confirm, and it's all a bit of a blur after that. Humphrey decides that he and Esther need to go and speak to Lucy again.
Lucy tells them that Josh lost his gold bracelet in June, jetskiing in Menorca. She says that as soon as the subject of insurance came up, Josh started compiling a list of everything they've lost or broken in the past year. She assures Humphrey and Esther that she wouldn't have let him file a fraudulent insurance claim, and Esther agrees that they'll release Josh.
Martha stops off at the police station with hot chocolate and cakes and is introduced to Freddie. She suggests she could take him back to the cafe with her as he must need feeding again by now. Meanwhile at the Christmas market, Anne gives a dejected Zoe — who has had a rough morning surrounded by overexcited children — a little pep talk, helping Zoe to appreciate that she'll get much better results from Esther if she stops complaining about her job and pretends she's enjoying it, since Esther is probably getting a little kick out of her embarrassment.
Humphrey pays a visit to Martha at Ten Mile Kitchen, where young Freddie is just polishing off a plate of food. Humphrey tries to get Freddie to explain what happened when he got separated from his parents, and Freddie says that his mum took his phone off him because she doesn't want him talking to his granddad. Martha and Humphrey gently explain to him that if he doesn't tell social services his real name and address, there's a good chance he'll be taken into care. Freddie says that he wants to stay with them — at which point Hannah Owen arrives, and it turns out she works for social services. She's already very familiar with Freddie — whose real name, it turns out, is actually Ryan. With Ryan in her car, Hannah explains to Humphrey and Martha that Ryan lost his dad a few years ago, and he reacted quite badly when his mum got a new boyfriend. His granddad was the one real constant in his life. She promises a concerned Humphrey and Martha that she'll make sure Ryan will be okay when she gets him home.
Back at the police station, Margo explains that any cases that aren't closed before the Christmas break will be included in their Q1 figures — the ones that will determine whether the station stays open or not. This is not good news, considering they have hit a dead-end on the break-ins. But later, Kelby makes a breakthrough — he cross-checked for any previous crimes at those addresses, and those four houses were all burgled in quick succession 50 years ago. And that time, things were actually stolen — but aside from Kathleen, most of the current occupants didn't live in those houses back then, so wouldn't have known anything about it. According to their records, the items that were stolen back then were a jar of coins, a games console, a TV and a gold bracelet. A man, Ernest Buchanan, was arrested and questioned but released without charge due to lack of evidence. Margo adds that she took a message from Frank Becker while they were out — the TV wasn't ordered by either of his sons, it just turned up after the break-in.
Humphrey thinks he's spotted a connection between the two TVs and the two gold bracelets, but he and Esther need to check the other two crime scenes. At Lucy and Josh's, Humphrey asks if they've found a games console or a jar of coins. Josh mentions the iPad that he found, which Lucy says is nothing to do with her. Hannah, meanwhile, admits that she found a roll of banknotes, but she didn't think much of it at the time — her husband is a builder and he's always leaving cash lying around, so she took it to the bank.
Upon learning from Kelby that Ernest Buchanan was a jeweller, and hence would have access to white gloves, Humphrey and Esther think they've cracked the case: in 1973, a 19-year-old Ernest (Oscar Meredith) was an opportunistic thief, who stole a glass jar containing £55 in coins from what is now the Owen house. Later the same week, he stole a gold bracelet from Kathleen's cottage, likely belonging to Kathleen's mother, then took a game console from the house that now belongs to Josh and Lucy, and finally took the TV from the home of Frank Becker's mother-in-law. Humphrey theorises that many years later, Ernest had a crisis of conscience and wanted to put right the wrongs of his past: he left the gold bracelet on the counter of Kathleen's kitchen, where the cat knocked it onto the floor. He took a new TV to the Becker house, then an iPad to Josh and Lucy's house in place of the old-fashioned games console that was taken. Finally, he left £569 in Hannah Owen's house - the equivalent value of the £55 stolen in 1973.
They go to visit Ernest (James Fleet), who reveals that he has terminal cancer, which prompted him to turn to religion — and in the Bible, he read the story of King Hezekiah, who was told to put his house in order because he was about to die. So that's what he was doing — he always felt guilty about the things he stole, and wanted to make his peace with the universe before he left it, while also having a bit of fun at the same time. He explains that when he was little, his dad used to make him write his sins on a piece of paper and then burn it to show remorse, thus explaining the piles of ash found at all four locations.
As it turns out, Ernest's son, who died, was Ryan's father, and Ernest fell out with Ryan's mother after he felt she was moving on too quickly with her new boyfriend. His daughter-in-law doesn't know he's dying, and Ernest is reluctant to tell her. Humphrey and Martha step outside, where Esther points out that even though nothing was stolen, Ernest is still guilty of forced entry. Humphrey says it will never go to court, Ernest will maybe get a caution at worst. Esther says that without a conviction, they'll still have four burglaries on their records that will count as unsolved for the purposes of the review. Humphrey says there are more important things than statistics sometimes.
Humphrey and Esther head to the Christmas market for the carol concert, but on the way Esther makes a pit stop at the house of Jane Buchanan (Miranda Hennessy) — and after they explain what happened, she and Ryan make a video call to Ernest where they build bridges, and Ernest gets to finish reading the story of A Christmas Carol to Ryan.
The locals of Shipton Abbott gather at the Christmas market for the carol concert, where Esther is surprised to hear from Zoe that she thoroughly enjoyed her day as an elf (and Anne gives her a knowing look). Martha sees Hannah and enquires after Ryan, who's now happily settled back at home. Hannah tells Martha that she and Humphrey were so good with Ryan that he talked about them all the way home, and suggests they get in touch if they're ever interested in becoming foster carers.
CS Woods finds Humphrey at the concert and tells him that she's spoken to Esther about the outcome of the investigation and his decision to only pursue a caution for Ernest Buchanan. She tells him that under the circumstances, she's decided not to start collecting his crime-solving figures until January, so the outcome of this case won't count against him or the station.
As the concert's band (played by Bellowhead, who perform the Beyond Paradise theme tune) start to play, Humphrey tells Martha that the whole experience has been a bit like A Christmas Carol where someone is righting the wrongs of a Christmas past. He wonders what their Christmas future will hold, as everyone dances merrily — including Anne, with the customer she took a liking to at Ten Mile Kitchen.
Will Humphrey and Martha decide to pursue fostering? Will Humphrey and Esther be able to persuade CS Woods that the Shipton Abbott station is worth saving? Is Anne looking to start dating again? And what other curious crimes will the team have to solve? We'll find out when Beyond Paradise season 2 begins in 2024!
