DEATH IN PARADISE - SERIES TWO (FRENCH REGION 2 DVD)

Detective Inspector Richard Poole, of London's Met Police, is assigned to the Caribbean island of Saint Marie. Except he hates the sun, sea and beach sand. Poole can't stand heat either though his perennial dark suits won't help.

His partner, Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey, is French and as spontaneous as he's uptight. He must share a modest beach house with a lizard. But when death comes to paradise, Richard Poole is the best to solve crimes. As long as he can get a cup of tea.

« La Manche.
- Yeah, that's what I said. The English Channel.
- Why is it English?
- I don't know really, but it's called the English Channel. »

Series 2 of Death in Paradise (Meurtres au paradis in French) is available in France on DVD from Koba Films since December 4. Launched in 2011, the BBC One hit crime comedy drama stars Ben Miller (Primeval, Johnny English) as DI Richard Poole and French actress Sara Martins (Pigalle, la nuit) as DS Camille Bordey. Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf) and Gary Carr return as officers Dwayne Myers and Fidel Best. Don Warrington (Commissioner Patterson) and Élizabeth Bourgine (Catherine) are back too.

Death in Paradise was created by Red Planet Prize finalist Robert Thorogood (it's his first broadcast credit). Series 2 is produced by Red Planet Pictures with Kudos Film and Television, for the BBC. The first  8X60-minute series was a joint British-French production with Atlantique Productions and France Télévisions. Death in Paradise is filmed in the French overseas region of Guadeloupe (doubling as the fictional Saint Marie island) with the support of the Region of Guadeloupe and the Film commission of Guadeloupe.

« But... who'd want to murder a nun?
- Anyone who'd seen The Sound Of Music more than once? »

This is Caribbean Cluedo all over again for the "quintessential English" sleuth. The owner of a plantation is found with a machete in his back. Did a novice nun smoke her last cigarette? The world's most expensive tea is the key to a luxury clinic mystery. A pirate treasure hunt goes bad. Camille's best friend is poisoned and the husband of a strangled woman is Richard's former foe at the Met. Someone wants to frame a hurricane for the murder of a meteorologist. Will Richard go back to London and will Fidel become a sergeant?

« You do know about the curse?
- Yes. Although for the time being I have decided to eliminate all 400-year-old pirates from our enquiries. »

Stephanie Beacham, Michael Brandon, James Murray and Hannah Spearritt (who both played with Ben Miller in Primeval) and Julie Graham are amongst the guest cast of those old school but astute whodunnits. Imagine Murder, She Wrote with nicer locations and humour - thanks mainly to Miller and Don Warrington. No wonder why its ingenious formula for fun escapism brought Death in Paradise high ratings in the UK since its start, and made it a global favourite amongst detective drama buffs.

« Dwayne, Fidel. I want you to pick everyone up. Well, everyone who's still alive anyway. »

Koba Films releases the eight one-hour episodes of this second series in a 3-disc DVD set with the original dialogue track (available with optional French subtitles) and the rather unfortunate French dubbing. In April 2013 Ben Miller announced that he would leave Death in Paradise during its third series, due to arrive in January 2014 on BBC One. He's replaced by Kris Marshall as DI Humphrey Goodman. French fans can also enjoy the case files of DI Richard Poole in a DVD set containing the first two series.

The soundtrack includes ska and reggae standards and original music by British composer Magnus Fiennes.

http://www.kobafilms.fr/serie/meurtres-au-paradis---saison-2-350.html
http://www.kobafilms.fr/serie/meurtres-au-paradis---saison-1-346.html
http://www.kobafilms.fr/serie/coffret-meurtres-au-paradis---saison-1-et2-351.html

Death in Paradise - Series One (French Region 2 DVD):

http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2013/11/death-in-paradise-french-region-2-dvd.html

DEATH IN PARADISE - SERIES ONE (FRENCH REGION 2 DVD)

Detective Inspector Richard Poole, of London's Met Police, is assigned to the Caribbean island of Saint Marie. He's the best for solving crimes except he can't stand sun, sea, sand and heat.

His police station is resourceless. His partner, Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey, is French, and he must share a modest beach house with a lizard.

Series one of Death in Paradise (Meurtres au paradis in French), the BBC One hit crime comedy drama launched in 2011, is now available in France on DVD thanks to Koba Films.

« Look, don't get me wrong. I'm sure the Caribbean's great. And beach holidays and snorkeling. But I can't work here, let alone live here. I don't know if anybody noticed but there's a tree growing through my front room! »

Death in Paradise was created by Robert Thorogood, a Red Planet Prize finalist (it's his first broadcast credit). Named after Red Planet Pictures, the company of writer/producer Tony Jordan (Hustle), the prize is an annual search for new TV writing talents. The eight 60-minute episodes of this first series are a joint British-French production from Red Planet Pictures and Atlantique Productions with Kudos Film and Television, for the BBC and France Télévisions. Death in Paradise stars English comedian and actor Ben Miller (Primeval, Johnny English) as DI Richard Poole and French actress Sara Martins (Pigalle, la nuit) as DS Camille Bordey.

« I'm half French.
- There's no such thing as half French. »

Poole arrives on the (fictional) Caribbean island of Saint Marie from London to investigate the death of the Honoré police chief, found in the locked panic room of a Brit expat's mansion. Literally "unsuited" to the local way of life, he hates the sun, sea and beaches. The island is not the ideal workplace when you rely heavily on computer equipment, forensics or a laser tape measure. And Richard's methods are incompatible with the Saint Marie style of policing (« Pen-pusher. This is not going to go well.») Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules, Cat in Red Dwarf) fraternizes with suspects and Officer Fidel Best (Gary Carr) shows his expertise in goats. Though they both prove to be dedicated and effective.

« It's 100 degrees in here and you're standing there in a suit and tie talking about duty solicitors!
- I'm a British policeman.
-  No?! You're kidding me! »

The "quintessential English" Richard Poole (« I'm a police officer and I want a cup of tea. ») must team up with top-notch French investigator Camille Bordey. Her mother, Catherine (Élizabeth Bourgine) has a bar on the island and doesn't get along with him. The uptight detective and his partner, more spontaneous, form an unlikely pair (« You are the most annoying man I've ever met. ») but Commissioner Patterson (Don Warrington) wants to keep him. Poole has a knack for solving complicated murder cases: a bride is killed with a harpoon on her wedding day, a voodoo priestess predicts her own murder, a band's frontman dies in a stage coffin, etc.

« Anyone know where the word alibi comes from? No? Latin. Somewhere else. Locative of the word "alias"... to pretend to be someone you're not!»

Death in Paradise has an ingenious formula for fun escapism with its fish out of water sleuth in the Caribbean. The excellent Ben Miller plays a Doc Martin version of Primeval's Lester, CGI lizard included, surrounded by an impressive list of guest stars (Rupert Graves, Frances Barber, Paterson Joseph, Miranda Raison, Colin Salmon et al.) Think Murder, She Wrote with nicer locations (the series is filmed in Guadeloupe) and humour. The plots are old school whodunnits often playing with the cliches of the genre. No wonder why the series deservedly became a global favourite amongst detective drama buffs.

« French, great. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. »

France 2 aired Series 1 and 2 back to back during summer 2013, with a different first series intro, episodes out of order and an unfortunate dubbing. Pubcasters in the French overseas departments and territories actually aired Death in Paradise months before. Atlantique Productions and France Télévisions didn't co-produce the second series. Koba Films releases the first series in a 3-disc DVD set with its original dialogue track (available with optional French subtitles) and its French dubbing.

Death in Paradise is produced with the support of the Region of Guadeloupe and the Film commission of Guadeloupe. The soundtrack includes ska and reggae standards  and original music by British composer Magnus Fiennes. Series 2 will be released on DVD in France next week.

http://www.kobafilms.fr/serie/meurtres-au-paradis---saison-1-346.html (In French)
http://www.kobafilms.fr/serie/meurtres-au-paradis---saison-2-350.html (In French)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/blogwritersroom/posts/death_in_paradise_my_first_bro
http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php
http://www.rushes.co.uk/work?item=death-in-paradise

TRANSPORTER: THE SERIES (M6)

Based on the Transporter movie franchise created by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, Transporter: The Series starts today in France on private channel M6.

Filmed in Europe and Canada for an estimated $43 million budget, the 12-episode series is co-produced by French company Atlantique Productions and Canadian prodco QVF Inc. with M6, German commercial broadcaster RTL, HBO/Cinemax, Astral Television/The Movie Network, and Corus Entertainment/Movie Central. RTL world premiered Transporter: The Series in October and already aired 7 episodes but out-of-order.

English actor Chris Vance (Prison Break) stars as Frank Martin - played by Jason Statham in the films - a professional freelance courier who drives a black Audi A8 and delivers mysterious packages against all odds. His rules: 1° Never change the deal. 2° No names. 3° Never open the package. Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt plays Carla, who organizes the Transporter's missions. Paris-born François Berléand reprises his character of Inspector Tarconi from the movies. German actor Charly Hübner (The lives of others) is Dieter - Frank's mechanic and pal. The music is by Nathaniel Méchaly (Taken) and the theme is a cover from Canadian rock band Rush's Working Man arranged by Jamie Forsyth and performed by Danielle Armstrong.

The General's Daughter [in German Eine Neue Mission!] introduces the aptly cast Chris Vance with a cinematic and spectacular pre-credit sequence in the streets of Marseille (1) and a parking garage, where he gives a welcome James Bond feel to his Frank Martin. Helmed by Canadian director Stephen Williams (Lost), this premiere smartly transposes the popular movie trilogy to television. Although without the car stunts - coordinated by Michel Julienne - and the well-crafted martial art fights, choreographed by Cyril Raffaelli, the generic script written by Alexander Ruemelin with Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie (the Stargate franchise) would sound like a recycled episode of the Largo Winch TV series.

But remember it's Transporter: The Series, not a Transporter 4 direct-to-DVD. Production of the big-budget series was plagued with problems: original showrunners Joseph Malozzi and Paul Mullie left over creative differences. And filming was temporary suspended after the excellent Chris Vance was hurt while shooting an action scene. The series is set majoritarily in Europe but if locations included Marseille, Nice, Berlin or Paris it was mainly filmed in Toronto and it shows. Worse, more than one third of the 12 episodes is definitely not up to the television Transporter's declared ambitions (2).

If Harvest [Vaterliebe] stays watchable with a heavy dose of indulgence (see the Audi above the tram CGI stunt), the other episodes aired by RTL don't deliver the package at all. Switch [Echt falsch] is embarassingly tedious past the enjoyable Berlin chase. Action sequences can't save the cliche-ridden Dead Drop [Plan B] and Payback [Vergeltung!] either. And Sharks [Große Haie und kleine Fische], which focuses on series regular (and M6 familiar face) Delphine Chanéac as Juliette Dubois, is just dull. Compared to those retreads of a French-Canadian co-production from the 80s or 90s Trojan Horsepower [Tod dem Fortschritt!] is barely passable. 5 episodes remain to be seen in Germany, where Transporter: The Series started well before dropping enough to lose its 8.15pm primetime slot - taken by reruns of Alarm für Cobra 11 (3).

« I don't know how to make TV shows -- I let the people who know how to do it take it on and hope they're doing their job, » said Luc Besson to THR last year. It didn't prevent him to devise and produce his first series, the successful No Limit, for TF1. The mogul is not involved in the TV Transporter and said recently that he hasn't seen it, which seems incredible as his name will be associated with it anyway. Viewers will hardly find traces of Besson's fast-paced production style in this costly effort.

(1) M6's version of this episode has a different edit.
(2) http://www.zonebourse.com/LAGARDERE-S-C-A-4668/actualite/LAGARDERE-S-C-A-Le-Transporteur-une-production-Lagardere-Entertainment-a-partir-du-6-decembre-s-15548909/
(3) RTL moved Transporter - The Series to 9.15pm. Ironically, Trojan Horsepower has a nod to Cobra 11.

[Update January 5, 2013] Apparently Canada has an intro with a different and longer edit (and singer?)

See also:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-transporter-tv-series-deliver-242871
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transporter-cinemax-miptv-306562
http://www.mediaunautreregard.com/2012/11/29/le-transporteur-la-serie-m6-cascades-effets-speciaux-making-of/ (In French)
http://www.leparisien.fr/loisirs-et-spectacles/luc-besson-no-limit-aura-une-saison-2-29-11-2012-2365517.php (In French)

MARTIN, FRANK MARTIN

This week German private channel RTL world premiered Transporter: The Series, based on the popular Transporter movie franchise created by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. The 12-episode series was filmed in Europe and Canada (in Toronto) for an estimated $43 million budget.

It is co-produced by French company Atlantique Productions and Canadian prodco QVF Inc. with French private channel M6, RTL, HBO/Cinemax, Astral Television/The Movie Network, and Corus Entertainment/Movie Central. 

English actor Chris Vance (Prison Break) stars as ex-elite commando Frank Martin, played by Jason Statham in the films. Frank is a professional freelance courier who drives a powerful black Audi and delivers mysterious packages against all odds for shady and dangerous clients. His rules: 1° Never change the deal. 2° No names. 3° Never open the package. In order to do the job with minimal personal interaction, he relies on his trusted handler, Carla (Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt), who organizes his missions. Paris-born François Berléand reprises his character of Inspector Tarconi from the films and German actor Charly Hübner (The lives of others) plays Dieter, Frank's mechanic.

Helmed by Canadian director Stephen Williams (Lost), the pilot introduces the television Transporter with a cinematic and spectacular pre-credit sequence in the streets of Marseille and in a parking garage, where the aptly cast Vance sets the tone for his Frank Martin by giving a welcome James Bond feel to the role. Frank's first TV mission takes him to Berlin - thanks to international co-production - where he must drive Delia Weigert (Rachel Skarsten) safe to her father, a general and business advisor. The transporter crosses path with the henchmen of a ruthless local mob boss played in minimalist mode by renowned German actor Uwe Ochsenknecht.

« I don't know how to make TV shows -- I let the people who know how to do it take it on and hope they're doing their job, » said Luc Besson to The Hollywood Reporter last year. His Nikita was adapted for television twice, in 1997 and 2010, and now the Transporter movie franchise is rather smartly transposed as a series format. The car stunts (coordinated by Michel Julienne) and well-crafted martial art fights, choreographed by Cyril Raffaelli, are fitted into a standard script written by Alexander Ruemelin and Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie (the Stargate TV franchise).

Without those mandatory ingredients from the films the story sounds like a recycled Largo Winch TV series episode and the talent of François Berléand is regrettably underused in this opener. The effective music is by French composer Nathaniel Méchaly (the two Taken, Colombiana). Overall this premiere is very watchable in its category (1) but can Transporter: The Series deliver such a package every week?

(1) RTL airs Transporter: The Series each thursday in the time slot devoted to the stunt antics of the Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizeï cops.

http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=59649&p3= (Review in German)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-transporter-tv-series-deliver-242871
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chris-vance-challenges-rewards-taking-378562
http://www.nathanielmechaly.com/ 

CASCARA 5-0

Death in Paradise - Episode One. The Brit chief of the police force on the Caribbean island of Saint Marie is found dead in mysterious circumstances. Detective Inspector Richard Poole arrives from London to investigate.

He's the best for the job except he hates sun, sea, sand and can't stand heat. And the airline has lost his luggage.

« French, great. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. »

Created by Red Planet Prize finalist Robert Thorogood, Death in Paradise is the writer's first television screen credit and stars Ben Miller (The Armstrong and Miller Show, Primeval). This new procedural is set in a fictional Caribbean island and actually filmed in Guadeloupe. It is a co-production between Red Planet Pictures and Atlantique Productions (a Lagardère Entertainment company) in association with Kudos Film and Television, for the BBC and French pubcaster group France Télévisions. BBC One aired on tuesday the premiere of this 8 X 60-minute series.

Written by Robert Thorogood and directed by Charles Palmer (Doctor Who), the first episode of Death in Paradise introduces Miller's character, Metropolitan Police DI Richard Poole. London assigns him the case of DI Charlie Hulme (Hugo Speer), the beloved chief of the Saint Marie police, found dead in the locked panic room of a mansion belonging to the wealthy James Lavender (Rupert Graves). As brilliant as Poole is, the island is the last place on Earth where he wants to be: literally "unsuited" to the Caribbean way of life, he hates the sun, sea and beaches, and his methods are incompatible with the local style of policing.

« This is not going to go well. »

The cops of the resourceless Honoré Police station are laid-back and clueless beyond cliché, with the exception of Sergeant Lily Thomson (Lenora Crichlow with her best Rihanna accent) and Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington). Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules, the legendary Cat from Red Dwarf) fraternizes with suspects and Fidel Best (Gary Carr) shows his expertise in goats - the animal ends in a cell. Think Cascara, the island in the 1985 comedy Water, but without the singing rebel. Not the ideal workplace when you rely heavily on computer equipment, forensics and a laser tape measure for your investigation.

Ben Miller plays a Doc Martin version of Primeval's James Lester, CGI lizard included. With his homeland bins problem Poole could even easily fit in Armstrong & Miller. The "quintessential English" detective needs urgently to evolve outside of the patronizing idiot abroad he looks like. Also he can't stretch his aversion to "paradise" eternally, now that he must stay and team up with French undercover cop Camille Bordey (French actress Sara Martins). And to avoid flirting with embarassment Saint Marie should be more Portwenn or Jersey and less Cascara or San Pietro. Remains a light-hearted old school crime mystery; people like classic whodunnits with seemingly annoying sleuths - this episode attracted nearly 6m viewers.

Death in Paradise (Meurtre au Paradis in French) is certainly not original but neither was Murder, She Wrote. It sails in the Midsomer Murders comfort zone minus the gruesome, and tourists will helpfully contribute to the body count while citizens of Saint-Marie kill each other. Please spare the goat and the lizard.

Next week: Give him a cup of tea, for God's sake!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a347575/death-in-paradise-touches-down-with-nearly-6m.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8848679/Death-in-Paradise-BBC-One-review.html
http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/death-paradise-bbc-one
http://www.crimetimepreview.com/2011/10/death-in-paradise-starring-ben-miller.html
http://www.simplytv.net/2011/10/death-in-paradise-series-1-episode-1_26.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8845898/Death-in-Paradise-Ben-Miller-on-heatstroke-getting-divorced-and-his-Potato-Years-interview.html